Devaney upgrade still coming

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Even after passage of a new Haymarket arena, the Nebraska athletic department plans to spend $20 million on upgrades to the Devaney Sports Center.

 

Whether those improvements will include a welcome mat for the volleyball program remains to be seen.

 

“John Cook is pretty attached to where he plays right now,” athletic director Tom Osborne said Wednesday.

 

Asked later about a possible move, Cook referred to the Devaney as “leftovers” and said, “I don’t want to lose what we have in the Coliseum.”

 

That is, tradition and the unequaled intimacy that’s built into a 4,000-seat venue arranged specifically for volleyball. Nebraska has sold out its last 135 Coliseum matches.

 

There, “(fans) feel the speed of the game and the power of the athletes,” said Cook, whose teams have played single matches before near-capacity crowds of more than 13,000 at Devaney each of the past three years.

 

“At the Coliseum, everybody who attends feels a part of what’s going on down on that court,” Cook said. “I cannot feel those people at Devaney.”

 

Cook’s dream is to one day have a new arena built specifically for volleyball.

 

“Now that the (Haymarket) arena has passed, it’s time to start having some of those conversations,” he said.

 

No such talk came from NU administrators on Wednesday, who detailed plans for improvements to Devaney the morning after Lincoln voters had approved building a new arena for Nebraska’s basketball teams.

 

The $20 million includes new seats, expanded concourses, updated restrooms, remodeled entrances and possibly a new exterior.

 

Devaney will continue to host basketball games through the 2012-13 season, and beyond that, it will be home to track, swimming, gymnastics and wrestling.

 

Nebraska associate athletic director Marc Boehm said the work at Devaney would begin soon but didn’t have a specific date.

 

The $20 million in improvements does not include the $18 million practice facility for basketball and wrestling to be built adjacent to Devaney.

 

Groundbreaking for that project is planned for June.

 

By Todd Henrichs and Brian Rosenthal