Ron Kantowski would love to tell you Omaha has shown Las Vegas the best way to get a shiny, new, publicly financed arena — but he can’t

By Ron Kantowski (contact)

Wednesday, March 26, 2008 | 2 a.m.

It’s cold, there’s not a lot to do and if you don’t finish your beer by 1 a.m., they’ll shine a bright light in your eyes and rip it right out of your hands, as if it were a Nebraska football ticket on the 40-yard line.

But say this about Omaha. They do like their sports.

They’ve got a beautiful, state-of-the-art arena and we certainly don’t have one of those, although we talk about it a lot.

And it appears they soon may be getting a state-of-the-art stadium in which to play the College World Series and minor league baseball. We don’t have one of those, either. We don’t even talk about one of those anymore.

During a nine-day period this month the Qwest Center in downtown Omaha hosted a Bruce Springsteen concert and the first and second rounds of the NCAA Midwest Regional.

I wasn’t there for Springsteen, but I’m sure it was a great show, even if he didn’t sing “Nebraska.”

I was there for the basketball games. Although none was closer than 13 points, every seat was filled, and even if the Kansas fans are primarily responsible for that, the bottom line is the bottom line. The one at Omaha is going to have a big, fat black number on it, which should make the NCAA very happy when Omaha’s name comes back up in the bidding rotation.

So why does Omaha, with its boarded-up warehouses, have a state-of-the-art arena when Las Vegas, with its gulches made of glitter, does not? The simple reason: They think live sports are more important than we do.

The Qwest Center, which opened in 2003, was financed mostly with public funds. So will the baseball stadium, if it comes to pass.

Every time Mayor Oscar Goodman hears the term “taxpayer financing,” he starts stuttering like a Bachman Turnover Overdrive record. The reason we ain’t seen n-n-n-n-othin’ yet in the way of an arena or a stadium is, first, they cost a ton of money. And the World’s Happiest Mayor wants to stay that way.

Part of the reason he’s the World’s Happiest Mayor is his constituents don’t complain about footing the bill for a new arena or stadium. The other part is probably the Bombay Sapphire talking.

As much as Mayor Goodman wants major league sports to be part of his legacy, the taxpayers have spoken.

And as much as I’d like to tell you that Omaha is the perfect case study for how to build an area with public funds, I can’t.

The Qwest Center, which has a basketball seating capacity of more than 17,000, a 194,000-square-foot exhibition hall and 62,000 feet of meeting space, was built for $291 million. In 2000, Omaha voters passed a $216 million bond issue, with the rest of the financing coming from private sources.

Omaha Mayor Mike Fahey assured taxpayers there would be no increases. So far, there haven’t been any.

Check back in 2013.

According to a story in Sunday’s Omaha World-Herald, revenues and financing at the Qwest Center have come up short, meaning a tax increase will most likely be needed to satisfy the construction debt. That’s why the proposed downtown stadium, which would be built alongside the Qwest Center, is facing opposition.

If you’re wondering what a state-of-the-art College World Series ballpark that would seat 25,000 spectators costs these days, the price tag in Omaha is $139.79 million. The financing plan would use money derived from keno and increased taxes on hotel rooms and rental cars.

People in Omaha are upset with me for complaining about the rolled-up sidewalks during the NCAA Tournament. But the way I see it, my bill from the Omaha Hilton gives me the right to take a couple of shots, seeing that under the NCAA guest room rate of $148, there were state occupancy ($7.70) and city occupancy ($5.92) charges.

The occupancy taxes are one of the revenue streams — seven in all — that were used to finance the Qwest Center. When combined with the state sales tax, they turned my $148-a-night hotel room into a $172.39-a-night hotel room.

Now I know why all those Kansas fans drove back and forth between games.

Tourists are usually the first to foot the bill for projects such as these and I guess I understand — but really don’t believe — the reasoning that if we keep taxing hotel rooms and rental cars, a guy and his wife from ... well, let’s just stay with Omaha ... would stop coming here and instead spend their vacation money on a riverboat casino in Council Bluffs.

But I must say that after nearly being suffocated on the narrow concourse at the Thomas & Mack Center while trying to buy a hot dog at the Mountain West Conference tournament, it sure was nice to spread out with plenty of breathing room in a real arena.

In Omaha, of all places.