Consultants say existing parking, traffic routes ideal for new Evansville arena

By Jimmy Nesbitt, Evansville Courier & Press

A presentation of possible sites Wednesday for an arena to replace Evansville's aging Roberts Stadium focused on Downtown locations, where the city could take advantage of existing parking, multiple traffic routes and possibly spur economic development with new businesses and existing ones.

Tom Chema and Patrick Zohn, both of Gateway Consultants, reached that conclusion after studying 11 sites in Vanderburgh County, eight of which were located Downtown.

Their discussion at Wednesday night's Roberts Stadium Advisory Board meeting leaned toward three Downtown sites as the most attractive: The Civic Center parking lot and two sites around the old Greyhound bus station on Sycamore Street.

The Civic Center parking lot would be the cheapest option, Chema said. The city already owns the 8.8-acre lot that has 1,400 parking spaces. A 10,000-seat arena would need 3.5 acres to 4 acres, so that would reduce the amount of the surface parking by half, to about 700.

The reduction in parking would not be a significant concern, Zohn said, because of the amount of existing parking available within a radius of several blocks. Zohn estimated a 10,000-seat arena would need 4,200 parking spaces within a six-block walk. Downtown has approximately 8,300 parking spaces, of which 5,658 are privately owned and 2,642 are publicly owned.

Advisory Board member Joe Kiefer asked Zohn whether the site would have enough parking to handle events occurring at the same time at both The Centre and the new arena.

"I think the inventory you have is sufficient to handle that overflow," Zohn said.

Zohn said that would be an ideal situation because SMG, which operates The Centre and also would operate a new stadium, could market a convention with an entertainment act at the arena, allowing the facilities to take advantage of each other.

The consultants presented two versions for the old Greyhound bus station, both of which would incorporate the historical building into the design of a new arena.

The first site would be bordered by Sycamore, Fourth and Second streets and bisected by Third Street. Its assessed value is $1,944,800.

The second location is close to the old post office, a building known for its distinct design. It also would be close to Casino Aztar. Zohn said further studies need to be done to determine whether "they (would) feed off each other."

The second site is similar to the first, only it is rotated 90 degrees. It would be bordered by Sycamore, Third, Court and Second streets and bisected by Vine Street. In this design, the old bus station could be a prominent part of the arena, serving as the main ticket booth, a gift shop, a restaurant or sports pub.

The old bus station would be on a corner in this design, whereas it would be in the middle of a block in the first Greyhound site.

The location is "still within relatively easy walking distance of The Centre," Zohn said. "It certainly has some advantages aesthetically that you might not have elsewhere."

Zohn used four criteria to judge the sites - parking and transportation access, the ability to accommodate the footprint of the arena, the acquisition cost and whether the location would be a destination or a city site.

Locating a stadium near the Lloyd Expressway or Interstate 164, for example, would not necessarily create the easiest traffic flow for people coming to and from an event. Traffic tends to bottleneck when a packed arena empties solely onto a large roadway. Traffic in a Downtown arena, by comparison, exits using multiple routes.

Studies have shown people driving to their first event at a new Downtown arena find routes they prefer and then continue to use them when they return for future events, Chema said. That way, one route doesn't become too crowded, he said.

Some sites were ruled out simply because they didn't have enough capacity to handle a new arena. Other sites studied would be more difficult to acquire because they have multiple landowners, Zohn said.

Not included in the acquisition costs were expenses associated with demolishing an existing building.

One of the sites where that would figure in heavily is the Executive Inn-D Patrick Ford site. The 4.6-acre site is assessed at $5.3 million, but the hotel would need to be demolished to make room for an arena.

One of the non-Downtown sites that had been discussed was building an arena at the current Roberts Stadium site, 10.76 acres of city-owned property.

The site would have plenty of room for parking if the stadium was razed. But, as has been the case with the stadium, it's unlikely that any new businesses would open surrounding a new arena, the consultants said.

The city has not made a decision whether to build a new arena or renovate Roberts Stadium. If the city decides to build, there are several options for the future of the stadium, Chema said. For the most part, cities that have built a new arena have demolished the old one. The city could also: