Nebraska Athletics adds special events department

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) — Nebraska Athletics on Monday announced the addition of a new department.

The Special Events Department aims to open up the Husker facilities on a more regular basis, allowing the public more access to the facilities and increasing revenue opportunities.

The new department will look to host large events in Memorial Stadium in the offseason, while making other competition venues available for rental gatherings such as conferences, banquets, galas, private receptions and corporate functions.

“Lincoln is a vibrant city with a lot of activities and events, but Husker Athletics can become more active in continually driving events and people into our community,” Nebraska Athletics Director Troy Dannen said. “We have talked regularly about engaging Memorial Stadium more than just seven home games in the fall and making all our facilities more available to the public. The next step in that process was to create a department that can focus on these types of events and better engage the public.”

Two employees have been hired to develop and execute unit operations, which will begin in mid-August.

Arek Olson has been hired to lead the department and will serve as the Assistant Athletic Director of Special Events.

Olson joins the Huskers after spending the past four years as the Director of Event Operations in the Arkansas athletic department.

During his time with the Razorbacks, Olson oversaw 175 revenue generating events per year, including the first ever public ticketed concert in the football stadium.

Olson has also spent time working in event management and operations at Lehigh and Syracuse.

Kaci Natale will join the department as Assistant Director of Special Events.

Natale has a strong background in project management and a degree in hospitality.

Natale most recently has served as a marketing specialist at Bass Pro Shops and Cabela’s and worked for six years as an Events Services Manager at Pinnacle Bank Arena.

Both Olson and Natale will officially start with Nebraska Athletics on Aug. 11.

A dedicated rental page will be available in the near future on Huskers.com, which will detail all spaces and opportunities available to the public.

Until the rental page is active, any questions or rental requests can be sent directly to Olson at aolson73@huskers.com.