Baxter Arena (67th & Center Street)

bigredmed · Post by **bigredmed** » Sun Oct 14, 2012 1:26 pm

They announced their arena plan. Looks interesting.

skinzfan23 · Post by **skinzfan23** » Sun Oct 14, 2012 3:56 pm

Here is the link to the article from the World Herald:
http://www.omaha.com/article/20121014/N ... basketball

Linkin5 · Post by **Linkin5** » Sun Oct 14, 2012 4:20 pm

If they stick to that design it will be awesome.

MadMartin8 · Post by **MadMartin8** » Sun Oct 14, 2012 6:42 pm

And now the 6000th new Arena to be built within the state is announced.

Linkin5 · Post by **Linkin5** » Sun Oct 14, 2012 8:24 pm

MadMartin8 wrote:And now the 6000th new Arena to be built within the state is announced.

nm.

Greg S · Post by **Greg S** » Sun Oct 14, 2012 8:48 pm

I think they will regret not going to 10k in time.

Greg

skinzfan23 · Post by **skinzfan23** » Sun Oct 14, 2012 10:59 pm

Anyone know how to post the rendering that was on the World Herald's website?

Post by **BRoss** » Sun Oct 14, 2012 11:33 pm

skinzfan23 wrote:Anyone know how to post the rendering that was on the World Herald's website?

Just download the picture to your computer and then upload it to a image hosting site.

iamjacobm · Post by **iamjacobm** » Sun Oct 14, 2012 11:43 pm

I really like the design of that. I hope they stick with it.

PobodysNerfect · Post by **PobodysNerfect** » Mon Oct 15, 2012 4:53 am

I am all for a new arena, but 7500 seats seems very idiotic. That seems as if they are building the arena for right now. This needs to be a future investment, this needs to last. It needs to be built for the hockey team that one day, I hope, will draw! I think it needs to be at least 1000 more as a minimum, 10K would be a perfect fit for UNO Hockey.

jessep28 · Post by **jessep28** » Mon Oct 15, 2012 5:46 am

PobodysNerfect wrote:I am all for a new arena, but 7500 seats seems very idiotic. That seems as if they are building the arena for right now. This needs to be a future investment, this needs to last. It needs to be built for the hockey team that one day, I hope, will draw! I think it needs to be at least 1000 more as a minimum, 10K would be a perfect fit for UNO Hockey.

That's how a lot of these projects work. You sell a smaller version to keep the price tag low so people will sign on. Then after the thing's built and proves to be too small (a.k.a. resounding success), you have to spend more money to expand the building to what it should have been in the first place.

As long as UNO keeps taxpayer money out of the deal, this would be a positive thing for the University.

Post by **Brad** » Tue Oct 16, 2012 2:17 pm

It looks like they put a UNO logo on a photo of the Sprint Center...

At least they are going to sell Beer!

StreetsOfOmaha · Post by **StreetsOfOmaha** » Tue Oct 16, 2012 2:17 pm

The site plan of this proposal is a total a disaster, not to mention the inappropriateness of the single-use nature of the land-use (to say nothing of the design of the facility itself, which is unremarkable).

I cannot believe site plans like this are even still being proposed today (oh wait, yes I can... ). It's a giant step back about five decades in terms of what should be expected out of a site like this, especially in the context of Aksarben Village.

Just more regression in progress' clothing...

riceweb · Post by **riceweb** » Tue Oct 16, 2012 3:31 pm

Negative much, Streets?

This is land that is not currently serving a purpose, so even a single use is better than none at all. But two questions:

(1) Why does an arena need to be multipurpose? Are people going to live on top of the arena or are business suites supposed to be littered throughout the complex? I'd argue that it IS in fact a multipurpose recreational area: not only will the facility be used for 3 varsity sports, but intramural sports on campus will also be able to use the facilities

(2) What's wrong with the design itself? UNO is on a budget and can't be expected to dump a quarter billion into a facility just so that it meets your aesthetic demands. I happen to think it looks awesome, and I'm excited to see the finished product

Finally, I'll also comment that this should continue to push development further south. I would hope that someday we could see a continuous urbanized village extending all the way to Grover, and I'm hopeful that this will spark the next round of development that direction.

riceweb · Post by **riceweb** » Tue Oct 16, 2012 3:40 pm

PobodysNerfect wrote:I am all for a new arena, but 7500 seats seems very idiotic. That seems as if they are building the arena for right now. This needs to be a future investment, this needs to last. It needs to be built for the hockey team that one day, I hope, will draw! I think it needs to be at least 1000 more as a minimum, 10K would be a perfect fit for UNO Hockey.

