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For decades, North Omahans have dreamed of a world-class stadium at North High School, celebrating the school’s admirable athletic history and supporting future generations of students. In partnership with The Lozier Foundation, The Sherwood Foundation, Omaha Public Schools, the YMCA of Greater Omaha and many others, that dream is poised to become a reality. Through a revitalization project at 34th and Ames Avenue, a game-changing stadium for North High and a new Butler-Gast YMCA will serve the North Omaha community.
As the project neared a planned public announcement in April 2025, Emspace + Lovgren helped build excitement around this transformative future for North Omaha.
Emspace worked closely with partners to gain a deeper understanding of the project, key stakeholders, important messages to convey through our communications and considerations for how to best announce the project to the public. We toured the current YMCA facility and walked the grounds of the future stadium. We also conducted secondary research by looking for other community relations campaigns related to stadium projects from around the country and even around the world. Through this research, we were able to align with project stakeholders on the best approach for branding the project and announcing it to the community.
To set the tone and align the project under one easy-to-remember identity, as well as set the project up for success on social media channels, Emspace developed the Project Game ON name and branding alongside project partners. The name nods to both the new stadium and the YMCA, evoking a spirit of excitement and determination. The brand embraces visual components and colors familiar to both North High and the YMCA’s audiences. The team capitalized “ON” as a nod to the close-knit, strong Omaha North community.
With the project brand established, Emspace developed key messaging for project partners, an informational microsite, and a focused strategy for public relations and social media, with an emphasis on uplifting community voices and stories.
Project Game ON’s launch received an overwhelmingly positive response from the public. Within days of the announcement, we secured coverage from the major metro daily, all three news stations, plus a statewide online publication, contributing to 560,000 potential earned media audience impressions. Announcement content from the project’s social profiles generated more than 78,000 views and 349 shares across platforms, in addition to many more shares and impressions from news channels and personal accounts. The project’s microsite (ProjectGameON.org) received more than 3,700 views.
Emspace has continued collaborating with project partners to develop story ideas, build connections, communicate with the press, identify strategies for public engagement and amplify enthusiasm through the project’s completion in 2027.
“Project Game ON is a complex initiative with multiple partners, audiences and stakeholders, and Emspace has been exceptional at turning that complexity into clear, thoughtful and compelling communication. They don’t simply respond to requests; they anticipate what’s needed, bring smart ideas forward and execute quickly and reliably. They understand that successfully communicating a project like this isn’t just about generating attention. It’s about building understanding, trust and momentum. They have been a true strategic partner to us from the beginning.”
