The Venue at Thunder Valley ready for grand opening
LINCOLN — The stage is set for the grand opening of The Venue at Thunder Valley.
From the moment you walk into the venue, you are surrounded by the sounds of success. The 150,000-square-foot space took almost two years to build and cost $100 million.
The United Auburn Indian community funded the project entirely out of pocket.
"It took a lot of penny-pinching, saving, a lot of explaining that we had to do to explain to all our people, the tribe," said Leonard Osorio, tribal council member at large.
Their community believed in it even during the pandemic, a time when Thunder Valley Casino faced a 79-day closure and staffing challenges.
"You only see drawings and dirt piles, and you come into work in the middle of the night when it's dark. Then we had those couple weeks of rain, so the landscapers were put back a little bit," said General Manager Dawn Clayton.
Clayton said it was a team effort and tenacity that pushed the passion project to completion — and attention to detail was key.
There are 4,500 seats, cutting-edge sound and lighting, and abundant concessions on every level with eight artist suites perfect for musical acts, comedic performances, athletic events or other large events like conferences.
"We're so proud to be here and so thankful we had an opportunity to make this happen," Osorio said.
Thunder Valley is thankful they now have an indoor venue to host acts, rain or shine, with no hard stop time due to a 10 p.m. noise ordinance.
"Now, they can do as many encores as they want. It's air-conditioned. It's state-of-the-art year-round. We can start performances later," Clayton said.
That's good news for fans of The Eagles, Bruno Mars and Santana who will be headlining this opening weekend. This weekend is sold out, but Thunder Valley is already advertising Kid Rock and Ringo Starr coming this summer.
