Updated Downtown Arena

[Boston Red]

Too late for UC to cancel plans to fix up the Shoe? If they do a good job with the remodel, it seems like a much better plan to let someone else spend the money and just play downtown.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMLpobd6AWI&feature=player_embedded

[Caveat Emperor]

Looks cool.

I have no idea how/why they're going to privately finance a project like that with no year-round professional or major college sports tenant to use the place. I suspect there will be a public ask, at some point.

[Cyclone792]

Just saw this, and I'm also wondering how this will happen without a marquee permanent tenant, such as an NBA team.

[bucksfan2]

Just saw this, and I'm also wondering how this will happen without a marquee permanent tenant, such as an NBA team.

How many events could a new arena get? That would be my biggest question, its past time for the US Bank arena to be put to pasture, but I don't see where the funding comes from.

[Chip R]

How many events could a new arena get? That would be my biggest question, its past time for the US Bank arena to be put to pasture, but I don't see where the funding comes from.

I agree. They could try to get the taxpayers to foot part or most of the bill but there's no real incentive to get them to do so. The Cyclones could threaten to leave and that would be a shame but I can't recall a city being held hostage for a new arena/stadium by a minor league team. The only other thing would be is if they could get an NHL and/or and NBA team in there. As long as Seattle doesn't have a team, I doubt if Cincinnati is going to leapfrog over them to get one. As for the NHL, the favorites for either an expansion team or a relocated team are Vegas and Quebec City.

You may be able to get a team in a better minor league than the Cyclones. There's indoor soccer and, of course, Arena Football. You could get the NCAA to bring the basketball tournament here for the first round or sweet 16 games. IIRC, they haven't been here since the mid 80s - IU's last championship team. They already get monster trucks, concerts and the WWE. But unless you had the NHL or NBA saying, "If you build it, we will come" I doubt the public is going to want to put up any money for it.

[BillDoran]

Just saw this, and I'm also wondering how this will happen without a marquee permanent tenant, such as an NBA team.

9525

[Roy Tucker]

US Bank Arena has been skipped for many years now by the big rock and country acts. For the most part that is. They still get the occasional act, but most of them go around us to Lexington, Columbus, Louisville, Indy, and even Dayton.

[Caveat Emperor]

I doubt enough concerts can be scheduled to justify that level of renovation. What they're describing sounds like a complete gut job and rebuild. That's an easy 9 figures.

[paintmered]

I doubt enough concerts can be scheduled to justify that level of renovation. What they're describing sounds like a complete gut job and rebuild. That's an easy 9 figures.

It might be more attractive financially if they can somehow convince UC to move basketball off campus. While they're moving towards renovating 5/3rd (and have raised 1/3 of the money for it already), they aren't past the point of no return. The conceptual drawings are impressive. But agreed, that's a tough sell for public funding otherwise.

[dabvu2498]

Kansas City opened at $276 million arena in 2007 (while also keeping Kemper Arena open), so it's not totally unheard of.

Other newish arenas without a major pro tenant: Louisville, Omaha, Tulsa, Little Rock, off the top of my head.

Hosting NCAAs would be a big deal. Hosting a conference tourney would be a big deal.

I'm not sure what the cost-return would need to be for this to be a good deal for the public, but just having that eyesore off the riverfront would be worth something.

[KronoRed]

NKU's new arena still looks better.

[sdwagers]

US Bank Arena has been skipped for many years now by the big rock and country acts. For the most part that is. They still get the occasional act, but most of them go around us to Lexington, Columbus, Louisville, Indy, and even Dayton.

BB&T arena at NKU gets a bunch of acts these days. No one plays US Bank hardly, and the Gardens are far worse.

[Eric from NC]

I don't know the capacity for the remodel, but there does seem to be a nationwide sweet spot for new arenas in the 8-12 K range. There a lot of concerts that can't fill a 20k arena. This size also works well with conference basketball tourneys and AAA Hockey. I know in South Carolina both N. Charleston and Greenville have been successful with arenas in that range. It also can work well with large conventions to have a big place for a key note speaker, even if other events are at the convention center.

[reds1869]

I don't know the capacity for the remodel, but there does seem to be a nationwide sweet spot for new arenas in the 8-12 K range. There a lot of concerts that can't fill a 20k arena. This size also works well with conference basketball tourneys and AAA Hockey. I know in South Carolina both N. Charleston and Greenville have been successful with arenas in that range. It also can work well with large conventions to have a big place for a key note speaker, even if other events are at the convention center.

They are looking at 18,500 for the new arena (with a ton of suites). That is exactly the size of Nationwide Arena in Columbus and is 4K smaller than the Yum! Center in Louisville. Both of those arenas get major concerts that pass Cincinnati by.

[Caveat Emperor]

It's all somewhat academic, because they can't levy a property tax or a sales tax to pay for this without a vote, and there's minimal chance that the taxpayers of Hamilton County (after years of hearing over and over about how bad of a deal the Bengals/Reds stadiums were) will pass a tax levy for a new arena.

As a music lover, it does stink that concerts seemingly always hit Indy, Louisville and Columbus without coming to Cincinnati -- but it isn't worth another line item on my property taxes to ensure Taylor Swift can have a local concert date.

And as for the convention / sports angle? Even with a new arena, Cincinnati is way down on both the NHL and NBA's expansion list (I'd put them no better than 5th in line for either league), so you can forget about ever luring a full-time professional tenant to the building. UC and Xavier both want their games on campus, so cross them out too. I can see the appeal of hosting an NCAA regional or a conference tournament, but those are events that wouldn't happen in Cincinnati yearly -- and it would take a lot of those to ever pay back the investment. That leaves conventions, but how many of those require an arena to be held?

Simply put, these facilities are almost always a bad deal for taxpayers -- and they're even worse deals when you have a building that's going to sit idle 90+% of the year.