By Jimmy Nesbitt, Evansville Courier & Press
A group of architectural consultants will review eight Downtown sites as possible locations for a new multipurpose arena to replace Roberts Stadium.
The sites include the Civic Center parking lot; two lots around the old Greyhound bus station on Sycamore Street; the D-Patrick Ford-Executive Inn properties and the D-Patrick Ford parking lot, both on Walnut Street; and three others.
Jim Swords, principal for HOK Sport, said the sites will be compared objectively using criteria such as economic effect, acquisition costs, parking and traffic flow.
"We basically line out all the pertinent issues we think are important," Swords said. "Then we evaluate each site side by side."
The Evansville Redevelopment Commission approved a resolution on Tuesday to pay HOK Sport, Hunt Construction Group and London Witte Group about $300,000 to give what one city official called the information needed to make the "ultimate decision" in the arena debate.
Their report is due by November, said Tom Barnett, director of the Department of Metropolitan Development.
The city should be in a position by early December at the latest to make a decision. A portion of the consulting fees may be refunded if the arena is not built, Barnett said.
"It looks like we'll have an opportunity to, perhaps, build this arena without having to raise taxes," Barnett said. "That's what (Mayor Jonathan Weinzapfel) has said all along. That's what we're trying to get to. This is a process that gets us those answers. It's a continuation of what we've been doing since we've started."
The sites identified by HOK Sport also were mentioned in Gateway Consultants' report that recommended construction of a new multipurpose, 10,000-seat arena Downtown.
Gateway estimated an arena that size would cost about $92 million. The size and seating capacity of the arena must be decided before Hunt Construction can calculate the cost accurately.
Swords said he plans to engage everyone who has a stake in the arena project - the city, the University of Evansville and University of Southern Indiana and the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp. - to make that decision.
Seating capacity has been a subject of much debate since the Roberts Stadium Advisory Board began meeting last year.
The board did not settle on a specific number of seats, choosing instead a range between 9,000 to 11,000. Some board members have said they would like the arena to have more than 11,000 seats.
"We have an arena that presently seats some 12,000 folks," said Redevelopment Commission member Les White, referring to Roberts Stadium. "And we're looking at (one) that's going to be brand-new and seat 10,000. I guess my concern is that I would like to see Evansville build for the future. ... I'm getting hammered by people in the community who want to know what ... we're doing."
Swords, whose company has participated in arena projects worldwide, said debates over seating capacity are common. He pointed out that a successful minor league hockey team in a larger market draws an average of about 6,500 people per game.
Gateway suggested Evansville pursue a minor-league hockey franchise to be one of the major tenants of the new arena.
The UE men's basketball team draws about 5,000 fans a game, Swords said.
"There's a saying in the architecture business, 'You don't build for Easter Sunday because it's too expensive.' And these buildings are very, very expensive buildings."
The National Football League historically built stadiums that seated up to 80,000 fans, Swords said.
Today's stadiums are in the 65,000-seat range.
"You always want to have a hot ticket," Swords said. "So the days of building as big as you can possibly build are over, even in larger markets."
Swords said HOK will be working in conjunction with Evansville firms Hafer Associates and VPS Architecture.