Alliance Sports and city leaders announced plans Thursday to build a state-of-the-art soccer stadium for Union Omaha. The stadium is part of a $300 million, 18-acre "mixed-use project" along Abbott Drive. Construction of the stadium, which will cost $60 million and with a capacity of 7,000, is slated to start in fall 2024 and open in spring 2026. The plans also include adding a women's soccer team in the future for Omaha, according to developers.
Alliance Sports said the project is pursuing "legislation inclusion" in the Sports Arena Facility Financing Assistance Act, which would add $25 million in funding for the stadium over 20 years. The 18 acres of land were purchased from Gallup and are located in downtown Omaha.
This is cool and all — but the city again fails to create a vibrant, walkable neighborhood. This is too far away from the existing sports venues to create any true cohesion downtown. How do people go from this new thing to literally anything else downtown? That walk will be abysmal. The city should have just bitten the bullet and built MECA a parking garage so that this could have gone on Lot B.
Great for the east half of the city to get this — but sprawl is sprawl.
dearl wrote: Thu Jan 25, 2024 1:08 pm
This is cool and all — but the city again fails to create a vibrant, walkable neighborhood. This is too far away from the existing sports venues to create any true cohesion downtown. How do people go from this new thing to literally anything else downtown? That walk will be abysmal. The city should have just bitten the bullet and built MECA a parking garage so that this could have gone on Lot B.
Great for the east half of the city to get this — but sprawl is sprawl.
Excellent! Love the stadium design. And that there are residential and retail components to this plan, as well as the additional pitches/pickleball courts around the stadium, to keep the area active outside of the season/game days.
I would love to see more improvements, or at least some beautification along Abbot, heading west from the stadium, to better connect this development to Millwork.
Has there been any mention about the stadium being expandable in the future?
dearl wrote: Thu Jan 25, 2024 1:08 pm
This is cool and all — but the city again fails to create a vibrant, walkable neighborhood. This is too far away from the existing sports venues to create any true cohesion downtown. How do people go from this new thing to literally anything else downtown? That walk will be abysmal. The city should have just bitten the bullet and built MECA a parking garage so that this could have gone on Lot B.
Great for the east half of the city to get this — but sprawl is sprawl.
you mean that pedestrian bridge to Millwork Commons? Or that it's less than a 10 min walk to the new Noddle development, the CHI, riverfront parks? 15 min walk to capital district/old market? Less than 10 min walk to the Streetcar line that can take you to the rest of downtown and out to blackstone?
I think this is a great spot. Encourages more growth in millwork, on top of what this brings. A great 'Front Door' to downtown Omaha, and can serve as a current bookend to filling in the north downtown area between this development and old market.
dearl wrote: Thu Jan 25, 2024 1:08 pm
This is cool and all — but the city again fails to create a vibrant, walkable neighborhood. This is too far away from the existing sports venues to create any true cohesion downtown. How do people go from this new thing to literally anything else downtown? That walk will be abysmal. The city should have just bitten the bullet and built MECA a parking garage so that this could have gone on Lot B.
Great for the east half of the city to get this — but sprawl is sprawl.
you mean that pedestrian bridge to Millwork Commons? Or that it's less than a 10 min walk to the new Noddle development, the CHI, riverfront parks? 15 min walk to capital district/old market? Less than 10 min walk to the Streetcar line that can take you to the rest of downtown and out to blackstone?
I think this is a great spot. Encourages more growth in millwork, on top of what this brings. A great 'Front Door' to downtown Omaha, and can serve as a current bookend to filling in the north downtown area between this development and old market.
It's more like a 30 minute walk to the Old Market from there. It's not as close as you think.
Look, I'm all for walking and downtown development. But if the walk isn't activated, people aren't going to do it. It's psychology. That was why Cap District was so important — it finished the walk from the Old Market to North Downtown/Arena. It made the walk feel like it took less time — which means more people will make the walk.
I can't see how that will happen on Abbott Drive. There's no way to activate that — it's a massive bridge. And the pedestrian connection they propose dumps people into a massive parking lot that isn't going away any time soon. Walking down Riverfront to Baby Bob is slightly better, I guess — but again, one entire side of it can't be developed and what's there to walk by is largely residential. It's easy to say 'just walk' — but if the walk isn't inviting or active or stimulating, it doesn't work.
Sheees this things almost in Carter lake. I’m all for it though the infill will come in do time. A circulator may help in the mean time. I love they optimizing the river front to this extent. The drive down the string-of-pearls will be impressive in a few years.
