Roller skating championship will need new home in Lincoln

But nearly every other year the event returned to Lincoln, and for participants, Pershing Center is home.

Most summers, we've counted on roller skaters filling Lincoln hotel beds and downtown sidewalks for the better part of a month while competing in the USA Roller Sports national championships, which, largely unknown to most Lincoln residents, has a significant economic impact.

The city the athletes consider home is changing, though. Lincoln still has the National Museum of Roller Skating, but soon it won't have a floor inside Pershing where figure skaters on wheels can dance and speed skaters can really roll.

This year's roller skating national championship from July 2 to Aug. 2 is the last major event on the books of the Pershing Center. Pershing is not booking events past Aug. 31.

It's possible the championship could move to the new Pinnacle Bank Arena for 2016, but even by lowering curtains to make the arena look and feel smaller, it would be a very large venue for the roller skating championship.

The three main players -- arena officials, USA Roller Sports and the Lincoln Convention and Visitors Bureau -- will meet over the coming months to figure out if the championship can still make a go of it in Lincoln.

“We’re still up in the air about that, and not really sure,” said Richard Hawkins, the executive director of USA Roller Sports. “We’ve talked with the locals here, and we’ll probably see how the new arena would work out for us, but we really don’t know since it’s so much larger and our event is not one that can fill that facility. We don’t know.”

The 2015 national championship is scheduled for Albuquerque, and by this summer Hawkins would like to have a decision on whether the championship will return to Lincoln in 2016.

The championship is contested every year, and most of the time rotates between Lincoln and another host city. There have been times it’s been held in Lincoln in consecutive years.

This year will mark the 27th national championship in Lincoln. It could attract 1,200 figure skaters, 800 speed skaters and 500 roller hockey players, along with their families, coaches and officials. Most come from out of state.

The event's estimated economic impact is more than $3 million.

“It’s a huge event,” said SMG's Tom Lorenz, who manages both Lincoln arenas. “It takes up at least 24 consecutive days of usage. We get athletes from all over the country, so not only does it keep Pershing very busy, but it keeps a significant number of hotels in Lincoln, both in downtown and on some of the outskirts, very busy with guests.”

Pershing has been a good home for the championship. The arena floor is large enough to hold the special wood surface used by skaters. The city owns the floor, which has become known as a fast surface capable of producing record times. Pershing's basement is a good place for vendors.

But several of the reasons participants enjoy coming to Lincoln -- the proximity to hotels and restaurants and not needing to rent a car and pay for parking -- would remain if the roller sports championship moved to the new arena. Some of the best years for participation in the national championships have come in Lincoln due largely to its central location and the familiarity that comes with repeats visits.

“When you have people that have been coming since 1962, there are a lot of coaches and officials who competed in Lincoln who now are parents and have kids that are competing,” Hawkins said.

Lincoln is also convenient for USA Roller Sports because its staff of 10 is based here.

If USA Roller Sports wants to return to Lincoln, Lorenz said he’d be ready to enter into negotiations.

“It’s a large chunk of time, but it’s also an important event to Lincoln,” he said. “We try to weigh those opportunities, and any time when you can rent your facility every day for a significant amount of time it’s a good thing.

"It’s just ... what other things can’t you do during that time frame? Is it worth missing a concert in the middle of everything for an event, or if there is a concert booked can we take the floor out for two days, do the show and come back in? It’s all those different things. I don’t think it’s an impossibility, but we haven’t been faced with that yet.”