By JIMMY NESBITT, Evansville Courier & Press

nesbittj@courierpress.com

The anticlimatic conclusion of the Roberts Stadium Advisory Board meeting has created a whole new round of questions for Evansville city leaders.

To no one's surprise, the board on Wednesday recommended building a Downtown arena, the same advice Gateway Consultants gave the city in its long-awaited report six days earlier.

The report offers an abundance of details about Roberts Stadium, comparable cities that have built arenas and ideas for funding a new arena. But its financial projections and estimates are just projections and estimates.

Gateway estimated that a 10,000-seat arena would cost around $92 million. But actual costs can't be determined until a plan for a new arena is created with specific dimensions and lists of amenities.

Advisory Board President Wayne Henning is scheduled to meet with Mayor Jonathan Weinzapfel within the next two weeks to discuss the recommendations.

Weinzapfel said Thursday that if city officials decide to continue looking at building an arena, the next step is to hire an architect and a financial consultant. Since doing both would require spending city money, the City Council would have to approve those decisions.

The architect would draft a rough sketch of the proposed arena and make estimates of its cost distinct from those that came from Tom Chema, the consultant from Gateway.

"This would be sketching out what you want," Weinzapfel said. "It doesn't have to go to the final design."

The financial consultant would have the more important task of finding the best way to pay for the project. If city officials then still want to build the arena, they will have to approach different government boards to secure the needed financing. For instance, any plan to issue bonds would have to gain the approval of the City Council. The County Council would have a say in any attempt to use food-and-beverage taxes.

Several city councilmen attended the final advisory meeting, including Jeff Kniese, R-1st Ward. Kniese said the biggest question for him is how will Evansville pay for an arena?

Kniese said he will refrain from supporting the project until he is convinced there is a prudent means of financing it.

City Council President Keith Jarboe, D-at large, who also was at the meeting, said there weren't any surprises in the board's recommendation. Jarboe said it will be key for the city to determine the size of a new arena. The Advisory Board said the arena should have between 9,000 and 11,000 seats.

Jarboe said most of the people he has talked to who are in favor of a new arena believe it should have more seats than Roberts Stadium. The stadium's capacity is 11,600.

"The stadium is just one more piece of the puzzle that creates our community," Jarboe said. "When you look at it, you can't say that one industry makes Evansville successful, or that one set of jobs or that one set of quality-of-life issues makes Evansville successful."

The Advisory Board made nine main recommendations and four minor ones. In addition to the seating capacity and assurance on funding, the board concluded that city leaders should:

  • Hire experts to prepare financial projections that assess the viability of the new arena without negatively affecting property taxes.

  • Confirm that naming rights for a new arena will net $14 million, the amount projected by Gateway.

  • Negotiate a contract with the University of Evansville that does not significantly increase UE's cost for using the arena.

  • Study the economic impact of the location of a new arena and build it to leverage the potential impact. A specific site has not been recommended.

  • Address parking and traffic concerns.

  • Decide what to do with Roberts Stadium. Gateway suggested the city consider turning it into a water park. The board did not recommend a specific use.

    Staff writer Dan Shaw contributed to this report.

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