With nine months to go before the spring city election, supporters of a broad arena development proposal west of the Haymarket are ready to make a public push.

They’ve made some changes to the proposal — such as moving a planned ice arena into the Haymarket, pushing the train tracks farther away and apparently nixing the convention center.

And they’ve selected two prominent spokesmen to help their campaign: Mayor Chris Beutler and Tom Osborne, University of Nebraska-Lincoln athletic director.

Osborne likely will be on the radio, urging people to offer their input, but university officials still haven’t formally committed to moving their basketball teams to a new arena.

Still, UNL Chancellor Harvey Perlman said the Devaney Center is outdated and inadequate for recruiting purposes.

If the arena isn’t built, Devaney will need significant updates, he said.

“We have a high level of interest in the arena for men and women’s basketball,” he said.

The city has worked with architects, developers and engineers to put together layouts for the public to consider.

On Sept. 3, the public will be invited to Memorial Stadium’s West Stadium Clubhouse to see renditions of how a new arena and its surrounding amenities might look.

After the meetings this fall to engage the public, financing and other details should be nailed down and put on a platter by December. The City Council then will be asked to put the arena package on the ballot. And if it agrees, the public likely would get a chance to vote on the issue in May.

So supporters have come up with three maps that offer a menu of options for what could go where, because this proposal is about much more than just a new arena to replace Pershing Center.

The proposal includes three parking garages that could be combined with stores, restaurants or condos, the Breslow Ice Center southwest of Lincoln Station and festival space.

It’s a whole new vision for about 150 acres that hug the Haymarket — on the land where Lincoln sprouted.

While some of the developers who submitted proposals did not see a need to move the main rail lines, the latest proposal moves them west, allowing a straighter shot so trains can maintain their speed.

The city’s point man on the arena, Kent Morgan, said the city and railroad companies — Burlington Northern Santa Fe, Union Pacific and Amtrak — have a “strong understanding that this is a workable solution.”

BNSF is the largest landowner in the targeted area.

BNSF spokesman Steve Forsberg said the company is open to giving up land for the development as long as railroad operations are “kept whole” in terms of track relocation. The company is developing engineering and cost estimates for moving the tracks.

“There is certainly a willingness on the part of BNSF and U.P. … to work with the city on a project that we recognize is very, very important to the future of the community,” Forsberg said.

“Philosophically, we’ve indicated quite strongly to developers and the city (that) we’re more than willing to work with them.”

Ambitious as it is, the proposal no longer includes a standalone convention center. (An arena is for big events such as concerts; convention centers are for meetings and conferences.)

Although earlier plans envisioned a $20 million, 70,000-square-foot convention center as part of the package, the convention center doesn’t even appear on latest maps.

Enthusiasm for a convention center has waned since March, when a Minnesota consultant said the city’s existing conference space is ample to handle state and regional events, and the return wouldn’t justify the “very, very high” cost of a new convention center.

After that, arena supporters began referring to the convention center as a “conference center.”

Morgan said conference space in the one to three hotels that will be built near the arena should be ample when paired with space in the arena itself.

“We’re continuing to rethink it,” Morgan said of the convention space. “The last thing we want to do is commit public dollars to a facility that’s not going to be successful.”

Reach Deena Winter at 473-2642 or dwinter@journalstar.com.