I see people probably walking from places like Session Room, Blatt, Mattress Factory, etc. Those will be the gameday hangouts for the new venue. It is still better than the lack of options out West. There is literally nowhere you can walk to there.
And, moving from USL League 1 to Championship isn't necessarily hard. You just have to have a facility. USL League 1 was essentially built for cities to get into pro soccer that wanted an opportunity but didn't have a facility. A city the size of Omaha with a facility like they are proposing will be welcomed into Championship with open arms.
dearl wrote: Thu Jan 25, 2024 1:08 pm
This is cool and all — but the city again fails to create a vibrant, walkable neighborhood. This is too far away from the existing sports venues to create any true cohesion downtown. How do people go from this new thing to literally anything else downtown? That walk will be abysmal. The city should have just bitten the bullet and built MECA a parking garage so that this could have gone on Lot B.
Great for the east half of the city to get this — but sprawl is sprawl.
you mean that pedestrian bridge to Millwork Commons? Or that it's less than a 10 min walk to the new Noddle development, the CHI, riverfront parks? 15 min walk to capital district/old market? Less than 10 min walk to the Streetcar line that can take you to the rest of downtown and out to blackstone?
I think this is a great spot. Encourages more growth in millwork, on top of what this brings. A great 'Front Door' to downtown Omaha, and can serve as a current bookend to filling in the north downtown area between this development and old market.
Hopefully, the streetcar will be extended up to Lot D (if not further), which would be less than half a mile from the stadium.
The most recent announcement was to shorten the northern leg to allow more options for future expansion. I hope a main reason for that pause was a question about where this stadium would be. Now that it is finalized the stadium's location, the streetcar can be built out to service it. I'd hope for a stop by Lot D, then to go over Cass for a stop in the Millwork Commons.
Linkin5 wrote: Thu Jan 25, 2024 2:47 pm
The design is really nice. The only negative I’ll say is any of the CHI parking lots would have been a much better location.
I think you’d have to pry those out of MECA’s cold, dead hands.
Linkin5 wrote: Thu Jan 25, 2024 2:47 pm
The design is really nice. The only negative I’ll say is any of the CHI parking lots would have been a much better location.
I think you’d have to pry those out of MECA’s cold, dead hands.
Very true, I have a feeling the lots are going to stay undeveloped for a long time. Really hope I am wrong.
nebport5 wrote: Thu Jan 25, 2024 10:40 am
Ok, I'll say it. The argument for the streetcar to the airport gains momentum.
Again, still not going to happen. Have you looked at construction costs per mile of the streetcar. The city isn't going to back that unless there is major development along the route. As mentioned several times, a streetcar is not a quick mode of transportation and therefore not a good use to the airport.
Yes we've discussed that at length in the streetcar thread. And I'm not saying it will or should happen but this a step in the direction of redeveloping Abbott Dr and with that I expect the streetcar chatter to increase. For this project to best succeed being an "island" development isn't ideal. It'll be interesting to see what comes of the land east of Millwork.
For what it's worth, when I lived DT I walked home from the airport once just to see what it was like. It wasn't that bad in terms of time but the lack of pedestrian infrastructure sucked.
HskrFanMike wrote: Thu Jan 25, 2024 10:25 am
So there's going to be a second 7,000 seat soccer stadium in north downtown... 3/4 of a mile from an existing (checks figures) 6,000 seat soccer stadium...
/shrug
An existing $6k seat soccer stadium owned by a private entity who, from what I hear, has no interest in sharing said facility. Keep that in mind. Just because something exists doesn't make it workable or usable for another group.
FTFY.
A proposed 7k seat soccer stadium by a private entity who, based on a 15+ year track record, has no interest in sharing another facility if they can get somebody else to give them money to build them a new one.
dearl wrote: Thu Jan 25, 2024 1:08 pm
This is cool and all — but the city again fails to create a vibrant, walkable neighborhood. This is too far away from the existing sports venues to create any true cohesion downtown. How do people go from this new thing to literally anything else downtown? That walk will be abysmal. The city should have just bitten the bullet and built MECA a parking garage so that this could have gone on Lot B.
Great for the east half of the city to get this — but sprawl is sprawl.
did you not see this picture?
there's a pedestrian walk way on the west side that connects to a big parking lot, there is a parking lot and walking path to the southwest, and a parking lot directly to the south of the stadium, both of which are connected by walk ways. Yeah, it's not smack-dab in the geographical center of downtown, but not everything can be. If you wanted, you could park in one of the lots, walk over to the front of the CHI center and take the street car anywhere else you want to go. It's honestly not that far. If you've ever been to a major city, you cover a lot more ground on foot to get places than you do in Omaha.
