Updowntowners are Courted on the Haymarket Arena

By Hanna Day-Woodruff

On the morning of January 20th, members of Updowntowners and other interested persons sat down in the Lincoln Station Great Hall for a catered meal and special presentation by Dick Campbell, Chair of Citizens For the Haymarket Arena.

Entitled “The Haymarket Arena: Let's Make it Happen,” the presentation was geared to a friendly audience, but provided an opportunity for the public to receive answers to its burning questions – would John Mayer really come to entertain our tweens? Would it really be possible to see a motocross rally and Disney on Ice in the same venue, on the same day?

The attendees had more serious questions than that, but these varied entertainments might become a reality if Lincoln puts forth its $25 million part of the deal.

Lincolnites will vote on May 11, 2010 on a $25 million General Obligation bond that is a key component of a larger $450-500 million public-private financing strategy to construct the new 16,000-seat basketball arena and surrounding development. This luncheon was designed to inform, entice and answer questions. Campbell told the audience,

“We want people to become well enough educated that they will go to go out and vote for the new arena. . .We want to make sure that they have correct information.”

The PowerPoint presentation was complete with computer generated images of what the Haymarket Arena area might look like and addressed a number of key questions – why do we need it, what potential does it have to benefit the community, and what are the costs? Lest the audience become attached to the pretty images (or outraged, as the case may be), Campbell was quick to point out that the images were concepts, not final designs, but that the end result would be compatible to the project's more elderly and honorable neighbor, the old Haymarket District.

The Proposed Project
The West Haymarket Arena would be one component of an expanded shopping, entertainment, business and living district that would expand north and west of the current Haymarket area and would include the new ice center, the Breslow. It would include 100,000 square feet of commercial space, 100,000 square feet of retail space, 100 residential units and at least one hotel, currently planning for 200 rooms. Two additional hotels are also a possibility. Surface parking and green space on the north side of the development is planned to have a 30,000 person capacity for outdoor events.

Community Need
Pershing, the City's current events center, was constructed in the 1950s.  It has a permanent seating capacity of 4,500, and 7,500 when additional portable seats are used.  Proponents of the Haymarket Arena (and a venue consultant) state that it is outdated and simply does not have the capacity to host the kinds of big events that would economically benefit the city – Campbell argued that large musical acts and corporate conferences regularly pass over Lincoln in favor of Omaha's Qwest Center precisely because of capacity problems. John Mayer, Linkin Park and Green Day have indicated an interest in performing in this fair city should the arena be constructed.

Economic Potential
Economic potential was presented in terms of jobs and economic activity. In the construction phase, estimated to take 3 years, 2600 jobs would be created and 1200 jobs in the post-construction phase are expected to be formed. This includes both arena and non-arena jobs.

Economic activity includes direct and indirect revenues generated from increased tourism and events. All totaled, construction economic activity is estimated to be $780 million and post-construction economic activity is estimated to be $260 million, or the equivalent of 65 home football games per year.

Transportation
State transportation planners already have improvements and expansions planned to accommodate the increased traffic, including an additional road on the west side of the development and entrances to the area from the north and west. Three parking garages and additional surface parking will accommodate Arena-goers and other visitors.

Financing and the May 11th Election
Arena organizers have lined up close to $100 million in private investment. An arena marketing partner for naming rights, seat sales and advertising will be chosen through a competitive bidding process. The same process will also decide on a private partner to take on more debt financing. Additional revenue would come from a city-wide visitor occupational tax of 4% on hotels and car rentals, as well as a city-wide bar and restaurant tax of 2%.

The $25 million General Obligation bond that the residents of Lincoln will vote on in May is designed to be repaid through a state program, whereby all the state sales taxes collected from the arena and businesses within 450 yards of the arena are given to the city (called a “turnback tax”). Campbell stated that a great deal of care was taken to make the estimates of revenue generated through this mechanism very conservative, and gives him the confidence to state that increased property taxes would not be necessary.

Questions and Answers
The audience asked questions regarding traffic and the fairness of increasing taxes on bars and restaurants throughout the city when the revenues would support only the West Haymarket Arena project. Campbell stated that the state law that allows for occupation taxes wouldn't allow certain areas to be taxed and not others, but the whole community stands to gain from the economic activity the West Haymarket Arena area would generate.

Another questioner sought information on how to accurately assess the full cost to the taxpayer. Campbell replied that this was why this presentation was planned, and that he and others on the West Haymarket Arena team would be happy to answer additional questions on that point, both at the meeting and beyond. Environmental concerns were also raised, and Campbell replied that some floodplain areas would be filled in, while wetlands would be created as a part of the larger development.

More Information
Lincoln will have the next several months to piece together all the elements of the plan and decide whether to take the risk and go ahead with the project.  There are a variety of sources for more information, including the consultant reports that underlie the numbers quoted in this article.  

See the following:

www.westhaymarketarena.org, includes a Q & A that addresses many issues and offers links to consultant reports.

www.lincolnhaymarketarena.com, the campaign website that has much of the same information (though without links to consultant reports), and is a portal for supporters to become involved.

http://lincoln.ne.gov/city/plan/what/index.htm, the city government website with documents that trace the whole development of the project.

www.2015vision.org/, a group that places the proposed Haymarket Arena within the context of a broader, longer-term vision for the City of Lincoln's development.

Comments

[Danny Ladely]

I want to point out a mistake in this article that I hope was not intentional. Pershing's current capacity is nearly twice that of the 4,500 stated in this article. I suspect that many other "facts" presented in support of the new arena are suspect as well. Pershing loses money every year. The Leid Center loses money every year. Even the Qwest Center loses money every year. So you think that Lincoln's new arena will make money or even come close to breaking even?

[Hanna Day-Woodruff]

Thank you for bringing this to my attention. While the number is correct, what it describes is not - there is a 4,500 permanent seating capacity, and a 7,500 seating capacity if portable seats are provided. The mistake is my own. This information comes from the consultant's report here: http://www.lincoln.ne.gov/city/plan/what/docs/CSL_FARv1.pdf.
A correction will be made in the body of the article to reflect this.

The article was intended to apprise those who did not attend the luncheon of the information that was presented. Because it reflected one side of the story, for some it does not contain all the facts and considerations relevant to making a decision to support or oppose the Arena project; it was not intended to be a persuasion piece. Questions like the ones you raised are important, and luckily Lincoln has several months to sleuth out the answers.