UCLA's new aquatic center opens this weekend!

by bryanucla on Sep 26, 2009 9:14 AM PDT Comment 20 comments

Bumped. If you are on campus today you might want to check this place out. GO BRUINS. -N

The Bruins' new $10 million Spieker Aquatics Center will host its inaugural event this Saturday. Our #2-ranked men's water polo team will play UC Irvine at 7:00 p.m. The center is at the top of Sunset Rec, taking the place of four tennis courts.

As blogger Karen Owoc has mentioned, there will be two unfortunate absences at the center: men's diving and men's swimming teams. The Athletic Department shut down those illustrious programs in 1994. More after the jump.

See our official site for the full article from the Athletic Department for more details:

The Spieker Aquatics Center brings together all three of UCLA's intercollegiate aquatic sports - water polo, swimming and diving - to one venue. The state-of-the-art facility was made possible thanks to a generous lead gift from former UCLA student-athlete Tod Spieker and his wife, Catherine. Tod was an All-America swimmer at UCLA, competing from 1968-1971, and continues to successfully compete in Master's Swimming.

"We all know that UCLA enjoys an abundance of proud moments, but this one really is special," Athletic Director Dan Guerrero said. "For only the second time since 1932, this campus is unveiling a new aquatic facility that is not only beautiful and versatile, but also provides our water polo, swimming and diving teams a new home.

"Nothing pleases our current athletes more than winning, and nothing pleases our athletic alumni more than continued success. Thanks to the generosity of all who have contributed to this project, and for the hard work of those who had a hand in the planning and execution of the Spieker Aquatics Center."

The Bruins' new aquatic center will become the home to UCLA's men's and women's water polo, swimming and diving teams. The state-of-the-art facility features a 52-meter by 25-yard all-deep water pool with a dividing bulkhead, allowing races to take place at varying distances (meters, versus yards). The pool also features four platforms on a diving tower, at heights of three, five, seven and one-half, and 10-meter platforms, as well as one and three-meter springboards. The aquatics center also features a warming pool behind the tower for divers.

If anyone makes it to Saturday's game, please post photos. With this facility and the new softball stadium, Sunset Rec area has become a first-class area not only for regular students, sunbathers, swimmers, and tennis players, but also for some of our varsity teams.

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of BruinsNation's (BN) editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of BN's editors.

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I know its controversial

but the shutdown of those programs is all related to title IX. It also shut down mens gymnastics.

Title IX is totally unfair as it makes schools subsidize more female athletes than male.

Title IX should exclude revenue generating sports from the equation and demand equality in non-revenue generating sports, instead it discriminates against men by equating the student athletes in the football program, which makes millions, with the women’s crew team, which costs money.

"when you've seen how big the world is, how can you make due with this?"

by silverlakebruin on Sep 25, 2009 9:38 AM PDT reply actions 1 recs

silverlake

please don’t lump the women’s crew team in with this. both men’s and women’s crew were cut in 1992, along with men’s swimming and gymnastics. What took their place was women’s soccer, women’s water polo and women’s lacrosse. women’s crew only recently made it back to varsity status, and they still get a lot of their funds from donations. The problem is that there is no women’s sports equivalent of football in terms of the number of scholarships.

As much as we all love football and basketball, we have to remember that sports in college were meant for amateur athletes who are also students, not just for semi-pro sports.

But hey, what do I know. I’m just the 800 lbs bruin in the room.

by tasser10 on Sep 27, 2009 8:59 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

I'm amazed that the Morgan Center

hasn’t done more to promote this. We finally get an article on the official site last night, but that’s really been it. This place is absolutely beautiful and state of the art. It should have been promoted for weeks now.

by Ryan Rosenblatt on Sep 25, 2009 10:05 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Seconded

It looks amazing. I couldn’t tell if the picture was the actual facility or the concept art I had seen.

by Tydides on Sep 25, 2009 10:10 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Until yesterday

There wasn’t a picture I could pull from the official site to use. I wanted to put one in my non-revenue update on Monday, but they only had ones in their slideshow, which can’t be pulled and there were only three or four of the completed project anyways. They should have video with a tour of the place, pictures and have been promoting the heck out of this Saturday’s game. Celebrate the opening of a great facility and if you can pack them in, you’re exposing more people to our great water polo team, possibly increasing the team’s fan base.

by Ryan Rosenblatt on Sep 25, 2009 10:16 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

FYI...

I have been looking at Spieker photos since July 25th 2008…
http://www.uclabruins.com/genrel/ucla-spieker-aquatics-construction.html

by movielover99 on Sep 25, 2009 10:23 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Yeah, that's the slideshow I mentioned

Pictures you can’t pull and very few of the finished product. It was a cool way to document the building of the place, but they needed to step it up when it was completed and they didn’t get it done.

by Ryan Rosenblatt on Sep 25, 2009 10:27 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

this is a response to rye

for some reason, i can reply to comments directly on my work computer.

