The Omaha Lancers are skating to Ralston in 2012.
At a press conference Tuesday morning at Ralston City Hall, Ralston Mayor Don Groesser and Lancers President Ben Robert announced that the junior hockey team will make the move to Ralston's planned $25 million, 3,500-seat sports and entertainment complex at 72nd and Q Streets.
“Ralston couldn't ask for a better partner in this project,” Groesser said. “We're extremely excited to be able to bring the Lancers home.”
The Lancers will have a lease option at Ralston's venue for 10 years — the team signed a five-year lease with a five-year renewal option.
The move represents the second in Robert's leadership of the Lancers. After moving the team back to Omaha from its Council Bluffs location in 2009, he said he's been looking to bring the team to a dedicated home.
“The Lancers are returning to 72nd Street, to midtown Omaha, to the place where we belong,” Robert said.
The Lancers began play in Omaha in 1986 at the Hitchcock Ice Arena before moving to the Ak-sar-ben Coliseum, just north on 72nd and Pacific Streets.
Tuesday's announcement is a key piece to moving the project forward. Construction is scheduled to start in the spring and finish by late summer or early fall of 2012. The project still needs approval of Ralston voters; that vote is likely in March 2011.
Groesser and Robert have been in talks about the move since earlier in the year when the city started working on getting financing help from the Nebraska Legislature. Lawmakers approved a bill that widened the scope of the so-called turnback tax, the funding mechanism Ralston hopes will pay for a sizable portion of the arena project. The turnback tax allows the arena project to capture the additional sales taxes generated in the vicinity to pay building costs.
The Lancers are in their second season at the Omaha Civic Auditorium, after the brief sojourn in Council Bluffs.
The Civic, an 8,200-seat venue, has been deemed to large to attract the kind of crowds Robert hopes to see for his team. He said the move to Ralston will benefit both the team and fans.
“The Civic Auditorium has been a great venue for the Lancers over the last two seasons,” Robert said. “But the arena in Ralston will be an optimal size to create the enthusiasm and energy for the team. The atmosphere will definitely be electric.”
Robert said the Lancers will fulfill the remainder of the contract with the Metropolitan Entertainment and Convention Authority — through the Lancers' 2011-12 season — then be primed for the move to Ralston.
Groesser had been pushing to get the sports and entertainment complex built by the fall of 2011, but those plans were revised when a two-stage development plan for the project was determined to be unfeasible for bond funding.
Groesser and the city have decided the original plan, to build a 3,500-seat arena with two sheets of ice and 16,000 square feet of retail space, would be the best way to proceed.
The Ralston City Council earlier this month authorized the mayor to seek the issuance of $4.5 million in bonds for purchasing and leasing the ground at 72nd and Q Streets — the site of the former Lakeview Golf Course in Ralston — from the land's current owners, CFM Realty.
Ralston is in the process of firming up those contracts with CFM as the realty company continues to grade and prepare the land for construction.
Copyright ©2012 Omaha World-Herald®. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, displayed or redistributed for any purpose without permission from the Omaha World-Herald.
