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New UNO Arena Construction Thread---Facility to open for the start of '15-'16 Season

Re: New UNO Arena Construction Thread---Facility to open for the start of '15-'16 Sea

Red Cows said:
A 7,500 seat rink in this situation is too small. I'll go to my grave saying so. This was a horrendously near-sighted and hasty decision that is going to haunt this program in the years to come. I am far from being the only UNO fan that feels this way, either:

http://huskermike.blogspot.com/2013/09/uno-starts-asking-for-donations-for-new.html

There are some incorrect assertions here (this post is over a year old), but, you get the idea.
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Maintenance and operational costs climb as you get bigger. It's like flying a jet that is too big on a route. Get the capacity wrong and you take a money making route and end up with a loser. Better to go a bit too small than too big.
 
Re: New UNO Arena Construction Thread---Facility to open for the start of '15-'16 Sea

Kdaddy1968 said:
Maintenance and operational costs climb as you get bigger. It's like flying a jet that is too big on a route. Get the capacity wrong and you take a money making route and end up with a loser. Better to go a bit too small than too big.
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Trust me, there is plenty of sentiment here on this side of the ledger as well.

The UNO fan base here is very, very fractionated about this. There are some fans here that think the school shouldn't have done this at all. Every person that I have heard say as much is looking at the expense side of things when saying this, I might add.

I am happy that we are getting our own arena, that the school will have revenue streams from sources it has never heretofore had as a result, that not having one will no longer be used as a recruiting tool against us, and that this is another (big) step on the road to UNO winning a national championship, something that was basically "promised" when the very first puck dropped in 1997. After all, it's the object of the exercise.

As much as I dislike the arena size, I am happy we are getting one as opposed to none at all.

You are correct about the dollars. There are many people here that are skeptical about the revenue projections and this is a dual rink facility.

I think UNO is sleeping giant in college hockey (and, I am positive that Coach Blais thinks so, too), and I don't want to limit ourselves or our program because we were so hasty to get an arena built that we shortsightedly sold ourselves short and aimed too low in our expectations.

No disrespect to any other schools or the cities they are located in, but, this isn't Duluth, St. Cloud, Kalamazoo, Grand Forks, or, Oxford, all of which have less than 100,000 inhabitants. Neither is it Colorado Springs, a bedroom community of Denver that Omaha is far bigger than, nor is it Denver, which is a "major league" city with professional competition for sports dollars that does not exist in Omaha. Omaha is the home to five Fortune 500 companies, and the home of five more companies in the Fortune 1000. In a city with a metro population of 875,000 or so.

From 2005 through 2007, we had UNO playing here in Omaha, the Omaha Lancers, and for those 3 seasons, the Omaha Knights of the AHA. There were a couple occasions where all 3 teams were playing at home on a given weekend night here where, between the 3 venues involved, and there was more than 25,000 people in attendance at these various hockey games here in Omaha. That is a lot of "pent up" hockey interest.

UNO has been in the top 10 in NCAA attendance every year of the program's existence and in most of those seasons, its been in the top 5. Two of those seasons, UNO was an independent, and, after that, a middling CCHA team for most of it's existence thereafter.

If anybody reading this doesn't agree with the "sleeping giant" moniker I gave the program, then explain to me how we are a charter member of the college hockey conference that is widely considered to be the SEC of College Hockey, despite being a program with almost zero hockey legacy. Dean Blais has street cred but I don't believe he has THAT much street cred.
 
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Red Cows said:
Trust me, there is plenty of sentiment here on this side of the ledger as well.

The UNO fan base here is very, very fractionated about this. There are some fans here that think the school shouldn't have done this at all. Every person that I have heard say as much is looking at the expense side of things when saying this, I might add.

I am happy that we are getting our own arena, that the school will have revenue streams from sources it has never heretofore had as a result, that not having one will no longer be used as a recruiting tool against us, and that this is another (big) step on the road to UNO winning a national championship, something that was basically "promised" when the very first puck dropped in 1997. After all, it's the object of the exercise.

As much as I dislike the arena size, I am happy we are getting one as opposed to none at all.

You are correct about the dollars. There are many people here that are skeptical about the revenue projections and this is a dual rink facility.

I think UNO is sleeping giant in college hockey (and, I am positive that Coach Blais thinks so, too), and I don't want to limit ourselves or our program because we were so hasty to get an arena built that we shortsightedly sold ourselves short and aimed too low in our expectations.

No disrespect to any other schools or the cities they are located in, but, this isn't Duluth, St. Cloud, Kalamazoo, Grand Forks, or, Oxford, all of which have less than 100,000 inhabitants. Neither is it Colorado Springs, a bedroom community of Denver that Omaha is far bigger than, nor is it Denver, which is a "major league" city with professional competition for sports dollars that does not exist in Omaha. Omaha is the home to five Fortune 500 companies, and the home of five more companies in the Fortune 1000. In a city with a metro population of 875,000 or so.