I think they probably were hush hush because of the budget issue and didn’t want to announce this type of infrastructure investment while cutting in other areas and raising fees (tuition)

"when you've seen how big the world is, how can you make due with this?"

by silverlakebruin on Sep 25, 2009 10:56 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

The teams don't generate

much revenue for the school, so my guess is the marketing strategy was adjusted on a kind of proportional basis. They didn’t unleash a barrage of promotional material, but it had been up on the UCLA Athletics website and Recreation Department website for some time with updates on construction, donations, etc.

The primary benefits for this structure are creating a facility that can hold Regional and Sectional playoff games while keeping Sunset Rec open for recreation swimming all day, and thereby allowing for more paid admissions and memberships. UCLA doesn’t charge for regular season matches, but the regionals and sectionals are paid admission and bring in a good amount of money. Games on weekends were really bad for business. Families looking to use the pool would show up unaware that a water polo match was going on and go home pretty upset (we did put up notifications, but people that don’t use the facility or the check the online schedule were nevertheless unaware). The games kept the pool closed for a good portion of typically the busiest days of the week for Sunset Rec.

As an employee at Sunset Rec and member of a department wide student leadership committee this past year, Mick Deluca, the head of UCLA Recreation, told our committee that the $10 million was raised privately or from revenue generated by UCLA Athletics and the Recreation Department. None of it came from student fees or the state, nor did the project contribute to raising student fees. The construction of this facility shouldn’t be upsetting to anybody against the tuition fee raises or budget cuts, as none of the money raised for the Spieker Center would have ever been a factor.

by mdjohns4 on Sep 25, 2009 11:34 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Thanks for the information

I was talking more about the impression. I just think in a time of budget cuts, you don’t publicize capital expenditures. Its just politics.

"when you've seen how big the world is, how can you make due with this?"

by silverlakebruin on Sep 27, 2009 8:58 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

great to know

Thanks mdjohn. That’s great info to know. I really do wish they would bring back the mens diving etc. Title IX is nonsense and outdated. We should pull together and get this story out and try and get more people talking.

by westwood12003 on Sep 25, 2009 1:22 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Really nice and all...

But seems to me like it’s no benefit to the student body as a whole. When I was a student living up on the hill, we had plenty of basketball courts and tennis courts at our access, and over the years, between expanded student housing and new athletics facilities, those options no longer exist. I mean, good to have such a great facility for the aquatics teams, but they seemed to be doing fine with whatever was there before and, well, I guess I just feel bad for the regular students who are missing out on things that used to be there.

by JoeBruin9900 on Sep 25, 2009 6:03 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

How so?

The removed the 6 basketball and 3 tennis courts. 2 tennis courts have been added where the basketball courts were, and 5 basketball courts were added by Saxon Suites. A net loss of one basketball court and one tennis court, not to mention there are still plenty of basketball space at Wooden.

I really don’t know how the students miss out. Now the water polo and swimming teams don’t occupy the lap swimming pool during some pretty good hours (8:00-10:00 am AND 2:30 pm – 5:00 pm daily). Who loses?

by mdjohns4 on Sep 25, 2009 6:57 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

*there is still plenty of space

and they removed the 6 courts.

typos.

by mdjohns4 on Sep 25, 2009 6:59 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Plus

When I was working, the tennis courts were primarily occupied by alumni members, not students. There are 5 courts at sunset, 8 courts at LATC, and 6 courts at Sycamore (behind Saxon). There is plenty of space for any one who plays tennis, meaning at no time was every court on campus occupied. And all of them are within very close walking distance from the Hill.

And again, basketball courts have been relocated, not necessarily removed.

by mdjohns4 on Sep 25, 2009 7:02 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

I agree with Joe...

I was a student on the hill and graduated a few years ago, before they closed them there was still a shortage of courts. Only three in the Wooden center, and the one’s at sunset weren’t even close to full sized (now they’re gone, and the replacements up by Saxon are not level). If you ever wanted to play pick up, it would mean waiting for at least 45 minutes to an hour in the evenings and if you lose one game… well then it’s a big dilemma if you want to sit and wait again.

Before they built de neve, apparently there were nice full sized courts there… same with up by rieber. Also agree that I don’t see how this serves the student body as a whole necessarily.

by bigbwong on Sep 26, 2009 10:36 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

It's just part of a trend

As UCLA has really started to run into severe space constraints over the last 10-15 years, they’ve started to build in some interesting ways. Consider the parking structure under the IM field (which they thankfully preserved) or all of the new high rise dormitories that they have managed to squeeze in between Rieber and Hedrick Halls. When I was at UCLA, they even had plans to erect dorms literally on top of the Drake Stadium stands (they still might!). UCLA has always been very dense but it’s really accelerated over recent years, which in a lot of ways impacts student life on campus. I want the folks who attend UCLA to enjoy their on-campus experience as much as I did, and as much as I’m sure a lot of others on these boards did, but when shiny new facilities are built for smaller, non-revenue producing sports teams – even though I’m massively proud of those teams! – I find it really hard to see the benefit to the regular students who just want to play basketball or do whatever (presumably the new facilities up at Sunset Rec have taken over lots of that great open space as well, where we would go hang out on sunny days with beach towels and enjoy the great weather).

by JoeBruin9900 on Sep 27, 2009 7:54 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs