You build it, we’ll play in it.

That was the message Tom Osborne gave chamber of commerce folks Wednesday during a noon luncheon.

“We will play basketball there unless something major shifts,” the University of Nebraska-Lincoln athletic director told a crowd of suits and pantsuits.

He and Mayor Chris Beutler explained the arena proposal and took questions from the chamber crowd.

City officials want to replace the 50-year-old Pershing Center with a new arena west of the Haymarket. Lincoln voters are expected to vote on the proposal in May.

The Husker basketball teams would likely play in the arena, and build a new practice facility nearby. A new venue for men and women’s basketball would help with recruiting and propel the men’s program up from “the middle of the Big 12,” Osborne said.

“We would like to be very competitive in basketball,” he said.

A new venue generally pumps attendance up by 15 percent, he said. A new arena could help attract regional NCAA events or perhaps the volleyball Final Four, Osborne said.

UNL is the only school in the Big 12 that doesn’t have a dedicated practice facility for its basketball teams, he added. The Athletic Department would have to raise money to pay for the practice facility, which would cost roughly $15 million.

The university now loses about $2 million annually operating the Bob Devaney Sports Center, Osborne said. If the basketball programs moved to a new city arena and attendance picked up, “we would lose less,” he said.

Nancy Kenny, chief financial officer for the Athletic Department, said men’s basketball generates a surplus, but the cost to operate Devaney and other sports adds up to about a $2 million deficit.

Whether the city builds a new arena or not, Osborne said the Devaney Center will need about $10 million in upgrades. Track, wrestling, gymnastics and swimming teams would continue to be housed there, he said.

If a new arena isn’t built, about $30 million in improvements would be made to Devaney, including the construction of suites and corporate seating.

Osborne said if a new arena is built and the Devaney schedule opened up, some former Pershing Center events could be held at Devaney.

Beutler credited Osborne with helping initiate discussions with the world’s largest sports marketing company about the possibility of financing the arena for Lincoln. Osborne is well-acquainted with the company, IMG College, because it handles media and marketing for the Athletic Department.

In June, the department signed a 13-year contract with IMG worth up to $113 million — one of the largest contracts of its kind. Osborne said IMG does what it says it will do, and has “good people.”

“So far our relationship with IMG has been very good,” he said.

IMG created a joint venture company, International Stadia Group, to privately finance arenas in the United States. ISG is conducting a feasibility study on whether it could finance a new home for the Kentucky Wildcats.

The company is also running numbers on the Lincoln market, and Osborne said a decision from ISG should come within a few weeks.

“They feel reasonably good about it,” Osborne said.

He said if the company can guarantee UNL and the city a certain amount of revenue, and still make money, it just might work.

If ISG were to pay for the arena, taxpayers would be off the hook for about $160 million. Taxpayers would still likely be asked to approve up to $90 million for parking garages, surface parking, land, railroad realignment and other costs.

ISG plans to finance arenas through a private equity fund set up by investment bank Goldman Sachs. Despite the economic turmoil swirling nationally, Osborne said, “If they say they can do it, I’m quite certain they can do it.”

Osborne said ISG may have talked to some chamber members already, to gauge interest in skyboxes and naming rights.

Beutler said by year’s end, the city will have renderings of the arena and its amenities, will have a financing plan and have agreements to buy the land if voters approve the deal.

Most of the land is owned by Burlington Northern Santa Fe, which has promised cost estimates by early December, Beutler said. He expects the city to have the land under contract by the end of the year.

Beutler said a “substantial campaign” promoting the arena will begin next year in the months leading up to a vote.

“We can win this thing,” he said.

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