Multi-event arena proposed for city of Riverside

RIVERSIDE, Calif. (KABC) -- Could Riverside be getting a sports arena? There's a proposal to build a several-thousand-seat facility for sports, concerts and other events. One of the big questions is how to pay for it.

Today it's just an empty parking lot. But if the city of Riverside gets its way, there could soon be a 6,000-seat sports arena there.

The thought is that it would be built at the corner of Market and Third, with a parking structure alongside.

Riverside Mayor Rusty Bailey says he envisions many different kinds of events.

"Anything from basketball to minor-league hockey to tournaments for the colleges," said Bailey.

But the big question is who's going to pay for it. The mayor says it would probably be some combination of the city providing the land and then trying to find private funding to build the structure itself.

"It could be naming rights," said Bailey.

But there are concerns: For one, there's the potential congestion. And UC Riverside is still trying to build its own on-campus sports arena, so there's the question of whether Riverside could handle two sports arenas.

"I don't think that the region would be going to UCR for an event, so that would be UCR-specific, and if they do get into a tournament at some point in time, they might need a bigger space, and so I think that we could in partnership facilitate that in the long run," said Bailey. "In the short run, it's going to be tough."

City planners will be meeting again next month to talk more about this proposed arena, but even if it eventually gets a green light, we probably wouldn't see groundbreaking for another two or three years.