The topic of conversation this week with the NJCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament in town is upgrades and improvements to the Hutchinson Sports Arena.
All this beginning with the talk last year that the NJCAA could move the tournament elsewhere at the end of its current contract if some improvements are not made to the arena.
We spoke with Hutchinson City Manager John Deardoff after the Chamber Breakfast Wednesday morning about the study of the Sports Arena which he says has just begun. “We started meetings Monday of this week and met with the different stake holder groups, users of the facility, Hutchinson Community College, the American Legion and the NJCAA. Just the different groups that use the facility on an annual basis.” So what did they talk about? Deardoff says they ask those groups to brain storm on what they see as potential improvements to the Arena. He says that’s underway and they will continue those conversations over the next couple of months, then he says the architects will get busy putting cost to some of these concepts and ideas. He says once that’s done, then they’ll bring all that back together and go through some sort of priority process as they move forward.
Of course any upgrades or improvements could come at a hefty cost. Deardoff says they have options for financing, but they’re not really focused on that part of the study at this point. He told us, “certainly that will have to happen and there will be different options that we could look at.” He says it will depend on whether they decide they need to do any upgrades all at one time over phase them in over a period of time. He says “that would certainly dictate what kind of financing would be available which ever you would choose there.”
NJCAA Executive Director Mary Ellen Leicht when she spoke with Eagle Radio told us these discussions are a partnership on improving the Arena for not only the tournament, but for year-round use.
Lee Ann Cox with the Chamber Of Commerce says improvements to the Arena would help bring other events to the city. She says there are a lot of sporting events that could be held at the Arena, however some would need some of the improvements talked about. She says they have come up with a preliminary list of about 25 different activities if the city would choose to make some of the upgrades that have been talked about.
Those would include upgrades to the bathrooms, to the entrance, additional space for hospitality, media rooms, graphic changes and painting. But, another that seems to keep coming up is air conditioning. Cox says in her mind that is very high priority. She says they can’t even talk to anyone about a facility that isn’t climate controlled, which of course would include air conditioning.
The NJCAA has a contract keeping Men’s National Junior College Basketball Tournament in Hutchinson through 2017. That includes an option for another 5-years after that, but that’s certainly up in the air at the moment.
We’ll continue to follow this story and any future talks on the study and potential cost.