Firstly, this isn't just about hockey. UNO will try to grow basketball and volleyball as revenue producers, and that will be hard with a huge facility. The article mentions how few of those in attendance at hockey games actually pay, and the problem would be worse if basketball and volleyball were in a 10,000+ seat facility.

Secondly, and on the same note as above, the hockey team currently only averages 5,000 paid tickets per game. A move to 7,500 is a 50% jump, which is pretty big jump. Memorial Stadium, even with its 300+ consecutive sellouts, only expanded by about 6% with the East Stadium expansion. On a separate note, what's so wrong with 7,500 every night? It'd be a hot ticket in town. And I assume there'll be suites which they'll have full control, so it won't be like 8,000 at the Civic... they'll still probably bring in waaaayyy more revenue than they did at the Civic just based on all the extras: suites, parking, concessions, etc.

Finally, I'll mention that the capacity of a stadium doesn't really matter. Duke still plays out of a tiny 8,000 seat arena, and they're arguably the most successful basketball program ever:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cameron_Indoor_Stadium

MadMartin8 · Post by **MadMartin8** » Tue Oct 16, 2012 4:07 pm

StreetsOfOmaha wrote:The site plan of this proposal is a total a disaster, not to mention the inappropriateness of the single-use nature of the land-use (to say nothing of the design of the facility itself, which is unremarkable).

I cannot believe site plans like this are even still being proposed today (oh wait, yes I can... ). It's a giant step back about five decades in terms of what should be expected out of a site like this, especially in the context of Aksarben Village.

Just more regression in progress' clothing...

Do you have any joy in your life?

Bob from Omaha · Post by **Bob from Omaha** » Tue Oct 16, 2012 5:07 pm

MadMartin8 wrote:
StreetsOfOmaha wrote:The site plan of this proposal is a total a disaster, not to mention the inappropriateness of the single-use nature of the land-use (to say nothing of the design of the facility itself, which is unremarkable).

I cannot believe site plans like this are even still being proposed today (oh wait, yes I can... ). It's a giant step back about five decades in terms of what should be expected out of a site like this, especially in the context of Aksarben Village.

Just more regression in progress' clothing...

Do you have any joy in your life?

Streets is right. Progress-bad, cramming the people into tenements-good. UNO should go back to one building and a quonset hut. We need the illuminati to tell us all how to live.

Joy? Who needs it? We're on the downhill run to the 7th level of he77!!

StreetsOfOmaha · Post by **StreetsOfOmaha** » Tue Oct 16, 2012 5:15 pm

riceweb wrote:This is land that is not currently serving a purpose, so even a single use is better than none at all.

Again: regression in progress' clothing. This is exactly the attitude that has created the |expletive|-scape that is America. Mr. Christensen even said in the OWH article, something to the effect of "we only get one chance to do this and do it right." Well, he's pretty much 100% right about that, but they are completely blowing that chance.

riceweb wrote:Why does an arena need to be multipurpose?

It doesn't. The site should be, though. That being said, the arena could easily have been moved closer to the street with some sort of public space/plaza/gathering place with active retail/commercial uses. Even as it stands (a single use arena), nothing justifies those flat surface parking lots (even more so with all the water quality issues that are present with the proximity to the creek). As I believe others have mentioned, they could be partnering with developers to subdivide the parcel and build multi-use parking garages. Furthermore, they could be really showcasing this as a venue that is very easy to walk, bicycle, or take transit to (nowhere in the current discourse).

Nope, just more of the same old |expletive|.

riceweb wrote:What's wrong with the design itself?

