Coles Sports and Recreation Center

The Coles Sports and Recreation Center is the main athletic facility at New York University, located at 181 Mercer Street in New York City. The $18 million Coles Center drew fire from Greenwich Village residents when it was opened in 1981. The building is named in honor of Jerome S. Coles, an alumnus and benefactor of NYU. The facilities accommodate a wide range of individual and group recreational sports and fitness activities, including over 130 different courses at various skill levels serving 10,000 participants, as well as club sports and an intramural program enjoyed by approximately 3,500 students. Coles was renovated with a new dehumidifcation system in 1999 to solve problems of corrosion.

Up to 3,000 members use the facility daily, while 1,900 spectators can be seated in the fieldhouse bleachers and 230 can be seated in the natatorium bleachers. The Coles Sports Center is barrier-free and accessible to physically challenged persons.

Coles is also the home to most of New York University's NCAA Division III intercollegiate teams. Some teams that compete in the facility include: men's and women's basketball, diving, swimming, volleyball, and men's wrestling. The fencing team also use Coles facilities, but they participate in NCAA Division I.

Club sports housed at Coles Sports and Recreation Center include badminton, cheerleading, martial arts, squash, racquetball, and waterpolo.

Tournament hosting
The Center also has played host to the following events: NCAA Basketball National Championships, NCAA Regional Wrestling Championships, ECAC Regional Basketball Championships, Metropolitan Wrestling Championships, International Wrestling events, International Fencing events, University Athletic Association Championships and National Collegiate Tae Kwon Do Championships. In 1994-95, Coles hosted the Intercollegiate Fencing Association Championships and the UAA Wrestling Championship. In 1998, the UAA Women's Volleyball Round Robin took place at Coles, and the women's basketball team hosted the Sweet Sixteen and the Final Four during the NCAA Division III Women's Basketball Championships.

Facilities
The following facilities are open to all students:
 * A multi-purpose arena with five courts.
 * Two batting cages.
 * A roof with a 1/6 mile, three-lane running track plus six tennis courts.
 * A natatorium with an NCAA-regulation 25-meter swimming pool, diving tank, and saunas.
 * Five squash courts and five handball/racquetball courts.
 * Weight training facilities.
 * An aerobic fitness room.
 * Individual rooms for wrestling/judo, fencing, physical fitness and calisthenics, exercise prescription, dance, and free play activities.
 * Rock climbing wall.