Siobhan McAndrew

smcandrew@rgj.com

Joe Bohl headed to his new seats in a renovated Mackay Stadium at the University of Nevada.

He arrived 30 minutes before the 6 p.m. Sept. 17, 2016 kickoff to watch the Wolf Pack take on the University at Buffalo.

Bohl has been going to games for more than 30 years and is a long-time season-ticket holder. He said he started rooting passionately for his alma mater after a spinal-cord injury from a skydiving accident in 1987 left him paralyzed from the waist down.

He would be on the 50-yard-line, in the stadium's new wheelchair seating offered on the west side – near the track, behind the home bench and in front of the grandstand seats.

There was only one problem.

When Bohl got to his new seat, he said he came to the "choking realization" he couldn’t see the game.

“I saw the back of the players’ heads, their butts, not the field," he said.

When Nevada gave the 50-year-old stadium a $14 million facelift, it didn’t factor in one important part of the Americans with Disabilities Act, a 1990 law that prohibits discrimination and requires wheelchair seating to be provided in all areas, according to public records requested by the Reno Gazette-Journal.

At stadiums, including Mackay, wheelchair locations must provide a line of sight that is comparable to what other guests enjoy. Wheelchair seating must provide a view that is the same, even if the other spectators have to stand.

The stadium's plans didn’t account for football players standing on the sidelines during the game.

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Bohl wasn't the only fan affected. Nevada officials said 59 people bought ADA accessible season tickets last year and nearly 100 people bought individual tickets. Some had seats like Bohl.

The university now is spending $690,000 to make the stadium ADA compliant. The fix includes tearing down the seats with no view, adding more accessible seating and installing electric lifts. Nevada officials said those changes will be done before the first home game in September.

“How do they do millions of dollars in renovations and not think about his stuff?” Bohl said.

UNR president Marc Johnson called the situation “a disappointment” and an “unfortunate mistake.”

“The architect firm had sidelines in mind when we created better seats, only to find they took into account a person (who) stood the whole game," Johnson said.

The Wolf Pack billed the renovations, which started on Dec. 28, 2015, as a way to improve safety, increase ADA access and offer more fan amenities including a state-of-the-art scoreboard, luxury boxes and chair-back seats.

Bringing the stadium into ADA compliance was also one of the main selling points when Nevada

went in front of the Board of Regents, the governing body over the state’s public colleges, to ask for permission to do the renovation at a 2014 meeting.

In addition to widening aisles and installing handrails, more ADA seating and ramps were added. The renovation was funded by donations and a bond, not state money. Revenue from the new higher-priced seating options is being used to pay off the debt.

Johnson said it is a frustrating and expensive situation.

“It will be fixed,” Johnson said.

UNR spokeswoman Kerri Garcia said it was the intention of the university to provide great seats for ADA customers when seats, including Bohl's, were added.

"There certainly was no intent to discriminate and, once found, actions were taken to immediately resolve the issue so we have a comprehensive, code-compliant ADA seating plan completed by the first home football game," Garcia said.

The $690,000 needed for the fixes is being funded by Nevada through the original financing plan for the stadium, ticket sales and donor gifts specifically directed to support Mackay Stadium's renovation.

“No state funds are being used,” Garcia said.

But for some fans the fix comes late.

Long-time season ticket holder and UNR graduate Joe Arrascada hasn't bought tickets for the upcoming Nevada football season.

"I don't think the university has fully grasped how everyone with a disability felt about last season," said Arrascada, who was paralyzed 31 years ago after a diving accident at Lake Tahoe.

Arrascada said he left his new seat in that front row after six minutes at last year's season opener.

"I couldn't even see our team run out on the field."

Among the documents obtained by the RGJ were two internal investigations by UNR’s Equal Opportunity and Title IX office. The office is responsible for overseeing compliance with state and federal regulations and investigates complaints of discrimination or noncompliance.

Both investigations found cause for discrimination.

UNR said that means the evidence establishes it is more likely than not that a violation occurred.

UNR said in its investigation that it has since taken additional steps to assess Mackay Stadium for ADA compliance and has hired a consultant to review and make recommendations, according to the documents obtained by the RGJ.

Johnson said the university believed it was doing everything in compliance with the law.

“This takes away from the glamour of the renovation,” Johnson said of what was a proud celebration for the school and Wolf Pack athletics last year.

Johnson said Nevada relied on the architect and the Nevada Department of Public Works, which approved the plans.

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“The university believes the architect’s original design failed to substantially comply with the current ADA-accessible seating standards,” said Chad Hartley, the Wolf Pack's associate athletic director for communications.

The renovation design plans were done by the WorthGroup, a long-time collaborator with UNR on construction projects. The WorthGroup worked on the E.L. Wiegand Fitness Center, one of the most recent construction projects finished on campus.

The investigation summary said, “although the university’s contractor, The WorthGroup, conducted sight studies for the 2016 stadium improvements, the studies did not address the impact of the football team standing on the sidelines.”

Those findings were a surprise to WorthGroup executive chairman Douglas Worth.

He said he was unaware of any ADA issues caused by designs by his company, adding that he was not told about findings from any investigation.