Nothing is wrong with it. It's just unremarkable (as I said).

MadMartin8 wrote:Do you have any joy in your life?

There is very little to be joyous about in America, which is a trend that will continue to grow exponentially. So no, there is not much joy in my life currently (obviously), and there wouldn't be in many of your lives without your patriotic glasses and your religions. My family, of course, brings me joy, and my wife and I would no doubt draw joy from having children, but we are putting that off until we can have them safely out of this country.

riceweb · Post by **riceweb** » Tue Oct 16, 2012 5:32 pm

StreetsOfOmaha wrote:It doesn't. The site should be, though. That being said, the arena could easily have been moved closer to the street with some sort of public space/plaza/gathering place with active retail/commercial uses. Even as it stands (a single use arena), nothing justifies those flat surface parking lots (even more so with all the water quality issues that are present with the proximity to the creek). As I believe others have mentioned, they could be partnering with developers to subdivide the parcel and build multi-use parking garages. Furthermore, they could be really showcasing this as a venue that is very easy to walk, bicycle, or take transit to (nowhere in the current discourse).

I'd be interested to know how many surface parking spots they add to the site when there are already two large parking garages just north of there. But I agree, it would be better if this could be done without adding additional surface parking.

What I really want to see from UNO/the Aksarben Foundation/the city is a vision for continuing the village further to the south. How will the site look in 15-20 years? Is there a roadmap where the surface parking could be replaced by outcrop buildings?

Now all that said: I'm looking forward to walking to the games there and then walking over to DJs/Ponzu/etc after the game.

StreetsOfOmaha · Post by **StreetsOfOmaha** » Tue Oct 16, 2012 5:44 pm

riceweb wrote:Is there a roadmap where the surface parking could be replaced by outcrop buildings?

Exactly. No, there isn't one. At least there has been no mention of any kind of plans for the future. Besides, thinking you'll just be able to redo everything the right way at some point in the distant future is no way to build a city (or run a government, for that matter...). In fact, much of the pathetic built environment we are stuck with today is the result of just this thinking. As we are experiencing, we don't always have the luxury of redos and do-overs.

riceweb wrote:Now all that said: I'm looking forward to walking to the games there and then walking over to DJs/Ponzu/etc after the game.

Glad to hear it. :)

iamjacobm · Post by **iamjacobm** » Tue Oct 16, 2012 11:28 pm

StreetsOfOmaha wrote:It doesn't. The site should be, though. That being said, the arena could easily have been moved closer to the street with some sort of public space/plaza/gathering place with active retail/commercial uses. Even as it stands (a single use arena), nothing justifies those flat surface parking lots (even more so with all the water quality issues that are present with the proximity to the creek). As I believe others have mentioned, they could be partnering with developers to subdivide the parcel and build multi-use parking garages. Furthermore, they could be really showcasing this as a venue that is very easy to walk, bicycle, or take transit to (nowhere in the current discourse).

I agree with that. I didn't see the aerial plan until just now. It looks like they want to account for their parking needs with their own surface lots, why can't they account the two parking garages right across Center in their numbers? Really it perpetuates the commuter campus mentality.

UNO should take a page from big brother down the road. That arena twice the size found a way to interact with the area around it and put the rest of the immediate parking in garages.

SaOmaha · Post by **SaOmaha** » Thu Oct 18, 2012 12:58 am

I have been following the discussion of planned UNO New arena. Here are image and photo from Sunday World-Hearld Article

http://www.omaha.com/article/20121014/N ... basketball

Location of the Arena

Artist's rendering: view of Arena from 67th Street in Aksarben Village. Stinson Park is on right.

