Nevada Wolf Pack to break ground today on Eric and Linda Lannes Basketball Building
Fifteen months after Nevada athletics received a record-breaking $4 million donation toward the construction of a basketball locker room and players lounge, the Wolf Pack will break ground on the project.
That groundbreaking will take place Friday at 7:30 p.m. with UNR president Brian Sandoval, Nevada athletic director Stephanie Rempe and Wolf Pack basketball coaches Steve Alford and Amanda Levens in attendance alongside Eric and Linda Lannes, who made that $4 million donation, which was announced in February 2022.
That was a part of $8 million in donations toward the project, with two anonymous donors gifting Nevada $2 million each toward the facility. The Lannes' $4 million donation is the biggest ever made to Wolf Pack athletics.
"This is a transformational moment for the future of our women's and men's basketball programs," Sandoval said when those donations were announced last year. "We cannot thank the individuals who have made these historic gifts enough for their belief in the future of our women's and men's basketball programs. We already feel that we are building a championship culture throughout our entire athletics department, and today's announcement demonstrates that the impact our student-athlete athletes have in competition and in impacting our community in a very positive way will be magnified to an entirely new level."
The building is expected to be two stories with mirror facilities for the Nevada men's and women's programs. It will sit on the north end of campus in front of Lombardi Rec Center and the Ramon Sessions Basketball Performance Center, the Wolf Pack's practice facility that opened in 2017 following a $1 million gift for the former Wolf Pack star the building is named after.
Eric and Linda Lannes began their support of Wolf Pack basketball with a gift to the Lombardi Renovation Fund in September 2019. Eric Lannes graduated with his bachelor's in mechanical engineering from UNR in 1982 and went on to serve as executive vice president with a leading manufacturer of residential, commercial and industrial water and space heating products. Linda Lannes was born and raised in Reno.
Rempe said during an interview with NSN last week the groundbreaking was nearing and the Wolf Pack was still fundraising for an additional $4 million for the project, which had an estimated open date of early 2024 when the Lannes' donation was announced last year.
"We are putting a shovel in the ground in June for the Lannes Basketball Building," Rempe said. "We're really excited about that."
Nevada recently got a $1 million donation from Wolf Pack football alum Joel Bitonio and his wife Courtney toward the renovation of the football program's strength and conditioning center. Nevada also is in the middle of a Cashell Fieldhouse locker room project that will provide locker room space for football, soccer and track and field. The Wolf Pack recently put in new turf playing surfaces at Hixson Park and Mackay Stadium at a cost of around $4.5 million.
"The Cashell Fieldhouse locker room project, which is soccer, track, football locker rooms, that will be done this summer, which we're really excited about," Rempe said. "We still need to raise $3 million more for that. We still need to raise $4 million more for the Lannes building. But they are moving and going. The softball facility's completed. But we still have to continue to raise money for the softball project. We're always fundraising. We're always talking about that. We know Joel Bitonio came with the wonderful news about that project, donating $1 million dollars for the weight room."
The completion of the Eric and Linda Lannes Basketball Building will put Nevada basketball's facilities among the best in the Mountain West, if not West Coast. The Wolf Pack men's team is coming off a 22-win season and berth in the NCAA Tournament while the women's basketball team last reached the postseason in 2022 when it played in the WBI.