“The university has asked me not to comment on this,” Worth said. “They are my client and I have been asked (by UNR) that you go through them.”

When a RGJ reporter read Worth some of the comments in the investigation findings and from UNR officials, Worth said the information provided by the university was inaccurate. He would not elaborate.

Gus Nunez, administrator of Nevada Department of Public Works Division, said the department is responsible for checking that plans are ADA compliant.

A situation like the one involving the view of the field from the new seats would be something that happened during the design process by the architect, Nunez said.

“When you are designing the stadium, what kind of experience do we want the folks to have when they come to see a football game?” he said.

He said while the stadium renovation and the front-row wheelchair seats may have been good seats for something like a concert or track meet, no one took into account that football players stand during the game.

“It sounds like for people including those not in a wheelchair, the experience wasn’t good in that lower level,” Nunez said.

Nevada said it became aware of the problems after the first home game following the renovation on Sept. 2, 2016 — before Bohl went to his first game last season and complained to university officials.

Complaints were lodged with the Intercollegiate Athletic Association and the Nevada State Public Works Department, the investigation obtained by the RGJ said.

Soon after, a design team at UNR assembled a team to review the stadium improvements for ADA compliance.

Garcia, the university spokesperson, said the school only became aware of the problem after the construction was finished and the football season had started.

The investigation said once the athletics department was made aware of the complaint, UNR reached out to every ADA customer and season-ticket holder in the area to explain the sightline issues and ask if anyone wanted to move seats.

“Spectators continued to purchase these seats,” the investigation said.

Bohl said he wasn’t contacted by Nevada after the first game of the season and went to the second game expecting a great seat.

UNR sent Bohl a short letter about its findings and said the investigation was forwarded to Vice Provost Stacy Burton.

Burton has not returned calls from the RGJ for comment. UNR has said all new questions will be answered only by the communications department.

The letter from UNR to Bohl said, “Based upon the evidence gathered during the investigation, the preponderance of the evidence supports your allegations that the 2016 Mackay Stadium renovation resulted in unequal access to football events due to limited sightlines, in violation of the University of Nevada, Reno’s non-discrimination policy.”

The letter also asked Bohl not to talk about findings with anyone who was not associated with his complaint.

“All investigations are confidential,” the letter said.

But Bohl said he didn’t want what happened to go unnoticed.

“They act like they can just forget about us,” he said.

The investigation said the improvements under construction will “meet applicable code and guidelines for access, number of seats, horizontal and vertical dispersion, and sightlines.”

The accessible seating where Bohl sat last year has been removed. New accessible seating options are being added to seven sections of the stadium. To make room for new accessible seats, some non-accessible seats are being removed. Electrical lifts are also being installed.

“The university works hard so that buildings are constructed properly,” Garcia said, adding that the school takes steps to address problems when issues arise.

Some long-time fans believe what happened still tarnishes a campus that has celebrated project after project of new construction over the last few years. UNR said it works on $60 million to $80 million in construction projects annually.

Arrascada, who has worked in the primary care outpatient clinic at the at Department of Veterans Affairs VA Hospital in Reno for 18 years, said as construction and plans were being developed for the stadium, Nevada should have consulted with people in wheelchairs.

“I have a T-shirt with the slogan, ‘One Community, One Pack,” Arrascada said. “If this is truly that then make the game day a wonderful experience for everyone.”

Arrascada said he has offered to help the university on projects involving accessibility issues and hopes Nevada has the foresight to be a leader in the community as more construction projects are completed.

“Bring in the people who are going to sit in those seats,” he said. “It makes no sense to construct something for people in wheelchairs without their input.”

Scott Youngs, the Project Director for Americans with Disabilities Act and the Nevada Assistive Technology Resource Center at the University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities at UNR, said that when plans about the stadium renovations were announced he had calls from the public asking about new seating.

He said he did not work on the Mackay renovation but did offer his help as he does on other projects on campus and in the community.

“People wanted to know about the new seating as soon as a remodel was announced,” he said.

He also bought the new wheelchair accessible tickets on the 50-yard line. Youngs was paralyzed from the waist down from a spinal cord injury when his dirt bike hit a drainage ditch when he was 15.

“Line of sight should never be an issue,” he said. “It’s very basic and understood by people designing these days."

He said everyone should be held accountable on a project when that doesn’t happen.

Bohl said he watched most of his first game in the renovated stadium last September by staring at the new scoreboard. He said he wheeled up and down the handicapped seating row, catching glimpses of the field between players.

He said an elderly man sitting near him said, “What do you think of your new seats? Let me tell you. They suck. You can’t see a damn thing. I’m going up higher to see.”

Bohl watched as the man walked away, up a flight of stairs.

“What do I do?” Bohl said he thought. “I can’t just go up stairs.”

NEW RENOVATION BREAKDOWN BEING DONE NOW

$548,510 for seat demo, new seat and lift installations

$49,988 for suite No. 4 demo, landing and restroom modifications

$4,025: lift electrical

$7,579: plan review, inspection fees

$8,453: consulting

$25,000: asphalt patch (estimate)

$28,000: iron railing (estimate)

$18,445: project contingency

Source: University of Nevada, Reno