Plan for ice rink expected Thursday

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By MELISSA LEE / Lincoln Journal Star

Leaders of 2015 Vision, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the city of Lincoln are set to announce a “major gift” Thursday that will help fund a new downtown ice arena that supporters hope will accommodate the city’s booming interest in ice-related sports.

The source of the multimillion dollar gift — someone with Lincoln roots — will be revealed during a ceremony at 1:15 p.m. Thursday at Embassy Suites, 1040 P St.

In the meantime, ice enthusiasts say, you might want to start saving for a new pair of skates.

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“(The new ice arena) means we can take ice sports to a whole different level than we’ve been able to in the past with the kind of facility we’re going to get,” said Mark Champion, assistant coach of the UNL men’s ice hockey team and part of a years-long grassroots effort to bring more ice to Lincoln.

“It’s going to be huge for the city of Lincoln.”

The arena will be near Haymarket Park as part of the “sports triangle” promoted by 2015 Vision. It’s slated to include two sheets of ice, offices, locker rooms and other state-of-the-art features.

When it opens — neither a timetable nor a cost for the project was available Wednesday — it will be open to the public.

“This is something that a 2-year-old all the way up to a 100-year-old can enjoy,” said Will Scott, principal at real estate development company WRK LLC and another longtime supporter of a new ice arena.

University, city and sports leaders long have clamored for the facility, saying it would ease pressure on the Ice Box at State Fair Park, home of the Lincoln Stars.

In addition to the Stars, the Ice Box hosts the UNL men’s and women’s ice hockey teams, UNL intramural teams and skating times for the university and city communities.

Because of the squeeze, the men’s team is forced to play home matches in Fremont, and the women’s team practices as early as 6 a.m. Broomball — by far UNL’s most popular intramural sport — often stretches until 2 a.m.

Making matters worse, the Ice Box is only open about eight months a year.

“I can’t believe that Lincoln doesn’t have a year-round sheet of ice,” Scott said.

The idea of adding a second arena gained steam about a year ago when 2015 Vision and the NU Foundation lent support, Scott said.

Now, with a donor’s help, it appears that idea will become a reality.

For Champion, a former hockey player himself, the arena is a long time coming.

“This is kind of the epitome for me,” he said. “It’s been a long, hard road.”

He and others have community interests in mind, too.

Tournaments hosted at the arena would bring big dollars to Lincoln, Scott said, as visiting families sleep at hotels, eat at restaurants and tour the Haymarket.

And he said special programs will be set up to allow under-privileged children to skate, too.

As for the Stars, their facility isn’t in any danger, even if UNL succeeds in its quest to acquire State Fair Park to convert the land into a research campus — a project also supported by 2015 Vision.

UNL’s concept plans for State Fair Park call for the Ice Box to stay where it is.

And Stars President Jim Pflug said he’d be on board for a new arena.

“I think that there’s definitely some benefits to having more ice available to the city,” Pflug said.

“There are times here when one sheet just is not sufficient to accommodate the demand. Our hope would be that if they’re moving forward with it, that would lead to more interest in ice-related sports and hockey and that would ultimately benefit us.”

Reach Melissa Lee at 473-2682 or mlee@journalstar.com. Staff writer Brent Wagner contributed to this report.