Lawlor’s Battle Against its Bat Cave
Kailee Bryant, Derek Raridon, Dominic Gutierrez and Saurabh Chawla investigate the reoccuring invasion during UNR men’s home basketball games.
On Nov. 7, 2023, bats were seen flying around in Lawlor Events Center during the second half of the men’s basketball game between Nevada and Sacramento State.
Some fans and players were shocked, but it wasn’t the first time bats have disturbed basketball games.
During the 2017–18 season, up to 30 bats were living inside Lawlor. Those bats arrived around late October during their migration south for the winter.
Raquel Martinez, the Urban Wildlife Coordinator for the Nevada Department of Wildlife, said she believes roof work on Lawlor was the cause for the 2017 bats.
“That coupled with the sheer size and age of Lawlor, and it inadvertently being a great roosting site for bats where they can get out of the cold, has made it a reoccurring issue to some degree,” Martinez said.
But as a successful D1 program, why does the University of Nevada, Reno keep having this issue?
The Nevada Department of Wildlife, an organization that covers the restoration and management of fish and wildlife resources and also covers mammals coming into the Reno area, remains somewhat dumbfounded.
“There’s no big food or resource draw within Lawlor and there’s not enough suitable food or water in there to sustain them for very long,” Martinez said.
Steve Alford, Nevada men’s head coach, has grown frustrated from having to see the bats fly around during games.
“The bat thing is getting pretty embarrassing, and it needs to be fixed,” Alford said to NSN. “It’s uncalled for. We are a big-time basketball program, and we shouldn’t be dealing with bats.”
Not everyone thinks it’s so bad though. Some of the Nevada players have found some humor around the bats and think it makes Lawlor unique.
“I love it,” Nevada guard Jarod Lucas was quoted as saying. “I wish we wouldn’t stop the game. It’s a home-court advantage. Let’s keep them coming.”
Evan Jameson, who goes to Nevada basketball games, sees both sides of the bat equation.
“I think it’s funny,” Jameson said. “A headline if you will. But equally, it has a side of embarrassment. We shouldn’t have to deal with that, it would be like having a leaking roof. Like, come on?!”
So what’s the plan to keep the bats out? It’s not as easy as just picking a bat up and bringing it outside. Martinez said her team did a walkthrough of Lawlor with the university to come up with a plan for how to remove these bats.
She said the first step is to find the entry points. How are the bats even getting in, and how can they block it off? One solution is adding “bat valves.”
“They are installed at the identified entry point after they’re sealed up, so bats still inside the building can exit, but cannot re-enter,” Martinez said.
Lawlor implemented bat valves back in 2017, but Martinez said some of the entry points have opened back up over time.
Since this doesn’t happen every year, and on an irregular basis, when will the bats next return to basketball games and make new headlines?
What about the planned move for basketball games to an expanded GSR in a few years? Will that new arena be bat proof?
Time will tell, but these bats have given everyone involved at Lawlor quite the experience, and have become part of the Nevada basketball lore, however much it annoys head coach Steve Alford.
