Soon after the last commencement ends and all the graduates are out of the Pavilion this Sunday (June 14), the old wooden bleachers and the gym floor are going, too.

They are being replaced as part of a major renovation that is scheduled to start June 15 and continue until November, just in time for Aggie basketball season.

In the interim, the 32-year-old Pavilion—it opened in 1977 as Recreation Hall—is off-limits. Summer youth programs and cheer camps will move next door to the Activities and Recreation Center.

When you go to the Pavilion for a game this fall, you will see blue, molded plastic bleachers throughout the arena, with wider aisles and handrails for safety, and new walkways that connect the floor and the upper concourse—providing an easier route to the upstairs concession stand, the biggest one in the Pavilion.

“But this $4 million renovation is not just for basketball and other sports,” said Matt Fucile, associate director for operations at Campus Recreation. “It’s also about making the Pavilion a more attractive venue for trade shows, exhibitions, conferences, concerts and other events.”

At the same time, the Pavilion will continue to provide space for ARC overflow and student-centered programs such as sport clubs, Fucile said.

Campus Recreation reserves are paying for the bulk of the project, with the campus health and safety fund putting in about $1 million to replace the lower-level bleachers, which will feature ergonomic, individual seats.

Fucile said the renovation will provide greater comfort and safety while also bringing the Pavilion’s seating arrangement up to date for meeting the needs of disabled people.

“This comprehensive renovation will enhance the Pavilion’s functionality for a diverse range of activities,” Fucile said in a news release. “This will really improve our ability to attract new events, providing a boost to local hospitality businesses and enhanced entertainment options for our UC Davis students and campus community.”

Some of the Pavilion’s mid-level seats will be removed or repositioned. Altogether, he estimates the Pavilion will lose 600 or so seats, cutting the capacity to about 6,600.

Still, at 150,000 square feet, the arena is the largest event space in Yolo County. One improvement will open up the view between the arena floor and the upper level, bringing “a lot of energy to our trade shows,” Fucile said.

Today, if you were on the arena floor during a trade show, and you looked up, you would see banks of bleachers on the arena’s east, west and south sides: giant walls of bleachers, all folded up, right behind the arena’s fixed, mid-level seats.

Hiding behind the bleachers are the arena’s auxiliary sports courts-—which can also serve as overflow exhibition space. When the bleachers are opened, they roll backwards, over the sports courts.

The new bleachers, with bench seating, will be positioned along the Pavilion’s exterior walls and will roll forward. So, when the bleachers are retracted, they will not obscure the view.

“If you’re on the floor, and you see more trade show activity upstairs, you are more likely to go up there,” said Fucile, adding that new signs will point the way via the arena’s corner stairways.

After the renovation, when the lower bleachers are in place, you can skip the corner stairways and walk straight up through the mid-level seating area. Now, this is not possible, because a low concrete wall divides the two seating sections.

The renovation project calls for the contractor to break through the concrete to make 10 floor-to-upper-level aisles: four each on the east and west sides of the arena and two on the south end. (There will be no new aisles on the north end.)

New speaker system

One part of the renovation is already completed: a new, omnidirectional speaker system, with speakers hanging from various points in the rafters. The new system replaces a single, giant cluster of speakers that Fucile said was grossly inadequate.

Everyone who attended a commencement in the Pavilion this week, or who is attending one this weekend, should know full well what Fucile is talking about. “It used to be you might not hear your graduate’s name,” he said. “Those days are gone.”

The old speaker system, original equipment in 1977, had reached the end of its expected service life, Fucile said. Same goes for the bleacher system, for which parts are no longer made, and the arena’s maple floor, which has lost some of its “bounce.”

The renovated arena will feature a permanent, everyday sports floor, a rubber product to be poured on a concrete base; and a portable maple floor for sporting events. Fucile said the portable floor comes in 4-foot-by-8-foot sections—put them all together like a puzzle, and voila, you have a 22,655-square-foot gym floor, complete with the requisite Aggie logos.

All of these improvements, Fucile said, will enhance the Pavilion’s appeal to event organizers, while at the same time reducing the university’s expenses for maintenance and repairs. And, without the old bleachers and their occasional mechanical breakdowns, the Pavilion should save on turnaround time between events.
The project also brings good news for disabled people: more space for wheelchairs, including a new area at the half-court line, amid the arena’s mid-level seats.

The renovation is the largest in the Pavilion’s history. Earlier work included a seismic retrofit in 2001, installation of giant video screens in 2002 and restroom renovations in 2004.