Omaha (KPTM) - The details are finally out. After months of planning, and criticism over secrecy, Mayor Mike Fahey and the stadium committee have outlined plans for the proposed stadium in downtown Omaha.
Mayor Fahey started out by apologizing for keeping the details under wraps, but says the city had a duty to make sure the NCAA was informed first.
When the city started talking about a contract renewal for the College World Series in the summer of 2006, the city floated the idea of significantly renovating Rosenblatt in exchange for a long term contract. At that time, the NCAA suggested the city consider a new stadium.
Once the stadium committee was formed, it looked at eight different sites downtown, a new stadium at the Rosenblatt site, and different renovation plans at Rosenblatt.
Tradition was the major thing working for Rosenblatt, but the committee says there were too many cons.
It says the CWS would be homeless for a year, as would the Omaha Royals for two seasons, and parking for the zoo would be severely limited.
The committee says it is convinced that a state-of-the-art downtown stadium in Qwest Center lots C and E was necessary.
"The committee, after evaluating all the facts and figures, agreed to present a single proposal to the NCAA, which we did yesterday," says CWS of Omaha Inc. President Jack Diesing. "Rosenblatt was a good option, but the downtown stadium is the best option."
Another factor in the committee's decision was money. Looking at the committee's estimates, a new stadium would cost $127 million. Renovating Rosenblatt would cost about $72 million. But the committee believes there will be much more private contribution - almost $43 million - for a new stadium than there would be for a Rosenblatt renovation, which they say would only raise about $16 million.
A new stadium is also expected to make much more money over twenty years. With all that considered, the committee says a new stadium and a renovation of Rosenblatt would cost the public just about the same amount of money: just over $59 million.
"Our community would get a new state of the art stadium with a longer design life for essentially the same cost the public as the renovation of a 60-year-old stadium," says Stadium Committee Chairman Ken Stinson.
The city plans to pay for the public funding with a controversial 1% increase in the hotel tax, a $2 per car increase in the car rental tax, Keno funds that will no longer go to Douglas County, and money saved from paying off the debt on Rosenblatt.
The city also promises to replace all parking spots lost to the stadium within a comparable walking distance to the Qwest Center. And a traffic study shows no significant change in delays for the CWS as compared to a large event at the Qwest.
"Now is the time to join together as one community and with one voice to tell the NCAA that Omaha should be the permanent home of the College World Series," says Omaha Mayor Mike Fahey.
Fahey and Stinson made a number of comparisons to the building of the Qwest Center. Early on many people were against it, but now it enjoys a pretty high level of public support.
Public Forum Discussions
South Omaha
March 6, 2008
7 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Laritzen Gardens Great Hall
North Omaha
March 8, 2008
10 a.m. to Noon
Omaha North High School
4410 N. 36th St.
Gymnasium
Midtown Omaha
March 10, 2008
7 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Westside High School
8701 Pacific St.
Auditorium
This is a very different kind of project and it remains to be seen how the public is going to react to all of the new information. There are thousands of pages of documents to look through on a website, www.omahastadium.com.
Omaha leaders say the NCAA seemed to be satisfied with the plans, and now wants to see a community consensus built. The deadline for exclusive negotiation for the CWS is the end of April, but it seems as though the NCAA might be willing to give a little leeway on that, given the scope of this plan.