Plus, there's a riverfront trail nearby. As much as it's not used by millions, it's still a convenient trail that can loop to the downtown park which people can use if they're willing to make the walk. It would be cool though if they decided to polish up that area as well especially with investment of the stadium. It'd be a dream if they expanded some recreational trails nearby to go towards freedom park and maybe make that a small little attraction as well.
dearl wrote: Thu Jan 25, 2024 1:08 pm
This is cool and all — but the city again fails to create a vibrant, walkable neighborhood. This is too far away from the existing sports venues to create any true cohesion downtown. How do people go from this new thing to literally anything else downtown? That walk will be abysmal. The city should have just bitten the bullet and built MECA a parking garage so that this could have gone on Lot B.
Great for the east half of the city to get this — but sprawl is sprawl.
you mean that pedestrian bridge to Millwork Commons? Or that it's less than a 10 min walk to the new Noddle development, the CHI, riverfront parks? 15 min walk to capital district/old market? Less than 10 min walk to the Streetcar line that can take you to the rest of downtown and out to blackstone?
I think this is a great spot. Encourages more growth in millwork, on top of what this brings. A great 'Front Door' to downtown Omaha, and can serve as a current bookend to filling in the north downtown area between this development and old market.
It's more like a 30 minute walk to the Old Market from there. It's not as close as you think.
Look, I'm all for walking and downtown development. But if the walk isn't activated, people aren't going to do it. It's psychology. That was why Cap District was so important — it finished the walk from the Old Market to North Downtown/Arena. It made the walk feel like it took less time — which means more people will make the walk.
I can't see how that will happen on Abbott Drive. There's no way to activate that — it's a massive bridge. And the pedestrian connection they propose dumps people into a massive parking lot that isn't going away any time soon. Walking down Riverfront to Baby Bob is slightly better, I guess — but again, one entire side of it can't be developed and what's there to walk by is largely residential. It's easy to say 'just walk' — but if the walk isn't inviting or active or stimulating, it doesn't work.
Any chance the streetcar line could be extended up to soccer stadium/entertainment district? I know that's a "late add" to the original project, but it could help with moving people to and from it (and fingers crossed, would all come online together in 2026).
MTO wrote: Thu Jan 25, 2024 1:56 pm
Sheees this things almost in Carter lake. I’m all for it though the infill will come in do time. A circulator may help in the mean time. I love they optimizing the river front to this extent. The drive down the string-of-pearls will be impressive in a few years.
I challenge you all to walk from Harney St up to Millwork Commons. Downtown Omaha is not as big as car people think it is
There's always the option to grab a heartland bicycle and ride anywhere you want to in the area.
I will add that the location, when announced this morning was a little disappointing, until I seen the layout and additional ped bridge. This will be awesome for north downtown once completed!
MTO wrote: Thu Jan 25, 2024 1:56 pm
Sheees this things almost in Carter lake. I’m all for it though the infill will come in do time. A circulator may help in the mean time. I love they optimizing the river front to this extent. The drive down the string-of-pearls will be impressive in a few years.
I challenge you all to walk from Harney St up to Millwork Commons. Downtown Omaha is not as big as car people think it is
It’s a 30 minute, mile and a half walk from 11th/Howard to the new stadium area. Certainly doable, but not something I’d go out of my way to do before or after a game like that.
MTO wrote: Thu Jan 25, 2024 1:56 pm
Sheees this things almost in Carter lake. I’m all for it though the infill will come in do time. A circulator may help in the mean time. I love they optimizing the river front to this extent. The drive down the string-of-pearls will be impressive in a few years.
I challenge you all to walk from Harney St up to Millwork Commons. Downtown Omaha is not as big as car people think it is
I guess I don't really understand all the criticism that this is receiving from an access/accessibility perspective. This proposed development is on currently unused land in north downtown, just sitting empty. It is also a 10-15 minute walk from Millwork (which we all laud), Charles schwab, CHI arena/convention center, and looks like it would be a pretty straight forward expansion for the streetcar which could very easily take you close to wherever you would want to go in downtown. Sure, we could have just taken parking lots that the city does not have a right to take and put it there, or we could have bulldozed part of midtown, or (which seems more likely) this could have wound up in the burbs nowhere near walkable neighborhoods or transit.
I would also like to point out that Millwork is not within walking distance of the old market, or the rest of downtown. Guess we just should stop redeveloping it. Charles schwab isn't in walking distance of downtown or the old market, guess it was a mistake to build it in the first place. N 16th and N24th aren't in walking distance of downtown, no reason to make neighborhood improvements.