From 2005 through 2007, we had UNO playing here in Omaha, the Omaha Lancers, and for those 3 seasons, the Omaha Knights of the AHA. There were a couple occasions where all 3 teams were playing at home on a given weekend night here where, between the 3 venues involved, and there was more than 25,000 people in attendance at these various hockey games here in Omaha. That is a lot of "pent up" hockey interest.

UNO has been in the top 10 in NCAA attendance every year of the program's existence and in most of those seasons, its been in the top 5. Two of those seasons, UNO was an independent, and, after that, a middling CCHA team for most of it's existence thereafter.

If anybody reading this doesn't agree with the "sleeping giant" moniker I gave the program, then explain to me how we are a charter member of the college hockey conference that is widely considered to be the SEC of College Hockey, despite being a program with almost zero hockey legacy. Dean Blais has street cred but I don't believe he has THAT much street cred.
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Been to Omaha on business plenty and the city is marginal at best...
 
Re: New UNO Arena Construction Thread---Facility to open for the start of '15-'16 Sea

The Zlax45 said:
Been to Omaha on business plenty and the city is marginal at best...
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I have no idea what relevance that statement, true or not, has to this discourse.
 
Re: New UNO Arena Construction Thread---Facility to open for the start of '15-'16 Sea

Anyone who thinks building our own arena was a mistake must have slammed their head in a car door. We badly needed to get out from under the mecca thumb. But an alternative would have been to build a bigger arena in Ralston and call it home. With the practice rink there UNO would never have to go far for practice. I also think the football field should have been converted to a baseball stadium. Creighton has the soccer fan base locked up. But at least the athletic dept isn't bleeding anymore.
 
Re: New UNO Arena Construction Thread---Facility to open for the start of '15-'16 Sea

MAVFANJEFF said:
Anyone who thinks building our own arena was a mistake must have slammed their head in a car door. We badly needed to get out from under the mecca thumb. But an alternative would have been to build a bigger arena in Ralston and call it home. With the practice rink there UNO would never have to go far for practice. I also think the football field should have been converted to a baseball stadium. Creighton has the soccer fan base locked up. But at least the athletic dept isn't bleeding anymore.
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You know, it's funny, have you seen the original "Pennant Place" master plan for the Werner Park area? That, originally, had an ice rink as part of this development. When I saw that, my assumption was that UNO would play baseball at Werner Park and that they would play hockey at the arena that was supposedly to be built there. The other school of thought was that this was going to be the arena the Lancers would end up playing in, too.

UNO, location-wise, is far better off where they are going to end up (on campus). NO question.

You are right, to some degree, about Ralston Arena and UNO. If that arena had been built large enough it could have been the home of all arena based UNO sports and the Lancers, besides. It isn't big enough, though, so it won't be, as far as UNO is concerned.

I have head through the grapevine that the reason UNO has not unilaterally cut ties with Ralston Arena as far as sports outside of hockey as yet (they have made no commitment to abandon the facility at all after their arena is built) is because they are unsure of the costs associated with changing over their new venue from sport to sport to sport and to other things. Meaning, hockey to basketball to volleyball to a concert or a graduation or some other such thing. Hockey, as the cash cow, is the A #1 priority and my guess is that no other sports will be played in the new arena until these logistics are all ironed out. The first year the arena is open, you may see nothing but hockey played there.

I respectfully disagree with you, I think it was very logical to convert Caniglia Field to a soccer venue and UNO needs to play baseball at Werner Park, unless they want to/can build a facility on Chili Greens for baseball, something that the arena master plan "wish list" denotes on the other (west) side of the of the Papio from the arena.
 
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Re: New UNO Arena Construction Thread---Facility to open for the start of '15-'16 Sea

Red Cows said:
You know, it's funny, have you seen the original "Pennant Place" master plan for the Werner Park area? That, originally, had an ice rink as part of this development. When I saw that, my assumption was that UNO would play baseball at Werner Park and that they would play hockey at the arena that was supposedly to be built there. The other school of thought was that this was going to be the arena the Lancers would end up playing in, too.

UNO, location-wise, is far better off where they are going to end up (on campus). NO question.

You are right, to some degree, about Ralston Arena and UNO. If that arena had been built large enough it could have been the home of all arena based UNO sports and the Lancers, besides. It isn't big enough, though, so it won't be, as far as UNO is concerned.

