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LINCOLN - Nebraska football boosters have contributed $15 million in cash and pledges toward stadium expansion, 37.5 percent of the $40 million goal set by NU Athletic Director Steve Pederson more than five months ago.
"I'm pleased with that, considering what we've been through," University of Nebraska-Lincoln Chancellor Harvey Perlman said Friday. "I don't think that's the end of it." It is the first word on contributions from NU officials since Pederson and Perlman announced plans for the $50 million facility on Nov. 6. Since then, Husker Nation has been through a range of emotions with the firing of Head Coach Frank Solich and most of his staff and the hiring of former Oakland Raider Coach Bill Callahan to take Solich's place. News of the contributions comes as Husker fans are expected to turn out in record numbers - more than 50,000 - to see Callahan's West Coast offense unveiled today in the annual spring game. Perlman said the university has reached agreement with Sampson Construction Co. of Lincoln to build the stadium addition and indoor practice facility according to the original specifications and for the anticipated construction cost of $40.8 million. "The documents are currently under legal review and probably will be completed next week," Perlman said. The stadium work would be completed by August 2006. Other costs related to the project raise the price tag to $50 million. To make full funding available, Perlman said, the NU Board of Regents will be asked April 24 to authorize the university to sell bonds - up to $66 million worth - to pay for the new project and to refinance $13 million still owed on a skybox project finished in 1999. "This is a very favorable climate for interest rates, probably as favorable as we'll get," Perlman said. "It's probably as favorable for construction prices as it's going to get, too." If approved by the regents, the bond issue would be the second largest in recent years for the university, based on 12 years of records of the Nebraska Coordinating Commission on Education. The bonds would be paid off over 20 years - or sooner if possible - as contributors make good on pledges, as ticket revenue comes in from 5,000 to 6,000 new stadium seats and as skybox users continue their payments. The proposal would give the university the option of coupling the two bond requirements into one $66 million bond issue or keeping them separate. University officials said an interest rate of 4.5 percent for the 20-year bonds could be expected. The regents will be asked to approve a rate up to 5 percent. An interest rate of about 2.75 percent could be anticipated on the refinancing of the skybox debt if kept to five years, according to the summary. Regents are asked to approve up to 3.5 percent. The $66 million would rank behind a $94.6 million bond issue approved by the Legislature in 1998 to renovate 13 of the university's most dilapidated buildings. The amount is three times larger than the $22 million bond issue for the $36.1 million skybox project at Memorial Stadium completed in 1999. By comparison, it is about one-third as large as the $198 million bond issue that Omaha voters approved to build the Omaha Convention Center and Arena. Contact the Omaha World-Herald newsroom
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