Nebraska Athletic Director Tom Osborne made it clear Friday that if Lincoln voters refuse to approve a new arena in May, the university will not wait around for another vote.

Instead, Osborne said, it will renovate the Bob Devaney Sports Center.

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln has not officially agreed to have its basketball teams play in the proposed arena, but UNL has been involved in planning.

"As far as I can tell the university is on board," Osborne said.

"As far as we're concerned, it's a one-shot deal," he told an arena planning committee on which he serves. "We're very prepared to go in another direction."

He said four years of talk may not seem like a long time in terms of city bureaucracy, but it's a long time for the athletic department.

Coaches come and go, as do athletics directors -"particularly those that are 72," Osborne joked. If voters reject the arena, he said, the university would have to move on "in fairness to (Coaches) Doc (Sadler) and (Connie) Yori."

"We need to join the 21st century in basketball," he said.

Building a new arena would be much more difficult - if not impossible -without the UNL men's and women's basketball teams as tenants.

The committee met Friday to approve conceptual designs for the proposed 16,000-seat arena west of the Haymarket District. It endorsed plans for not just an arena, but parking garages, new roads, a hotel and private developments.

The plans must also get the approval of Lincoln voters, however, and the mayor will ask the City Council in December to put the issue on the May 11 ballot.

The arena committee was wowed by a video depicting what the new arena and associated developments would look like from the air. Some members were also relieved to see more concrete plans and designs after years of planning.

Dick Campbell has served on several arena committees in recent years, and said he was "pretty emotional" after seeing the plans come together.

Although arena supporters have now released conceptual designs, they said they can only go so far before the vote.

The designs displayed Friday show a 450,000-square-foot arena with red brick and limestone exterior and mottled panels that will have a different look as the sun moves across the sky. The north side of the arena would have prominent UNL branding.

The arena is being designed by DLR Group, the Omaha architectural firm that designed Qwest Center Omaha.

Architect Stan Meradith said the conceptual design respects the historic Haymarket. The arena's edge is lower to fit in with the height of surrounding buildings and the dome is set back about 150 feet.

"It will look like it belongs," Meradith said.

The seating bowl would be designed for basketball, not hockey, like the Qwest, so it's more intimate. And it would be designed to maximize the home court advantage, through the steepness of the bowl and the location of student sections and premium ticket holders.

Lincoln Chamber of Commerce President Wendy Birdsall said the plans detail "so much more than an arena." It calls for three new parking garages, new roadways, a new Amtrak station and a private hotel, shops and offices.

Arena supporters plan several citywide events in coming months to promote the plan. Mayor Chris Beutler called on the arena committee to help promote the project in the next seven months.

"This is the big one for the whole community," Beutler said. "I don't see any other way to rejuvenate (the economy)."

Reach Deena Winter at 473-2642 or dwinter@journalstar.com.