More parking, night tennis, an improved study atmosphere, better concerts and additional hands-on experience for future athletic trainers are just some of the benefits that will result from an ongoing building boom on the NMSU campus.

Nearly $35 million in new construction and renovation projects are planned or recently completed, including a new athletics center, a new tennis center, a new golf clubhouse and renovations to the Pan Am Center.

The most visible sign of the building boom so far is the new $6 million Stan Fulton Athletics Center, which is located beyond the south end zone at Aggie Memorial Stadium. The center is named for Stan Fulton, owner of Sunland Park Racetrack and Casino in Sunland Park, who donated $3 million for the facility.

The center, which opened in July, encompasses three floors and more than 33,000 square feet. The first floor houses classrooms, computer labs and offices for the NMSU football staff and some of the Athletics Department’s administrative staff.

“Our computer lab has tripled in size and the eight individual study hall rooms will improve the academic environment tremendously,” says Stacy Willmott, director of the Athletics Academic Program (AAP). “Having two separate labs – both a study lab and a computer lab – will help our mentors and student-athletes.”

The first floor academic facilities will be open not only to NMSU athletes, but also to the general student population. Many sections of University 150, a course that helps first-year students develop academic and personal skills, will be taught in the center’s classroom facility.

Aesthetically, the move to the Fulton Athletics Center is a quantum leap for the AAP, which had been housed in a doublewide trailer located outside the southwest corner of the Pan American Center.

The Athletic Training Education Program (ATEP), which had been housed in the aging Rentfrow Gymnasium, has a new home on the second floor of the Fulton Center, along with the Athletics Department training facility. The new facilities will help the professional athletic trainers better serve the student-athletes, and help the professionals-in-training move towards their career goals.

“We now have much better facilities for evaluation, treatment and rehabilitation,” says NMSU Head Athletics Trainer Mike O’Leary. “For the Athletic Training Education Program, the advantages are twofold. Students will have a better learning facility and a better clinical setting. They will have more interaction with our doctors and student-athletes.”

The third floor has a rooftop terrace and the University Club, a banquet area available for meetings and other special occasions. It also has four skyboxes overlooking the playing field at Aggie Memorial Stadium. Former Aggie football player Danny Villanueva ’61 donated $250,000 toward the third floor, which will be called the Villanueva Victory Club.

New Tennis Center

Tennis Center Artist's rendering

Construction is expected to begin before the end of the year on a new tennis center, to be built just south of the Fulton Athletics Center. This will replace the existing tennis center near the intersection of Stewart and Williams streets, which has been restricted to daylight use because night lighting of the courts would interfere with the nearby observatories used by the Astronomy Department.

The current tennis facility will be leveled and turned into a parking lot that will benefit students in a number of ways.

“The students get parking where they really want it – in the middle of campus,” says Aggie Tennis Coach Don Ball. “The new lighted parking area also will benefit the track and the intramural fields, and probably create a safer environment forstudents.”

Ball says the new tennis center, which is being funded through student fees, will better meet the needs of his team, as well as the general student population.

“Our 25-year-old facility is at the end of its life expectancy,” Ball says.

New Golf Clubhouse

Golf Clubhouse Artist's rendering

Across Interstate 25, the already-impressive NMSU Golf Course will soon have a new 15,000-square-foot clubhouse with a 5,000-square-foot cart barn.

The clubhouse will have a larger pro shop, a larger restaurant area and a 3,000-square-foot banquet facility. It also will have a large patio area with some of the best views in the Mesilla Valley.

“The current facility was built for 30 percent of the rounds we do today,” says Director of Golf and former Aggie standout golfer Dan Koesters ’81.

Koesters says the new clubhouse will help the golf program by providing new offices for the coaches and a good meeting area. “It also should help with recruiting,” Koesters says.

The extra space also will benefit the university’s academic mission.

“A lot of classes in the PGM (Professional Golf Management) program are taught out here,” Koesters says. “We’ve been teaching them in the maintenance barn, but now they will be in a new facility.”

The new clubhouse is being funded by the sale of the land on which the current clubhouse and driving range facilities are located.

Pan Am Center Renovation

Fulton Center Artist's rendering

Back across the highway, the crown jewel of Aggie athletics and one of the cultural centers for Doña Ana County, the Pan American Center, will receive a much-needed face-lift beginning in January 2005.

The planned renovation will bring new chair-back seating, expanded restroom and concession areas, and a new concourse that will encircle the perimeter of the existing facility.

The current athletics department and special event offices will relocate to a new addition at the south end of the center along with a new practice facility for the NMSU basketball and volleyball teams.

Some not-so-obvious aspects of the renovation will play an important part in attracting bigger and better concerts and events to the Pan Am Center. These include better loading dock facilities and better dressing room facilities for the artists.

“The building is 36 years old and we are getting to the point where its usefulness is near the end,” says Director of Special Events Will Lofdahl. “In order to stay vibrant and competitive, facilities are really important.”

Lofdahl said the renovation will put the center in a position to compete for events and enable his staff to better serve their clients, both the ticket purchasers and the event promoters and producers.

The Pan Am Center renovation is being funded through a state appropriation, student fees and university funding.

Athletics Director Brian Faison says all the renovations and new facilities make a statement about the importance of a competitive Division I athletics program for NMSU.

“That’s a statement coming from the governor and the state Legislature, the university administration and Board of Regents, the student body, our boosters and alumni,” Faison says. “Without the support from all of these groups, this wouldn’t be happening.”

If you would like a tour of the Fulton Center, call the Aggie Scholarship Association at 505-646-5151. The center will be dedicated Sept. 17.