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Starting next spring, New Mexico’s tennis teams will play their home competitions at a new facility featuring better spectator seating, a scoreboard and stadium lighting.
Construction on the McKinnon Family Tennis Center broke ground Sept. 23 at a site located near the baseball and softball fields south of The Pit. Once completed, the complex will feature six courts between 5 to 6 feet into the ground.
Funding for the facility came entirely from private donations, according to Deputy Athletic Director Tim Cass. Ian and Sonnet McKinnon donated $7.5 million to the University on July 23, 2011, according to a press release. Of that donation, $1.2 million was designated to go toward the tennis facility, with the Anderson School of Business receiving $5 million and another $300,000 going toward an endowment scholarship.
“There are a lot of new facilities going up, a lot of nice facilities out there already,” said UNM men’s head coach Alan Dils. “Ours is pretty good as it is, but this will help us take bigger leaps ahead of some schools and keep our status against other schools.”
According to site renderings, the McKinnon courts will be lined up next to each other with bleacher seats behind each court. A scoreboard will be built on the side opposite the bleachers centered between the third and fourth courts. Each court will have its own smaller scoreboard as well.
The City of Albuquerque provided the stadium lighting for the complex, Cass said.
With a total of 12 outdoor courts, UNM will now be eligible to host the Mountain West Conference, Cass said. Teams who do not have 12 playable tennis courts cannot bid to host the event.
UNM currently has seven outdoor tennis courts and six indoor courts located behind University Stadium. Viewing on the outdoor courts is difficult because the spectating area is on the side of a row of courts, not directly behind each court. That means those attending tennis matches could have other courts obstructing their views.
Cass sees the McKinnon facility as an economic driver for the University and for the city. UNM can use the complex to host junior-level and adult tennis tournaments in addition to collegiate events. He said he is looking at bringing in tournaments on a local, regional or even national level.
If UNM lands regional or national tournaments, participants will stay at local hotels and eat at local restaurants, Cass said, which will bring money into the community.
“It’s common,” he said. “They play sanctioned tournaments, whether it’s Albuquerque, El Paso, Phoenix, Tucson, Las Vegas, Denver, etc. This showcases our city. It’s a bit of a revenue generator for us, but more so it would be an economic piece for the city.”
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The facility also serves as a recruitment tool for potential athletes and non-athletic students, Cass said. When families come to UNM junior tournaments, they’ll be exposed to the University and have an opportunity to tour the campus. Dils added that the facility helps with his recruitment efforts for future players to show the improvements made by the program.
The teams will continue to use the current tennis courts even after the McKinnon Facility opens, Dils said. In fact, he said, the additional courts will help the men’s and women’s teams coordinate their schedules and practice times with other clubs who use the courts.
“The courts we have now are great,” he said. “There’s nothing wrong with what we have here.”
Other additions down the line are possible, Dils said.
“This is just Phase One,” he said. “The first phase is six grandstand court seating and scoreboards. Ideally, we’ll get another six courts; ideally, we’ll get a building that maintains coaches’ offices, locker rooms, common meeting rooms where we can do tournaments or boosters.”