I have head through the grapevine that the reason UNO has not unilaterally cut ties with Ralston Arena as far as sports outside of hockey as yet (they have made no commitment to abandon the facility at all after their arena is built) is because they are unsure of the costs associated with changing over the venue from sport to sport to sport and to other things. Meaning, hockey to basketball to volleyball to a concert or a graduation or some other such thing. Hockey, as the cash cow, is the A #1 priority and my guess is that no other sports will be played in the new arena until these logistics are all ironed out. The first year the arena is open, you may see nothing but hockey played there.

I respectfully disagree with you, I think it was very logical to convert Caniglia Field to a soccer venue and UNO needs to play baseball at Werner Park, unless they want to/can build a facility on Chili Greens for baseball, something that the arena master plan "wish list" denotes on the other (west) side of the of the Papio from the arena.
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I'd rather see UNO baseball playing on Caniglia field and UNO soccer playing out at Tranquility Park. Where they play baseball now is a joke. However, a baseball field at Chilli Greens isn't a bad idea. I'm not familiar with where College of St. Mary plays softball but if their facility is lacking maybe UNO and CSM could look at a joint venture. Drove by the new arena today and I'm excited. With this weather we've had they are making serious progress. I just wish someone would get Dodge street done.
 
Re: New UNO Arena Construction Thread---Facility to open for the start of '15-'16 Sea

MAVFANJEFF said:
Every time I drive by there I get excited. After seeing how empty Value city arena looked tonight I really don't think our barn will be too small.
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Were you AT the game tonight?
 
Re: New UNO Arena Construction Thread---Facility to open for the start of '15-'16 Sea

Paid to watch it on B1G. Video quality was pretty good, play by play was too but they commentator kept referring to UNO as Nebraska. The video was so bright I had to turn the brightness down on my TV so I could see the blue and red lines. It was $10 for a 1 month pass which will get me both games. Wish we had a pep band.
 
Re: New UNO Arena Construction Thread---Facility to open for the start of '15-'16 Sea

Quick update.

Here is the only recent picture (from Mavpuck's Twitter account) that I have seen of the arena lately (short of looking at the construction webcam):

https://twitter.com/Mavpuck/status/539076553003782144

I have not been by there to take a look myself in about 3 weeks.

Coach Blais, on his weekly radio show in Omaha last night, did say that the arena construction is far enough along that they are actually taking recruits into the building although he said the roof is not quite yet completely in place, but was very close to being completed.
 
Re: New UNO Arena Construction Thread---Facility to open for the start of '15-'16 Sea

MAVFANJEFF said:
I'd rather see UNO baseball playing on Caniglia field and UNO soccer playing out at Tranquility Park. Where they play baseball now is a joke. However, a baseball field at Chilli Greens isn't a bad idea. I'm not familiar with where College of St. Mary plays softball but if their facility is lacking maybe UNO and CSM could look at a joint venture. Drove by the new arena today and I'm excited. With this weather we've had they are making serious progress. I just wish someone would get Dodge street done.
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Except, look what this decision has netted the school as a result:

http://www.omavs.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=31400&ATCLID=209517782
 
Re: New UNO Arena Construction Thread---Facility to open for the start of '15-'16 Sea

I'm really not trying to troll, and any time you get a new rink it has to be good for college hockey as a whole, but I think you have to be conservative on your projections and I don't think you are. It might be good right now and you might make money, but what happens when you start losing games, which you will at some point, everyone does. All those expenses and an empty rink are not good.

Second, bragging on Omaha?. I don't know about that. Plenty of other things to brag on, but the city itself, maybe not so much. Objectively, it's not that great and it's a long way from anywhere. And sleeping giant, means to me no one knows how good you are, and believe me everyone does.

You have to understand, there is a facilities arms race going on and it has been going on for a while. Everyone is spending to one up the next guy. If it's not a new rink, it's a new something else worth millions of dollars. But everyone is doing it, not just you. I mean just look at the Ralph. A nice rink is good, but it's only a rink after all.

So good for you to get the rink, but well, good luck on the rest of that.
 
Re: New UNO Arena Construction Thread---Facility to open for the start of '15-'16 Sea

Interesting discussion. sleeping giant = obscure blah blah blah marginal:confused: We're not talking about the #1 zoo in the nation, the 3rd lowest unemployment rate, the number of fortune 500 companies here, the CWS, anyway back to hockey rinks. I've been driving by there almost everyday. The Clink is pretty nice for a hockey rink but way too big. It will be great to walk out of the last game we'll have there. We have a lot to be thankful for and to look forward too.
 
Re: New UNO Arena Construction Thread---Facility to open for the start of '15-'16 Sea

Me and Mrs. Red Cows drove by the new arena with the intention of taking some pictures on the day after New Year's, but, there was major street work going on around the arena with what looked to be major concrete pours ongoing and getting as close as I wanted to get was nigh impossible. They had streets actually blocked off that heretofore have not been. I'll try again, soon, and post some shots that give some perspective that you maybe don't get with the construction webcam (link in a number of places earlier in this thread). Nobody has taken any new shots that I have seen since around Thanksgiving.

