We want to share new updates with you about Aksarben Curling’s efforts to build a dedicated curling community center in the Omaha metro.
As you may recall from recent updates, we shifted our focus away from building a new facility to finding a space in the metro to retrofit and lease. We’ve secured updated ice making equipment costs, refined our projected operating budget for a lease model, and have been evaluating prospective properties and the total associated costs (equipment, buildout, labor and fees, reserve funds, etc). Read more:
Potential Property
In November, we identified and toured a space that could accommodate a 5 or 6 sheet facility with a substantial warm room and parking. The space is the former The Courts volleyball center (8930 S 137th Cir), a 48,000sf facility that could be divided into 24,000sf and well-suited for our purposes. The lease rate is within our budget, but we are working to determine the full costs of equipment and construction.
Our most recent litmus test estimate totaled nearly $2.7M of expenses. We have been aiming to keep total costs for a retrofit/lease approach to no more than $1.5M to $2M. Thus, we must find a way to value engineer the project to satisfy our needs and meet a realistic budget otherwise we will not be able to move forward on this property.
Our commercial broker and the property owner’s broker are currently in contact to discuss the possibility of Aksarben Curling utilizing this space and how that aligns with the owner’s interests.
If this space were to work for Aksarben Curling, we would have high quality curling-only ice, the capacity to double our membership, host multiple leagues each weekday and weeknight (in addition to weekends), expand our offerings of league types (youth, women’s, mixed doubles, wheelchair, and casual/pickup), increase practice times, host regional and even national events, and fulfill the many requests for private events and community/nonprofit partnerships that we have to turn down every month.
We’re also in a critical moment where Aksarben Curling is bursting at the seams with our largest membership yet — just before the 2026 Olympics and the ‘bump’ in interest that follows. Unfortunately, we don’t have a ton of room to accommodate the full interest that comes from the Olympics in the form of Learn to Curls, juniors and youth programs, private events, and recreational leagues.
How Members Can Help
We are asking members to help in a few different ways:
1) Contribute or pledge to contribute
We are encouraging all members to consider what you could personally contribute as a special contribution in support of this project. Many of you have pledged and some have already contributed early—thank you so much!
If you’re in a position to contribute now—amazing! If you can share a firm pledge to give later, great! And if you’re not sure or can only share a soft range, that’s ok, too!
The more that we raise between contributions, commitments, and information from members like you enables Aksarben Curling to be in a better position to move forward on a prospective property.
If you have not yet pledged, please consider doing so.We encourage members to fill out this commitment form and share it with us.
How can you give?
- You can contribute online
- Mail a check: payable to Aksarben Curling, PO Box 24458, Omaha, NE 68124
- Through a donor-advised fund.
- Gifts of appreciated stock.
Feel free to contact me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 402-659-1420 with questions or to discuss charitable giving and pledges.
2) Help connect us with potential funders, companies, and connected folks
We’re asking our members to help share the connections you have outside of the membership with people in the community.
This could be people at local companies that could contribute, provide in-kind services, or sponsor our efforts. It could also include people at local foundations or folks who could help open doors to helpful networks.
Contact me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 402-659-1420 to share your ideas about people, companies, or organizations who could help us get further in our endeavors.
As always, if you have any questions about our efforts, or ideas, skills, or expertise you can lend, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me. Contact me atThis email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or pull me aside at league, broomstacking, or one of our member events!
Thank you for being part of the Aksarben Curling community. And thank you to the members who have participated on or helped advise our Dedicated Ice Committee:
Aaron Adams
Brian Akert
Liz Akert
Mike Carstens
Stacy Feit
Andy Koszewski
Chris Maras
JoEllen Maras
Sean Morrison
Eric Rodawig
Chad Roza
Ralph Roza
Nate Wendel
Owen Wilhelms
Nic Swiercek
President & Dedicated Ice Committee Chair
Aksarben Curling