There are valid critiques of this new development and ways that it can be improved both prior to and after construction, but to see it as anything other than overwhelmingly positive is just being unhappy with anything.
I like the design of the soccer stadium, it looks pretty sweet, and that view is great. Reminds me of the Steelhouse. I'm also very curious about the hotel that is supposed to be built up against the stadium. It makes me think of Rogers Centre in Toronto with the Marriott built into the stadium. I doubt it'll end up being like that though.
But I have to agree with others that walkability here is just not all that great and that the development will be a little isolated, at least until adjacent development comes along. It's not so much an issue of can you walk here from other parts of downtown, it's more a matter of would you want to? I'm personally more inclined to walk places than drive if it makes sense, but man, that would be a boring walk from downtown with all those parking lots and brownfields along the way. You could take the Riverfront Trail, but that may be a bit circuitous.
"Video game violence is not a new problem. Who could forget in the wake of SimCity how children everywhere took up urban planning." - Stephen Colbert
MTO wrote: Thu Jan 25, 2024 1:56 pm
Sheees this things almost in Carter lake. I’m all for it though the infill will come in do time. A circulator may help in the mean time. I love they optimizing the river front to this extent. The drive down the string-of-pearls will be impressive in a few years.
I challenge you all to walk from Harney St up to Millwork Commons. Downtown Omaha is not as big as car people think it is
I assume I'm known as one of the bigger walking / biking enthusiasts here, so I'll chime in.
I've done the walk from downtown to Hotshops. Its not great, its not terrible, I wouldn't expect more than a handful to be willing to do it.
But, it's not all bad either. From the OM its a ~30 minute walk on google. For me, probably 25 ish, but we'll use the maps figures.
Or the #4 bus is 20 minutes.
If you hop off the ORBT, the 16 is 11 minutes.
And of course, I'd expect places like Embassy Suites to run shuttles... Maybe Metro will run some express routes on game day?
Couldn’t ask for a better location and awesome district they are creating and the welcome news they’re moving up a division. Thought it was interesting they mentioned a future academy which would be great for youth soccer players having to leave for KC. Very impressed with renderings but expect it to change with costs.
HskrFanMike wrote: Thu Jan 25, 2024 10:25 am
So there's going to be a second 7,000 seat soccer stadium in north downtown... 3/4 of a mile from an existing (checks figures) 6,000 seat soccer stadium...
/shrug
An existing $6k seat soccer stadium owned by a private entity who, from what I hear, has no interest in sharing said facility. Keep that in mind. Just because something exists doesn't make it workable or usable for another group.
FTFY.
A proposed 7k seat soccer stadium by a private entity who, based on a 15+ year track record, has no interest in sharing another facility if they can get somebody else to give them money to build them a new one.
Ok. If you're so smart, tell me something: What's Creighton's motivation to share their facility?
Would they cede their scheduling dates for their men's and women's teams for Union Omaha? There would be significant overlap in both the spring and fall, not only for game dates but practice time. Creighton does not have a secondary dedicated practice field. Would Creighton lease a practice field for their teams? The pro team would want precedence.
Do they want the wear and tear on their field for an extra 40 dates a year between a Union Omaha men's and womens team?
Who gets the concession revenue? Does Creighton try to pocket all of Union Omaha's sales because it's their facility?
Does this jeopardize their non-profit status on that facility/land because they are now in business making money with a professional sports franchise?
Does Creighton let Union Omaha put a Hoot The Owl statue next to Billy Bluejay? Will Union Omaha be allowed to deck out Morrison in their colors? Will Creighton replace the seats to be a more neutral color than white and blue?
It's all fun and games to live in la la land and think these two entities want to share a facility, let alone can make it workable. Once you look at the actual logistics, the fantasy falls apart.
I am all for continued development downtown. But after just receiving my new property tax statements, I hope the city isn't paying for it. If these ideas are so great, they should be able to financially support themselves.
Elkhorn_Urbanist wrote: Thu Jan 25, 2024 9:46 pm
I guess I don't really understand all the criticism that this is receiving from an access/accessibility perspective. This proposed development is on currently unused land in north downtown, just sitting empty. It is also a 10-15 minute walk from Millwork (which we all laud), Charles schwab, CHI arena/convention center, and looks like it would be a pretty straight forward expansion for the streetcar which could very easily take you close to wherever you would want to go in downtown. Sure, we could have just taken parking lots that the city does not have a right to take and put it there, or we could have bulldozed part of midtown, or (which seems more likely) this could have wound up in the burbs nowhere near walkable neighborhoods or transit.
