Light shows, new food items and metal detectors: Previewing the University Stadium experience

Aug. 22—From about mid-summer on, it's almost always a sprint to the football season for university athletics departments.

"This has not been any different over here," Will Price laughed.

But the finish line is in sight. Price, New Mexico's senior associate athletic director for revenue generation, has spent the bulk of his time helping coordinate some of the new upgrades and changes to be seen at University Stadium this fall.

And whether it was mid-summer or a few weeks until the Lobos kickoff at home against Tennessee Tech, the aim never changed.

"The overall goal for us is always, not just to make it an amazing environment for our fans but also to make it a great environment for our players," Price said. "We know that both of those go hand-in-hand: If the fans are enjoying their experience from the minute they get there to the minute they leave, then we know that's going to help with ticket sales, it's going to help with increased crowds.

"It will help with the home field advantage that we want to make here at UNM. And we know that we can."

A preview of those changes:

New lights, special effects

The most notable addition, University Stadium and the UNM Soccer Complex will feature a new LED lighting system designed by Musco, a lighting company based out of Iowa. Musco has also supplied lights at Notre Dame Stadium, USC's LA Memorial Coliseum and Alabama's Bryant-Denny Stadium.

Price said the new system cost around $2 million and was paid for with a $6.1 million capital outlay allocated by the state during the 2022 legislative session. Installation began in June and was recently completed.

"We're hoping that will also be something that the fans are really going to enjoy," he said. "And it helps us get to that next level where we want to be with all the other schools as well."

Price said UNM's biggest focus with lighting was improving visibility for players and fans while reducing glare and energy consumption. Compared to the previous set of HID (high intensity discharge) floodlights, the new LED (light emitting diode) system is expected to lower energy consumption by 35.5% (297.1 kilowatts).

Similar to other Musco setups, the lights will also factor heavily into in-game entertainment. Light shows after touchdowns and music-to-fixture synchronization for team entries are expected to be a part of the routine as UNM begins testing the system's full capabilities next week.

In addition, the pregame pyro effects used on top of Tow Diehm Athletic Facility were removed because Price felt they were too anticlimactic. In their place are a set of cold spark machines — "15-foot sparklers, if you will," Price said — to pair with smoke machines for when the Lobos enter University Stadium through the New Mexico Mutual Champions Training Center.

"We want it to be a raucous, fun environment during that 10 minutes or so before kickoff," Price said.

Concessions and security

While concession prices are not expected to increase this year, there will be more points of sale in and around the concourse area, mainly through additional food trucks.

"The whole point of having extra points of sale is not just to create different options for our fans," he said. "but also to reduce the amount of time that they're (waiting) in lines. That's the biggest piece to it."

However, there will be some new concession options this fall — notably grab-and-go items such as barbeque sandwiches and a hot dog in a "doughnut bun."

"You're gonna have the savory of the hot dog and then the automatic sweetness of a doughnut," Price said. "... I tried it and believe it or not, it's really good."

And like the Pit, fans entering University Stadium will now be subject to metal detectors. This change, Price said, is a continuation of efforts to "make sure that our fans and our spectators all feel extremely safe" at every UNM venue.

Changes to the Howl Zone

The Howl Zone, one of UNM's designated tailgate spots for all ages, will be half the size it was last year. Originally taking up most of the parking east of the Soccer Complex, the area has been curtailed to help create a more "intimate and inviting" experience, Price said.

The hope is that setting up tailgates becomes a more streamlined process, too. Price said fans have run into setup problems between unloading equipment while parking far away; in that vein, additional space is intended to help with creating closer parking options as much as a better environment.

Despite changes in size, the Howl Zone will still be open three-and-a-half hours before kickoff. Lobo Walk, when UNM players walk through the crowd to University Stadium, will be two-and-a-half hours before kickoff.