Besides being a place for entertainment and a beautiful new building, NIU’s arena will bring something else the university sorely needs — parking.

Of 3,000 parking spaces, so far 300 are designated for daily student use.

“We’ve blocked 300 for a regular basis,” said John Gordon, director of the arena. “That’s the minimum number. There is no definite answer yet.”

The goal is to lessen the impact of residence hall parking by having another alternative, said Ron Pearson, coordinator of parking and traffic.

“Next year we are not going to oversell the orange permit as we have done the past few years,” Pearson said.

In past years, up to 200 excess permits have been sold.

By choosing to park by the arena, students may have to pay only $25 for the new green permit.

However, if students park in the arena lot, it’s possible they will have to move their cars during events.

“If you buy a permit, you’ll know there’s a huge event through the community, the Northern Star and other media,” Pearson said. “There will be at least a week’s notice.”

Cars won’t have to be moved during every event, so parking will not be affected that much, Gordon said.

Students may only have to move their cars if the event is between Tuesday and Thursday.

“A lot of students don’t come back until late Monday and most of the events will be on weekends,” Pearson said.

Possible alternative sites for parking during huge events are lot X, the gravel lot north of Douglas Hall and lot K, which is the old Carrol’s Cinema lot.

The number of parking spaces available for students in the arena lot may vary slightly, but will be about 300.

“It has to be manageable,” Pearson said. “We don’t know what the demand is yet. We want to start off small.”

Students will have easy access to the arena lot by using the extended Stadium Drive North and Lincoln Highway. The committee will work with the mass transit unit for a possible route there.

“Final decisions will be made in the next couple of months,” Pearson said. “We are still in the discussion stages. We need to get permits ordered, maps done and get the word out to the students.”