When Lancer fans enter the St. Denis fieldhouse Friday for the opening of basketball season, they’ll find a welcome upgrade: all-new seating.

The old wooden bleachers were in dire need of an upgrade, according to Mike Havey, the university’ associate athletic director.

“It was time,” he says. “The bleachers have been there since the building opened in 1981 and they do not meet the standard of today.”

The new bleachers are made of aluminum with plastic seats and cost around $650, 000, Havey says. The cost was covered by student fees approved in a 2003 referendum to help fund future projects.

“It was a unique concept for universities at the time; now it’s fairly commonplace,” Havey says.

— article and photo by William Humphrey