For Nevada men’s basketball fans, this week’s news of the Grand Sierra Resort Arena being approved for public money, paving the way for a groundbreaking next month, was met with majority applause.

While some Wolf Pack fans soaked in nostalgia would prefer Nevada to remain at the 41-year-old Lawlor Events Center, GSR Arena’s planned 2027 opening means a new era of Pack hoops is upcoming due to the new modern arena.

That development could mean a rapid increase in ticket revenue with Nevada forecasting between $3 million and $5 million in increased sales in the first year of GSR Arena. But Wolf Pack athletic director Stephanie Rempe said during Wednesday’s approval vote her department will try its best to avoid pricing out families in Nevada’s new digs.

“We do not plan to significantly increase our ticket prices,” Rempe said. “And we will still have a family-priced get-in cost to get to the arena.”

Presentations from Hunden Partners, a third party hired by the city of Reno to analyze the arena project, estimated Nevada men’s basketball would play 17 home games per season in GSR Arena with an average ticket cost of $41.50. The arena is expected to have a capacity of at least 10,000 fans with the increase in ticket revenue expected to come from the so-called premium seating the arena will include that was not available at Lawlor.

The arena would include 25 full-sized suites and eight mini-suites plus loge-box seating that will allow the Wolf Pack to maximize ticket revenue. At Lawlor, front-row seating was considered premium priced but limited how much Nevada could charge. The boxes and loge arena is expected to increase the price levels available to the Wolf Pack, which has had a wait list for premium seating in venues such as Mackay Stadium, home to Nevada football.

In the most recently available fiscal-year data (2024), the Wolf Pack generated $4,879,223 in men’s basketball ticket sales. Football ticket sales hit $3,123,302 with all other sports combing for $177,455.

“We currently generate about $5 million in revenue from men’s basketball,” Rempe said during Wednesday’s meeting. “We average 8,300 tickets the past three years. The experience in the new arena will be first class. There will be suites, loge boxes, mini suites hundreds of club seats and floor seats. By simply having these seats available, we will generate millions of dollars in ticket revenue.”

Nevada has been cash-strapped for more than a decade in terms of increasing self-created revenue with GSR Arena’s construction the biggest potential injection of revenue for Wolf Pack athletics in the near future, which was one of the big rallying cries for the department in the lead-up to this week’s meeting that approved some public-money incentives for the construction of the $435 million venue.

“To be able to sell suites and the hundreds of club seats, this will conservatively generate an additional $3 or $4 million dollars to our bottom line,” Rempe said. “Nothing in our future for our athletics program can allow that kind of growth. So, yes, we do wanna be on campus. We want the students to be be able to walk from the dorms to Archie’s to the arena. There’s no question about that. But this day and age to be competitive, we cannot keep doing the same thing over and over again, and Alex Meruelo is giving us an opportunity to do something different.”

Two of the big questions about GSR Arena’s construction were (a) Nevada women’s basketball not calling the venue its home arena and (b) getting students to the off-campus venue to create a college-like atmosphere. The Wolf Pack said the women’s team was not part of the tenant plan due to the arena’s 10,000-fan capacity for a program that drew an announced attendance of 2,065 fans per home game last season.

As for the student population, the Wolf Pack said only 5 percent of the roughly 20,000-person enrollment attended Nevada men’s basketball games with the rest being unimpacted by the move. The Wolf Pack plans to bus the roughly 1,000 students who regularly attend games to and from the arena that is roughly 5 miles from campus.

GSR Arena is expected to break ground next month with a planned opening in summer 2027 with Nevada men’s basketball playing games in the arena that fall. Asked if the Wolf Pack had a lease agreement to play in GSR Arena, Sandoval said that has not been hammered out and would be once the facility got approval. Nevada will have to play to play in the new arena, similar to UNLV’s agreement to play football games at Allegiant Stadium.

“First and foremost, I’m thankful for the Reno City Council and the redevelopment agency for the favorable vote,” Sandoval said after Wednesday’s vote. “This is going to be transformational for our university and community. I’m excited for our student, faculty and staff and everyone within Northern Nevada. It’s a game-changer, and I know that’s overused. It’s going to allow us to play in a premium venue as good or better than anywhere else in the United States of America. It will allow us to attract better student-athletes, the highest caliber we can ask for. It will us to raise more revenue that will help all of our sports. And for our fans, it will give them an incredible experience.”