1997
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EDITORIAL WRITING |
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Ames needs to build new sports complex
October 18, 1996 - Let's build a new sports center in town. Let's have it include a great new swimming pool, with all those
things like slides and rafts and a sloped bottom that makes it seem like
you're just walking into a lake or ocean - all those things that turn a
swimming pool into an "aquatic center."
Let's have it include a first class ice arena, with two rinks so
the hockey players can play while the recreational skaters skate, where you
can have hockey tournaments and - with the flip of a switch - indoor soccer
games.
Let's have it include a nifty recreation center, a bright and airy
place with a couple of gyms and all the latest equipment, a place with
glass walls so you could watch the hockey as you work out or glance over at
the swimmers as you line up for a free throw.
Let's have it be a five-way partnership: the city, the university,
private donors, industry and students.
There's a real need for this. There's a perfect place for it.
There's a way to finance it.
The need is clear:
Fifty-seven percent of the people who responded to the latest
"resident satisfaction survey" said they want the city to build an aquatic
center. The current Ames/ISU Ice Arena "has reached the end of its
economic life," a consultant says. And gym use at the Community Center in
City Hall is about as jammed as it can get.
The site is perfect:
The Ames/ISU Ice Arena is operated by the City of Ames on land
owned by Iowa State University. It is just across the road from Gateway
Pool, a small and deteriorating pool that has about 7,500 admissions each
summer but that, like the arena itself, is on its last breaths. Between
the 42 acres of the city-owned Gateway Park and the Dairy Farm land used by
the Ice Arena, there's plenty of space - with a little land juggling by the
university - for a nifty new complex. Ames will continue to grow to the
southwest, and that fact, plus the fact that students from nearby Iowa
State are big users of both the ice arena and Gateway Pool, dictates that
the arena and pool stay in that area.
The financing is possible:
A first-rate complex probably would cost $10 million. If that were
financed by a bond issue - a 12-year issue at 6 percent - it would cost the
owner of a $100,000 home about $66 in extra taxes the first year - that's
18 cents a day - a number that would drop to under $30, or 8 cents a day,
by the 12th year.
But it needn't be financed just by property taxes. Historically,
the Ice Arena has been a partnership among the city, the university and the
citizens. Built in 1978, it was financed by private donations, constructed
on Iowa State land, and managed by the city's Parks and Recreation
Department.
The same partnership could and should continue. The university's
Murray Blackwelder this week offered the services of the ISU Foundation to
see if millions could be raised for the arena portion of a complex. The
city should jump at that offer, for Blackwelder is a master money-raiser.
But the university could go a step further: it is in the midst of a $300
million fund-raising drive, and it could promise to allocate to the complex
the first $4.5 million raised over the $300 million goal - a goal that is
sure to be surpassed.
It's proper that the Foundation help raise money for the arena,
since the main users are the 3,550 university students who sign up each
year for intramural hockey. And while $4.5 million might sound like a lot
of money, put it in perspective: it's less than the university is planning
for its new press tower and skyboxes at the football stadium.
That would cut the $100,000-home owner's cost to $33 the first year
- about 9 cents a day - and $15, or 4 cents a day, in the 12th year.
But that's not all.
Students could help, too. The Government of the Student Body at
Iowa State regularly supports community facilities used by students, from
Cy-Ride to social services. Until recently, it was giving about $500,000
to the university's athletic department, but to save some minority sports
the student group agreed to kick in another $500,000 a year. But now the
athletic department seems to be on firmer financial ground, and if just
$100,000 of that extra were reallocated it would cover the interest and
principal on another $1 million of that $10 million sports center.
That would knock another $6 to $7 off the home owner's tax bill.
Finally, industry could help. There's no particular reason for the
city to operate a recreation center, but there's every reason for one to be
at a new sports complex. Why not contract with an experienced operator -
from Ames or elsewhere - to run the center. The contract could be drawn so
that the lease covers the maintenance and upkeep, assures a reasonable
profit for the operator and amortizes another $1 million or so of the cost.
That would put the property tax portion at somewhere around $23 the
first year - 6 cents a day - and $10, or 3 cents a day, the last year.
That's just the way we figure it. We're sure Steve Schainker and
those smart folks at City Hall could come up with wizardry to cut those
costs even more.
But you get the idea. The university could offer land and
fund-raising expertise. Private donors could come up with the cost of the
arena itself. Students could underwrite another piece. A private operator
could absorb some of the costs. And taxpayers could pay the rest - a
matter of pennies a day.
It could be done.
It should be done.
Let's do it. |
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