A new $127-million arena for downtown Evansville was approved by the City Council. Only one major step remains before construction can begin: state approval of the city food and beverage taxes to help pay for the project.
A new $127-million arena for downtown Evansville was approved last night by the City Council, with only one dissenting vote.
Though the vote is technically nonbinding, it does mark a major milestone for those attempting to replace aging Roberts Stadium with a new arena. One major step remains before construction can begin: state approval of the city food and beverage taxes to help pay for the project.
The arena will be funded by tax-increment financing , casino receipts and the aforementioned food and beverage taxes.
The lone dissenting vote came from Jeff Kniese, who argued a project of this magnitude should be put to a public referendum in 2010. The arena project received a lot of bipartisan support, and in the end there really wasn’t much support for Kniese’s position in the community. Because the project is not funded by property taxes, under Indiana law it is not subject to a referendum.
Next up: the approval of the tax diversions, followed by a more detailed financing plan, land acquisition and sale of bonds for the project.
