Stone tiles falling off The Pit's walls

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - In the two-plus seasons of Lobo basketball at the newly renovated Pit, UNM has had plenty of on-court success.

Off-the-court, there's been a little problem.

UNM says 26 out of the more than 30,000 8" by 8'"stone tiles added as part of the recent $60 million renovation have fallen off of The Pit's interior and exterior walls in the last ten months to a year.

There's been no pattern as to where and when the tiles have dropped.

"We have the forensic folks working on it and they haven't been able to come up with what they think is an accurate explanation," UNM architect Robert Doran said.

So far none of the loose tiles have hit or hurt anyone. The university has been taking precautions to keep fans safe while investigators look into the problem's cause.

One of those is adding barriers around all of the problem stonework to keep people a safe distance away.

Another is something that could be added to some of the inside stonework starting this week, banners in cherry and silver.

The idea is that the banners could catch any stone tiles that come loose and fall off the walls. They also add a little bit of a decorative flair.

"We didn't think it was a bad idea to have cherry and silver banners in there to begin with," Doran said. "We may have done that no matter what."

Adding banners also opens up inside corridors at The Pit a little more, an important factor with the men's team's undefeated play drawing strong crowds to the arena.

Doran says as soon as UNM can identify and fix the problem, the plan is to remove the barriers and banners.

He also says the problems are covered under a warranty and the university is not on the hook to pay extra to fix  them.