LINCOLN- While Nebraska Crossing owner Rod Yates traveled to New York in February with Gov. Jim Pillen to make a pitch for a Nebraska team, Yates has acknowledged that the league isn’t actively pursuing expansion. League Commissioner Gary Bettman, in recent public interviews, has tamped down speculation that the league is looking at new sites.

But Yates said he wanted to get Nebraska in the conversation if the league’s position changes. Yates has talked of his desire to build a dual-use arena for hockey and volleyball as a major anchor in the Good Life District he is developing on 2,000 acres near Gretna. The state has approved his plan for a sports and entertainment complex under a new law that created such districts.

Yates said Pillen emphasized that Nebraska’s “brand” is its fan base. Husker fans follow their teams all over the country, Yates said, and the state has proved it can fill a stadium with 93,000 fans. Yates said situating an arena along Interstate 80 near Gretna would allow it to draw from both the Lincoln and Omaha metro areas, which have a combined population approaching 1.4 million.

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