The NU Board of Regents approved a proposal Friday to allow President J.B. Milliken to sign a letter of intent with developer Scott Woodbury Weigert to build the proposed 7,500-seat arena and 1,800 new surface parking stalls.
“It really allows us now to go full-steam ahead,” said Trev Alberts, UNO athletic director.
To pay for the arena, the developer would finance $31.3 million; private donations would cover $35 million; and the city of Omaha and other funding sources would pay $10 million. The city of Omaha would pay its portion from its capital budget, not through new taxes, said Bill Conley, vice chancellor for business and finance at UNO.
Once the arena was constructed, the university would repay the developer for the money it spent financing construction of the arena through revenue generated by the arena and fundraising, Alberts said. Several donors have stepped forward to help fund the project, though he declined to name them.
“We do have strong indications of support,” he said.
The university and the developer still must raise all of the necessary funds to pay for the project and finalize the arena’s design before bringing a ground lease agreement to the regents for approval, Conley said. The developer approached the university about building the arena, he said.
Alberts said the arena likely would be used primarily for UNO hockey, which generates about 90 percent of the university’s athletics revenue. The university currently leases the CenturyLink Center in Omaha for use by its hockey program but only benefits from ticket sales there, he said.
The new arena would immediately generate about $1 million more each year in revenue through ticket sales, concession sales, corporate sponsorships and other sources, Alberts said. The university also would be able to cancel a nearly $400,000-a-year lease agreement it has with Crossroads Mall for parking stalls for university use since the arena would include 1,800 new parking stalls, he said.
“That’s a game changer,” he said.
As proposed, the arena would be built at 68th and Center streets, directly south of the Ak-Sar-Ben Village development and near UNO’s Pacific Street campus.
Alberts said the arena would help UNO achieve Chancellor John Christensen’s goal of reaching 20,000 students by 2020 and would provide a permanent campus home for other university sports, including basketball and volleyball.
With two sheets of ice, the arena would be used for practices, and could be used for community events, such as commencements, graduations and concerts.
Regent Howard Hawks of Omaha said the arena could benefit should the city of Omaha decide not to spend the $30 million it would need to renovate its aging civic auditorium and instead decide to utilize the UNO arena for community events.
“We think we can get some city participation,” he said.
Asked whether there are too many arenas in the Omaha area — a new arena in Ralston is now home to UNO men’s basketball and Omaha Lancers hockey — Christensen said the new arena would be built primarily for UNO athletics.
“The primary focus of this is not to serve the community,” he said. “The primary focus of this is to serve our campus.”
