Businessman, students say future at stake with Lincoln arena
Lincoln Journal Star
February 28, 2010
By Don Walton
This is about Lincoln's future, Mike Dunlap and Matt Schaefer agree.
Create a more dynamic, energetic, vibrant city that will be more attractive to young professionals and future civic leaders, they say.
Build the proposed new sports and entertainment arena, trigger a flurry of development and economic activity in the Haymarket, and Lincoln is on its way.
"We're losing our potential key leaders," says Dunlap, chairman and CEO of Nelnet, which depends on young professionals for its thousand-person Lincoln work force.
Schaefer, who will graduate from the University of Nebraska College of Law this spring, says the arena and a spinoff of commercial and recreational development in the Haymarket would jumpstart the city and create "a more dynamic place to work, live and play."
He has joined the arena promotion steering committee and is spearheading the effort to attract student votes supporting the project.
Dunlap says half a dozen of his best young associates left recently for jobs in Minneapolis, Denver, Kansas City and Omaha.
"Lincoln is a great place to raise a family if you're married and have kids," Dunlap says.
"But if you're young and single, it's not as robust or vibrant or attractive to young professionals as it could be with the entertainment options provided by a new arena" and an expanded and energized Haymarket district.
"The O Street bars get old real quick," Dunlap suggests.
Schaefer says Lincoln is "a great place to go to college."
"But as soon as you graduate, you head to Denver or Kansas City or Chicago or Omaha because they are more attractive places to live for young people."
Schaefer will be an exception. He has chosen to stay.
A Columbus native who was UNL student body president in 2006-07, Schaefer has joined Ruth Mueller Robak, a Lincoln government relations law firm.
"I've got three boys," Dunlap says. They are 20, 16 and 14. "And I would love to have them here when they get out of school.
"Now," Dunlap says, "a lot of people see their kids and grandkids move away."
If you want a startling example of what both Schaefer and Dunlap are talking about, take a look at the 2007 members of the Innocents Society, UNL's senior honorary.
Membership is based on academics, leadership and service. These are the potential professional and civic leaders of the future.
One each has moved to Washington, D.C.; Denver; and Kansas City. Two chose Omaha.
Six attend the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha.
Two attend UNL's Law College.
One will stay in Lincoln.
That's Matt Schaefer.
In separate interviews, Dunlap and Schaefer made some of the same points:
n Students would be attracted to the new sports and entertainment arena, thus providing a large pool of customers who will be needed to support concerts and other events.
n Young professionals with a choice of job opportunities in competing communities would be more inclined to live in Lincoln if it were a more vibrant and energetic city with more entertainment options.
n And that means more talented young people might choose to stay here after they graduate from college, return here or move here to accept employment opportunities.