This is the aerial photo of the arena site

This is artist's rendering the arena site.

cp jay 07 · Post by **cp jay 07** » Thu Oct 18, 2012 6:22 am

7,500 is the perfect size for UNO hockey etc., they need to go back to creating a demand for tickets where getting UNO tickets is a big deal like it was at the Civic, at least at the start of the program. Also you wanna eliminate the walk up crowd, you wanna have people coming to get tickets for a Friday night game Wednesday afternoon and be sold out by Friday afternoon, the Storm Chasers wanted that and it has worked great there.

jessep28 · Post by **jessep28** » Thu Oct 18, 2012 7:04 am

A smaller venue will help create more sellouts. UNO hockey has a similar issue with the CLink being too large of a venue that the Royals/Storm Chasers did at Rosenblatt.

iamjacobm · Post by **iamjacobm** » Sat Oct 20, 2012 7:56 pm

There are going to be curling lanes here.

Post by **Brad** » Fri Oct 26, 2012 7:20 pm

Regents approve UNO arena building plan

http://www.omaha.com/article/20121026/N ... lding-plan

Christopher Burbach WORLD-HERALD BUREAU wrote:LINCOLN — A private real estate development firm whose principals include W. David Scott and Zach Wiegert would build an arena for the University of Nebraska at Omaha and lease it back to UNO, under a plan sketched out Friday for NU regents.

The regents voted unanimously to authorize NU President J.B. Milliken to sign a letter of intent to work on the arena with the firm, Scott-Woodbury-Wiegert LLC.

iamjacobm · Post by **iamjacobm** » Fri Oct 26, 2012 7:37 pm

If anyone is curious Woodbury and Weigert are the developers behind Parkhaus and the Yard in Lincoln. I think this will be just the first of more to come from them in Omaha, you will hear more from s2w.

Linkin5 · Post by **Linkin5** » Sat Oct 27, 2012 6:35 pm

iamjacobm wrote:If anyone is curious Woodbury and Weigert are the developers behind Parkhaus and the Yard in Lincoln. I think this will be just the first of more to come from them in Omaha, you will hear more from s2w.

Weigert was formerly working with the Scott brothers (WRK LLC) in Lincoln but had a falling out. Good to see he found a new parter to work with.

MTO · Post by **MTO** » Sat Oct 27, 2012 8:00 pm

I hope they put the logo on the roof for Brad's aerial shots.

Linkin5 · Post by **Linkin5** » Sat Oct 27, 2012 11:58 pm

MTO wrote:I hope they put the logo on the roof for Brad's aerial shots.

That is unlikely but would be sweet. I really like the design of this place, hopefully they don't change it.

Post by **Brad** » Mon Oct 29, 2012 2:26 pm

Linkin5 wrote:
MTO wrote:I hope they put the logo on the roof for Brad's aerial shots.
That is unlikely but would be sweet. I really like the design of this place, hopefully they don't change it.

My Aerials???

MTO · Post by **MTO** » Mon Oct 29, 2012 3:34 pm

You caught that..

PobodysNerfect · Post by **PobodysNerfect** » Thu Nov 01, 2012 1:47 am

cp jay 07 wrote:7,500 is the perfect size for UNO hockey etc., they need to go back to creating a demand for tickets where getting UNO tickets is a big deal like it was at the Civic, at least at the start of the program. Also you wanna eliminate the walk up crowd, you wanna have people coming to get tickets for a Friday night game Wednesday afternoon and be sold out by Friday afternoon, the Storm Chasers wanted that and it has worked great there.

That's not true. I have walked up to every Storm Chasers game I have been too.

I don't think with a fanbase that has been growing and averages 9,000 a game after December that you'd want to eliminate walkup. Me, as a die hard Mav fan, can't go to every game. I work a lot and just can't afford season tickets (plus donations like it was at the Civic). I hate they are going to start shutting fans like me out now. It's going to be all season ticket holders and you are giving your fanbase NO room for growth. I think this is not desirable for Omaha or Maverick Hockey. I guess I will just be watching the games that are on TV from now on.

Post by **Brad** » Thu Nov 01, 2012 2:12 am

I really hope that like the Storm Chasers and Like the Lances, there is room for "Standing Room Only" tickets. I also really hope there is room to expand a thousand seats or so if they ever need it.

PobodysNerfect · Post by **PobodysNerfect** » Thu Nov 01, 2012 5:03 am

Brad wrote:I really hope that like the Storm Chasers and Like the Lances, there is room for "Standing Room Only" tickets. I also really hope there is room to expand a thousand seats or so if they ever need it.

