Pyramid to open its doors

Campus community invited to sneak preview of new gym

Come Saturday, Cal State Long Beach students and Long Beach residents will have a chance to see up close what they have admired Ñ or detested Ñ from afar for months.

CSULB will offer an open house of The Pyramid and Carpenter Performing Arts Center from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m., titled "Discover the Treasures É at The Beach."

The event will feature festivities ranging from a steel drum band to pyramid-building contests. The day will conclude with a sendoff of sorts for The Gold Mine, with the men's basketball team playing an exhibition game against High-Five America at 5 p.m.

Athletic Director Dave O'Brien said attendees will be ushered in through the arena's north entrance (facing Atherton Street), where members of the 49er Athletic Association will greet and guide them through the facility. Tourists will be limited to the concourse area because of construction, O'Brien said.

Gay Arakawa, director of the Alumni Association, said between 1,500 and 5,000 people are expected to show up for the event. O'Brien said he expects about 2,500 but conceded that could be on the low end.

"We had such a demand from people for tours that É [the university] decided the best thing to do was to set aside a day to fulfill this purpose," O'Brien said.

The university first began entertaining thoughts of upgrading its athletic arena from the archaic Gold Mine, designed to facilitate a 5,000-student campus, in the mid-1970s. So, in a sense, The Pyramid has been nearly 20 years in the making. Thus Saturday figures to be a milestone in CSULB history.

Said O'Brien: "It's a day all of us had hoped for and envisioned back when The Pyramid was just a vision. Sometimes I wasn't sure if the day would ever come."

A private luncheon sponsored by the Alumni Association will take place prior to the public open house. Several speakers, including O'Brien and CSULB President Robert Maxson, will address the gathering, Arakawa said. Immediately following the luncheon, those who have paid $15 for a spot at the luncheon will be given a private tour of The Pyramid, Arakawa said.