FARGO, ND (Valley News Live) – Plans to expand, renovate and update the FARGODOME are on hold after voters rejected proposed measure 1. 24 hours after the results were announced, city officials met and discussed what lies in store for the future.

In an extremely close race, Measure 1 failed with 52% opposed and almost 48% in favor with more than 55,000 votes counted. The ballot measure needed the support of 60% of voters to pass.

This was the second time the fate of FARGODOME was left in the hands of Fargo voters, since a similar proposal failed in December 2023.

“After the 2023 special election, we did some research and found it was important that something happen to this facility,” said Sarah Dykema, director of sales/marketing at FARGODOME.

They proposed a 0.25 percent sales tax to fund the $140 million expansion project, an idea that less than half of Fargo voters approved.

“Discouraged…this is where the FARGODOME Authority currently finds itself, below 50%,” said David Suppes, president of the FARGODOME Authority during the November 6 press conference.

He explained that they are now turning to plan B – which leaves many unanswered questions as to exactly what it is.

Suppes said: “We came in there with plan A, plan A, plan A, and it didn’t succeed, so now we have to look at what plan B is. We will start that process at the end of the year and identify priorities from there.

Uncertain at this point, but confident things will change soon. “At this point, we don’t know. We will need to consider what we need to do and spend what we currently have appropriately. There will be some changes, but they just won’t be on the scale of what was initially proposed,” he added.

City voters passed other sales tax increase measures Tuesday, including a measure that will help fund Fargo’s fire and police operations. With two sales tax measures, Fargo Mayor Tim Mahoney said it could have impacted the overall FARGODOME vote. “So when this came out, we were concerned that you were competing for two taxes, and the public might accept one, but it’s hard to accept two.”

Despite Measure 1’s failure in the 2024 general election, city leaders said they would begin determining the “must-haves” essential to improving FARGODOME in early 2025.

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