A large check was passed this morning over the fertile grounds dedicated to Lincoln’s forthcoming South Haymarket Skatepark.
After local thrashers raised about $8,000 for the project this summer at a fundraiser concert-party, the Lincoln Skatepark Association (LSA) decided to round that up to 5-digits for the group’s first major contribution to help build a new state-of-the-art skate facility near 7th and “N” Street.
“We had an amazing event, and we actually ended up raising more money than we thought we would,” LSA President Phil Burcher told KLIN News. “We’re really excited to raise more money from here. $10,000 is our start, and we hope to raise a $1,000,000 because we’re crazy and think we can do it.”
(left to right) Susan Larson Rodenburg and Randy Gordon with the Lincoln Parks Foundation, and Lincoln Skatepark Association President Phil Burcher, (Chase Porter, KLIN News)
The Lincoln Parks Foundation is the fundraising agent for the entire project, expected to cost $25 million — with funds provided by a combination of public and private sources. Director Randy Gordon accepted the symbolic-check from Burcher, noting that LSA has been working on this new park for “more than a couple of decades.”
“We’re about halfway to our goal right now. We continue to fundraise on a daily basis, and we continue to work on major gifts for this park,” Gordon said. “As we stand here right now, it’s great to see what’s possible here. This will be Lincoln’s highest amenity park. There are some incredible features. This will be a destination park for all of southeast Nebraska, not just for skaters, but people will come from all over to enjoy what this park has to offer.”
Back in January, L.A. based skatepark designers Spohn Ranch collected feedback on preliminary park designs from Lincoln’s asphalt artists during an open house. Factoring in those opinions, initial concept design for the park were revealed in May.
According to Gordon and Burcher, South Haymarket Park will be the “largest in ground skate facility between Des Moines and Denver” — both large skater hubs with notable parks like the 88,000-square-foot Lauridsen Skatepark in Iowa and the 60,000-square-foot Denver Skatepark.
“The goal is that the traveling skate community will make Lincoln a stopover,” said Gordon, joined in excitement by Burcher, “People will flock to South Haymarket Park to make it part of their Des Moines-Lincoln-Denver skate adventure.”
Spohn Ranch is not rushing the process of finalizing park designs, in close coordination with LSA. Burcher said some fine-tuning might bump back the park’s ground breaking, which was expected sometime this year.
“There’s little things we’re tweaking about the park, and one big thing that we’re working on is to hopefully have a main big bowl feature — the deeper part of the park everything goes through. We’re working on a design from a really famous pro skater that’s been designing skate parks for many, many years,” Burcher revealed. He opted not to name the skater but hinted that their name might appear on the feature, which he hopes will draw skaters from out of town.
With the fundraising effort half-way up the ramp, Burcher says LSA is considering hosting additional concerts/events to raise money.
“It’s a huge challenge to hold those events and it’s a lot of hard days, but at this point, it’s worth it,” he said. “I’m personally working to get a bunch of bands together, because a lot of the people that are skateboarders are also in bands. Our goal is to set up a big evening or two and figure out a way to raise funds from an event like that. They’re excited. I’ve got bands bugging me all the time like ‘Hey, when we playin’?'”
In closing, Burcher reflected on the growing skate-community in Lincoln, adding that this park will be multi-generational.
“I’m just seeing skateboarding growing that way. There’s nine year old kids spinning 900s above 14 foot vert ramps, then there’s 60 year old guys still doing inverts and all this crazy cool stuff. Our community has grown dramatically because it’s not just 13-year-old boys skating now. There’s many more females doing it, younger kids doing it, older guys doing it,” said Burcher, who also owns Precision Skateboards on 16th and “O” Street — billed as one of the oldest skateshops in the county.
“That’s why I think it’s so important to have the skate park here. It’s going to contribute to so much more well being for everybody, not just for one particular group.”
For more information on the South Haymarket Skatepark, visit southhaymarketpark.com. More information on LSA can be found at lnksa.org or on their Facebook and Instagram pages.