The building is not quite 100% sealed from the weather but it is clearly very close. There was a veritable army on the roof of the structure Friday although the actual roof appears complete.

Because this is a dual rink, stand alone structure, (and has nothing, really "right around it") it is quite impressive as to it's physical size. Much of the new streets in the area have been built although the the bridge over the Papio Creek is not as far along as they said it would be at this date. This bridge provides access to some of the parking lots on the other side of this creek to the west and the new road, itself, will connect to another way in and out of the area from the south that has heretofore not existed (the road itself being brand new). The supports for the bridge appear to be complete but none of the steel superstructure is yet in place on them and the necessary steel trusses did not look to be on site, either, despite the date for this part of the project supposedly being done having come and gone.

For the uninitiated that are not familiar with the area and the site, it is located in Aksarben Village:

http://aksarbenvillage.com/

..........and the instant this facility opens and out of town fans get a look at this facility, and WHERE it is, it is going to be a home run for anyone that makes the trip and is something that will get a lot of chatter, believe me. Despite the area already being well beyond "critical mass" as far as what is already built down there (the entire area is the former site of Omaha's infamous Aksarben race track), there is still a ton of other construction going on down there. The arena is going to provide the catalyst for Aksarben Village becoming a big competitor of Omaha's Old Market for entertainment dollars in this town, particularly since it is adjacent to the UNO campus and to campus housing, to say nothing of the hotels and apartments that have been built down there, all of which is pretty upscale, I might add.

From a "what's around it to do?" perspective as far as eating, drinking, and entertainment is concerned, for an on-campus facility, all of which you will be able to easily walk to, UNO's new arena is going to have few peers in that regard.

The building is far more beautiful in the flesh than in any rendering of it I have seen. The public rink (read:UNO's practice ice) has floor to ceiling windows that give that part of the structure a pretty stunning exterior appearance. I bet it will be pretty stunning on the inside looking out, too, if you are on the ice for public skating.

Even at "only" 7,500 seats, this is a large, impressive dual rink structure.
 
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Re: New UNO Arena Construction Thread---Facility to open for the start of '15-'16 Sea

New video feature from Nebraska Public Television about UNO's new arena with a significant emphasis in it about how UNO's practice situation here has been used against them in recruiting that includes commentary from Trev Alberts and Coach Blais, both, about the complete ridiculousness of that current practice situation:


http://netnebraska.org/interactive-...rena-coming-fall-2015-maverick-hockey-2014-15


Still haven't sold the naming rights, hence the continued designation here as the "UNO Community Arena"

The video is narrated by Larry Putney of NETV, who, in the very first minute of the video, insinuates that UNO is building this facility because the City of Omaha announced it was closing the Omaha Civic Auditorium. There is no connection whatsoever between these two things and I'd challenge Larry to produce even single individual that would agree with that notion on any level. UNO has not even played a game at the Civic since 2-21-09 (a weekend series with Notre Dame) and that was only played there because of scheduling conflicts at what was was then still the Qwest Center. Frankly, Larry is out of his you-know-what mind even making the statement he does here about this.

Associate Athletic Director Mike Kemp then goes on to say in the video, right after, about the arena, that they "...........(wanted it) to be an integral part of our community and be used by every user group in the community that is an ice based group..........."

That is a pretty laughable statement, really, since the City of Omaha has ponied up millions of dollars of infrastructure at City expense for this facility and that financial commitment was contingent upon the arena being made available 33 percent of the arena’s ice time going for community purposes. Nice to see them patting themselves on the back for "forced benevolence".

Underscoring the whole practice issue theme here is the fact that NONE of the arena interviews or practice scenes in this piece take place at the CenturyLink Center. Very ironic.

In the school's public revenue projections, they are asserting in them that every game will be sold out next season and, if so, will just further buttress my argument about this facility being built too small.

If you've owned a restaurant for the last 17 years, in space you've leased, and an average of more than 7,500 people have shown up to eat there, on a nightly basis, over the course of your ownership, and you then decide to build a restaurant building that you own, outright, are you going to build one that allows you to serve less than what shows up on the the average night?

I think not.

It's a great thing that we are getting our own building and the hockey program is going to become one of the true "haves" in the sport but the size of this facility is going to be an albatross around the neck of this program from the day it opens--UNLESS tickets are priced as ridiculous as everyone fears they are going to be. No pricing structure has been announced as yet.
 
Re: New UNO Arena Construction Thread---Facility to open for the start of '15-'16 Sea

I don't know...we can't draw more than 6,000 as a top 13 team going against top-10 Denver in January when the Huskers are done playing. Something tells me 7,500 might be about right.
 
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