It would cost $175 million to create the ideal state fair in Nebraska, a consultant team told the Legislature’s Agriculture Committee Monday.

That includes almost $30 million for an arena that could seat 8,000 people, about the same amount for a new horse-racing track and grandstand for racing fans, and millions more for exhibition buildings and livestock barns.

Absent, by design, from a 90-minute presentation by HOK Smith Forkner of Knoxville, Tenn., and Economic Research Associates of Washington, D.C., was any indication of how the state would pay for such a grand vision.

Barney Cosner, executive director of the fair, was quick to seize on money matters as he reacted to the first phase of a presentation meant to explore the best location.

Looming in the background, and not part of the consultants’ assignment, is a competing vision that would convert State Fair Park to a University of Nebraska-Lincoln technology showcase.

“I just ask the question,” said Cosner, a staunch opponent of moving, of the $175 million figure. “Who has that kind of money?”

The Agriculture Committee is scheduled to hold a second public meeting in November and a public hearing at some point prior to Dec. 15. Then its members will decide what to say to their fellow senators about the fair in January.

Committee Chairman Phil Erdman of Bayard called $175 million “a big number.”

As committee members and an audience of perhaps 100 filed toward the exits at the Capitol, Erdman said it’s too soon to say what form a committee report might take.

“If we can come to a recommendation, we will make one,” he said.

Monday’s format didn’t allow questions or comments from the audience. Erdman noted everybody in the visitors’ seats was seeing the results of consultant research for the first time.

“In my opinion, it’s probably somewhat overwhelming to the committee and to the people that are here,” he said.

The second public meeting in November will offer the consultants’ thoughts on what would need to be done to State Fair Park to make it the ideal setting for the fair.

The public hearing that follows will allow public testimony and give Grand Island, Kearney and other communities a chance to offer proposals for moving the fair out of Lincoln.

Lincoln business leaders organized as the 2015 Visioning Group stepped forward last year to recommend moving the fair to the Lancaster Event Center as a step toward letting UNL occupy State Fair Park.

When state lawmakers got involved earlier this year as owner of the property, they decided to embark on a $150,000 study of the best location, to include possibilities elsewhere in Nebraska.

David Forkner of HOK and Bill Owens of Economic Research Associates divided the task of describing the ideal fair. They used a steady stream of charts, site maps and artists’ renderings to flesh out the ideal and to offer a 15-year cash flow analysis.

“I would say, in certain instances, relocations worked and in others, they didn’t,” said Forkner in his introductory remarks.

Owens noted attendance in Lincoln has rebounded in recent years after dipping from 390,000 in the late 1990s to a low point of 238,000.

It was at the low point Nebraska voters approved Amendment 4 and an annual, multi-million-dollar infusion from the Nebraska Lottery.

“I think the four-year increase in attendance is testimony to the investment made in the event over the last four years,” he said, “and we’re seeing the results here.”

That could have been taken as a statement of support for keeping the fair where it is. But Forkner later pointed to decisions in Virginia, Georgia, Colorado, Florida and other places to move similar events.

“There are a number of fairs that have been relocated,” he said. “That’s the trend.”

The common source of motivation was the various kinds of property development that had grown up around what had once been a relatively rural setting.

No matter where the Nebraska fair is held, the consultant team said it would be reasonable to expect the equivalent of 25 percent of all Nebraskans to attend it on an annual basis.

That would push the total turnout toward 450,000.

Iowa attendance works out to about 33 percent. The current Nebraska showing is about 16.1 percent.

In offering his initial reaction to the briefing, Erdman was careful to note the $175 million figure assumes building a fair from the ground up.

“It’s building all of it from scratch at one time. And that’s what a hypothetical model would be.”

Jerry Fitzgerald of Gering, president of the State Fair Board, said an envisioned array of new buildings surrounding an expansive events lawn was “a beautiful facility, but it’s exactly what we’ve been saying. We always thought it would cost in excess of $100 million to do anything.”

Cosner said “a very, very minor portion” of the overall cost could be subtracted if the fair moved to a site where it could use the adjoining Lancaster Event Center.

But he cited problems with access, nearby lodging and other support services. “Those aren’t there.”

Reach Art Hovey at 523-4949 or at ahovey@alltel.net.