• Infographic: Five best volleyball venues
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LINCOLN — There was a time when the mention of Nebraska volleyball moving out of the historic NU Coliseum and into the Devaney Center was regarded as blasphemy.
Coach John Cook would have been the first to put a bar of soap in the mouth of anyone who suggested his team take over the facility when the Husker men's and women's basketball teams move into the new Pinnacle Bank Arena in 2013.
"What I said was why would we want basketball's leftovers?" Cook said.
But architectural mock-ups quickly changed Cook's tune, stuffing 1,000 words of conviction into a picture of what the Nebraska athletic department believed the Devaney Center could become. And if the NU Board of Regents approves a plan for the $20 million renovation at its meeting on Jan. 27, the Huskers soon will leave their venerable current digs for what they feel will be the finest college volleyball arena in the country.
"It was very difficult to conceptualize the project for a lot of people," said John Ingram, NU associate athletic director for capital planning and construction. "In order to have a discussion about that proposal, we needed some visuals."
Designs show that Nebraska volleyball would not be handed a leftover so much as a makeover to the Devaney Center, which is part of a wave of new or reconditioned NU athletic facilities set to be completed in 2013 along with the new Pinnacle Bank Arena and the East Memorial Stadium expansion.
Architectural renderings — found online at www.ExpandTheirExperience.com, a site created by the NU athletic department — show a Devaney Center that will undergo significant change to become more tailored to volleyball. Seats along the sidelines will be replaced and moved inward, while arched girders will be added to the Devaney Center's ceiling to mimic the Coliseum's signature barrel ceiling and create a more intimate atmosphere.
The concepts were created by a team from Lincoln's Sinclair Hille Architects and 360 Architecture of Kansas City, and satisfied Cook's two main concerns about moving to a larger venue. The Devaney Center will retain the Coliseum's unique aesthetics and preserve, if not increase, crowd noise.
"When you look at this as a volleyball facility, it's got every amenity you could ever think of," Cook said.
Seating capacity will actually be reduced while plenty of bells and whistles will be added to the arena, which opened in 1976. Currently, the Devaney Center holds 13,900 fans but will be set up to hold 7,000 regularly for volleyball and could be configured for crowds of up to 10,000 for big matches or special events.
That means if Nebraska continues to sell out matches, the Huskers have a chance to break Hawaii's stranglehold on the national lead in attendance and do so in a facility specifically designed for volleyball. The Rainbow Wahine typically lead the country every year in drawing more than 6,500 fans per match at the Stan Sheriff Center, which doubles as Hawaii's basketball arena.
Two new video boards will replace the current screens on the east and west ends of the Devaney Center and will be moved lower to the floor. The ground level will contain renovated locker rooms, bathrooms, team meeting space and a VIP room for athletic donors. The number of high-dollar courtside seats could double.
The biggest changes in the arena will be on the south side, which will be reconfigured to hold luxury suites and new volleyball offices that will have a view of downtown Lincoln. Below that will be a concourse level, where fans can view displays of the program's championship trophies and All-America honors.
The roomier home will allow the athletic department to capitalize on the increased demand for NU's most popular women's sport, which has sold out 164 straight matches at the 4,174-seat Coliseum. Cook said the increased attendance would allow volleyball to turn a profit, which would put the Huskers in exclusive company with Hawaii as the only financially profitable women's volleyball programs.
It will also allow Nebraska to, for the first time, have a student section comparable to most of its Big Ten peers. Now there is a nominal student section of less than 100 seats in the perpetually sold-out Coliseum, something Cook has highlighted as a recruiting obstacle. He envisions a raucous block of 350 to 500 students in the Devaney Center, which he hopes can be placed right at midcourt.
"We want to get students in there and get them rowdy," Cook said.
Ingram said logistical plans like location of the student section and the pep band are still being finalized with athletic department officials and should be decided by March.
If the regents approve the construction plan later this month, the project will move along an accelerated timeline. Renovations of the Devaney Center's electrical, mechanical and heating and cooling systems could begin following this basketball season.
The reconfiguration of the south side would begin in the spring of 2013, which could mean the arena would be ready for volleyball to move in just in time for the 2013 season, a year ahead of the original schedule.
Said Ingram: "I think we have a good plan in place to make that happen."
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FIVE TOP VOLLEYBALL VENUES
The NU Coliseum gives the Nebraska volleyball program one of the best home-court advantages in the nation, but several other venues also put the visiting team behind the 8-ball before the first serve. Here's a look at some of college volleyball's other top environments.
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