Sports, Arenas and Stadiums…oh my!
It was quite a busy day in terms of the location of sporting events in the state of Nebraska. We’ll hit the local flavor first.
-The first video of the potential Haymarket Arena and surrounding area was released today. The architecture gig went to DLR Group of Omaha instead of Lincoln Traction Partners, a Kansas City based business. LTP was in on the ground floor of the initial Haymarket Arena ideas but DLR was in the favor or the Mayor. The LJS article outlines why the DLR decision is a bit of a puzzling one. Because besides the Qwest, DLR manly deals in baseball stadiums. The video, though, looks good. I think its a nice looking arena. There’s a large group of windows and it has a bit of a barn feel which I think would go well downtown. And when I first saw it, it kind of reminded me of Assembly Hall at the University of Indiana. Of course the arena is all on the premise that voters approve the arena in a vote next year.
-The second piece of news was the securing of the College World Series by Omaha. The NCAA granted, get this, a 20 year contract to keep the CWS in Omaha. The current deal expires in 2010 and this new deal will keep the Series in Omaha until 2030. I am amazed that the city of Omaha was able to secure that long of a contract. As it says in the article, the NCAA doesn’t grant 5 year contracts, much less a 20 year contract. I know it was the goal of the Mayor and CWS Inc. but its still amazing. A preliminary video was released a couple of weeks ago. This probably is the death blow for Rosenblatt supporters and the stadiums days are numbered. I suggest if you haven’t been to the World Series at Rosenblatt, please do yourself a favor and go see a game or two. And with the huskers tearing it up, this year might be the last year to see the Huskers at the blatt.
The Comments
jonboy says Why are you surprsed about the CWS?!? April 30, 2008 at 7:12pm
First, the Rosenblatt supporters already had the fork stuck in them...they have been done ever since Omaha Mayor Mike Fahey went to Indy to talk about the new ballpark. The NCAA replied that the ballpark looked great and met all the demands the NCAA set. Fahey came back to Omaha to say there was now only one option and that was to build a new ballpark, effectively killing any ideas about improving Rosenblatt.
Anyone who has been paying the slightest bit of attention to the new downtown ballpark in Omaha knows a 20 year long contract was the reason for building it. The NCAA would not have granted that long of a contract with Omaha had they stayed with Rosenblatt.
The biggest question still remains...how EXACTLY will the new ballpark be funded. Sure it looks nice by saying that taxpayers won’t have to pay for it in terms of increased property taxes, etc. However when you take money away from the Keno fund that was already earmarked for something else, where will the money come from to replace the money taken from the Keno fund...that is the question that Mayor Fahey can’t and won’t answer.
D.M.B. says I have been paying attention April 30, 2008 at 8:27pm
I have been paying attention and you’re probably right, there was no coming back from this for Rosenblatt. But the simple fact is was they were planning on building ballpark w/o the contract.
I guess the surprising fact is that the ACTUALLY got the long term deal they were asking for. The NCAA doesn’t grant these deals, and they actually did.
Nicole says Just a correction on the May 1, 2008 at 10:07am
Just a correction on the arena development: Lincoln Traction Partners is the development team that got the nod, but DLR was selected as the architect, rather than LTP’s choice, Ellerbe Becket, which is a Kansas City firm. Lincoln Traction Partners is headed by Will and Robert Scott, Lincoln developers.
D.M.B. says Ah. My mistake. May 1, 2008 at 6:24pm
Ah. My mistake. I was kinda confused on that section of the article. Thanks for the clarification.