On Thursday June 29, at 11 am, the Capital Projects Surcharge Advisory Committee will hear a few ideas for the National Bowling Stadium, located at 300 North Center Street in downtown Reno.
You can find the Hybrid meeting link here and watch online.
Among the items are more wall murals (yay!), a new digital sign, and a proposal for partnering with University of Nevada Reno for an eSports Center on the first floor of the bowling stadium. In the staff report, which you can access here, the layout concept on Page 12 matches the layout of where the bowling museum currently is located. I haven't heard the proposal yet, but I'm wondering if the museum would be relocated to where King Pin is, or another spot. Let's not lose the museum, it's actually a cool under-utilized tourist attraction.
The idea of an eSports Center or Arena has been around for a while. You might remember the P3 project, which included building a hotel and sports center where Partnership Plaza currently resides, and an eSports Arena in the bowling stadium. The project fell through unfortunately, after being selected from numerous applicants who submitted proposals. Now, however, it looks like the University of Nevada could get involved, and at least according to the slides, re-imburse the project by 60%.
The timeline looks like it would go for city council approval July 26, RSCVA approval July 27, September 2023 NV Board of Regents, November-December 2023 design and bidding, and then be completed by the 2024 UNR Fall Semester. You can see a couple of slide captures below the in gallery. Also on deck is a new outdoor digital sign for $350,000. I am a fan of outdoor digital signs, gives off that neo-Tokyo-Times-Square vibe.
Check out and watch the meeting tomorrow at 11 if you can.