Room to expand would be great!!! Like a couple of my friends, the pointed me to the Mavericks website (omavs.com) and we went back a couple of years. They seem to do well in attendance after December, why they are choosing to build under their ticket average baffles me. I just hope that as time goes on, if they have room to expand they will. I don't want to stop going to Maverick games! (even if I can only make a couple). I don't care much for Creighton or their basketball team, I'm a hockey guy and I love college hockey, looking forward to seeing what the future can bring!

jessep28 · Post by **jessep28** » Thu Nov 01, 2012 5:46 am

I like the berm seating at Werner Park. It allows me to be far away from the guy with the sawed off Sunny D bottle who yells "STIR UP THE STORM" 50,000,000,000 times a game.

Post by **BRoss** » Thu Nov 01, 2012 1:25 pm

I have to imagine that they plan on expansion someday. 7500 is a good number to start at. Just remember that they give away a lot of tickets right now. Once they can fill 7500 seats with all paying spectators, then they can increase the capacity to meet the demand. That's why they didn't start with say 9000 - because then they would still have to be giving away tickets. And I also have to believe that there will still be enough tickets to be able to walk up.

cdub · Post by **cdub** » Thu Nov 01, 2012 3:30 pm

Its a stadium and needs a bunch of parking but even if it cant be structured I'd sure like it so push a little south to allow for something fronting Center. That district would go from great to fantastic if it had a strong presence on BOTH sides of Center.

cp jay 07 · Post by **cp jay 07** » Fri Nov 02, 2012 6:07 am

PobodysNerfect wrote:
cp jay 07 wrote:7,500 is the perfect size for UNO hockey etc., they need to go back to creating a demand for tickets where getting UNO tickets is a big deal like it was at the Civic, at least at the start of the program. Also you wanna eliminate the walk up crowd, you wanna have people coming to get tickets for a Friday night game Wednesday afternoon and be sold out by Friday afternoon, the Storm Chasers wanted that and it has worked great there.
That's not true. I have walked up to every Storm Chasers game I have been too.

I don't think with a fanbase that has been growing and averages 9,000 a game after December that you'd want to eliminate walkup. Me, as a die hard Mav fan, can't go to every game. I work a lot and just can't afford season tickets (plus donations like it was at the Civic). I hate they are going to start shutting fans like me out now. It's going to be all season ticket holders and you are giving your fanbase NO room for growth. I think this is not desirable for Omaha or Maverick Hockey. I guess I will just be watching the games that are on TV from now on.

Don't think you quite understand the situation. First off most of that 9,000 avg. are freebies to make the place half full, UNO has admitted that. And calling UNO a "growing fanbase" is a little off, a growing fan base would not have to tarp off the top of their arena. They need the arena to grow the fan base, the Clink is just not working.

They are not going to start shutting you out, they just want you to buy your walk up tickets earlier instead of having people decide at 6 to head downtown and walk to the box office at 645 and asking for the "cheapest tickets you sell" and sitting in the lower bowl in the empty seats, that's costing UNO money considering they bought tix at the window for 12 bucks but are sitting in maybe 25 dollar seats. Now I don't know when you personally buy your tickets but like I said it's not trying to stop the walk up crowd it's getting the walk up crowd to say on a Wednesday "We should go get tix for the UNO vs CC game Saturday night tomorrow so we don't get left out"

Also they can shut off Season Ticket sales at a certain number to do the same thing with demand and start a waiting list process. Ideal situation would be about 4-5 thousand season ticket holders, the rest available for single games, almost guaranteeing a full house every night.

And I know for a fact you can not walk up to every Storm Chaser game before first pitch to get tickets, there have been bigger games at Werner where they announce a sell out as early as 6.

Post by **Brad** » Mon Mar 04, 2013 11:40 pm

I can't tell for sure, but they are either using the Goldman's Surcharge Dirt and the Hotel Surcharge Dirt to build a Surcharge for the UNO's Arena or they are Stockpiling it were UNO's Arena is going to be...