I would also like to point out that Millwork is not within walking distance of the old market, or the rest of downtown. Guess we just should stop redeveloping it. Charles schwab isn't in walking distance of downtown or the old market, guess it was a mistake to build it in the first place. N 16th and N24th aren't in walking distance of downtown, no reason to make neighborhood improvements.
There are valid critiques of this new development and ways that it can be improved both prior to and after construction, but to see it as anything other than overwhelmingly positive is just being unhappy with anything.
Just to clarify — the city absolutely has a right to those parking lots. The city owns them. MECA manages them. Big difference.
swgiust wrote: Fri Jan 26, 2024 8:57 am
I am all for continued development downtown. But after just receiving my new property tax statements, I hope the city isn't paying for it. If these ideas are so great, they should be able to financially support themselves.
The mayor did say in the conference, that there are no financial commitments from the City, though it's expected that they will seek TIF.
MTO wrote: Thu Jan 25, 2024 1:56 pm
Sheees this things almost in Carter lake. I’m all for it though the infill will come in do time. A circulator may help in the mean time. I love they optimizing the river front to this extent. The drive down the string-of-pearls will be impressive in a few years.
I challenge you all to walk from Harney St up to Millwork Commons. Downtown Omaha is not as big as car people think it is
It’s a 30 minute, mile and a half walk from 11th/Howard to the new stadium area. Certainly doable, but not something I’d go out of my way to do before or after a game like that.
you live in NYC and a 1.5 mile walk is something you wouldnt do? How do you live out there?
Martie Cordaro was on 1620 this morning. He said the goal is to be open in 2026 because of the World Cup that is in the United States in 2026. Hoping to host a team here for the World Cup.
This site is actually the second site. They looked at 27 sites and picked on, that deal fell through about 11 months ago. So then they looked at 50 sites before settling on this site.
Elkhorn_Urbanist wrote: Thu Jan 25, 2024 9:46 pm
I guess I don't really understand all the criticism that this is receiving from an access/accessibility perspective. This proposed development is on currently unused land in north downtown, just sitting empty. It is also a 10-15 minute walk from Millwork (which we all laud), Charles schwab, CHI arena/convention center, and looks like it would be a pretty straight forward expansion for the streetcar which could very easily take you close to wherever you would want to go in downtown. Sure, we could have just taken parking lots that the city does not have a right to take and put it there, or we could have bulldozed part of midtown, or (which seems more likely) this could have wound up in the burbs nowhere near walkable neighborhoods or transit.
I would also like to point out that Millwork is not within walking distance of the old market, or the rest of downtown. Guess we just should stop redeveloping it. Charles schwab isn't in walking distance of downtown or the old market, guess it was a mistake to build it in the first place. N 16th and N24th aren't in walking distance of downtown, no reason to make neighborhood improvements.
There are valid critiques of this new development and ways that it can be improved both prior to and after construction, but to see it as anything other than overwhelmingly positive is just being unhappy with anything.
I agree. And Millwork commons would really appreciate having something nearer to it other than just old market traffic. I mean, Benson is a happenin' area too, but I don't base whether i go there or not on how close it is to the old market. I think we all need to change a bit of how we think about stuff like this. If you want to be closer, you can walk to your car and drive to the parking garage off of 10th & Jackson and walk into the old market. There are plenty of parking options, just not that they are all free. And honestly, when I visited NYC, we walked (literally) like 20 miles a day in order to see everything we wanted to see. Is Omaha NYC? Of course not. But if you go to a city to visit, most people don't just park in one spot and expect to see everything from there. If that were the case, no one would visit the durham, the joslyn, etc, either.
Brad wrote: Fri Jan 26, 2024 10:00 am
Martie Cordaro was on 1620 this morning. He said the goal is to be open in 2026 because of the World Cup that is in the United States in 2026. Hoping to host a team here for the World Cup.
This site is actually the second site. They looked at 27 sites and picked on, that deal fell through about 11 months ago. So then they looked at 50 sites before settling on this site.
Brad wrote: Fri Jan 26, 2024 10:00 am
Martie Cordaro was on 1620 this morning. He said the goal is to be open in 2026 because of the World Cup that is in the United States in 2026. Hoping to host a team here for the World Cup.
This site is actually the second site. They looked at 27 sites and picked on, that deal fell through about 11 months ago. So then they looked at 50 sites before settling on this site.
