What are the dates, who is early session ??

Thanks.

Dates should be Feb. 17-19.

B-C were first session last year, so A-D should be going first this year.

I would remind coaches to check with you hotels. We tried to get rooms at a hotel just north of the quest, where we have had rooms for the past two years, and there were no rooms available. Quest is hosting the Presidents Day Volleyball tourney and according to the hotel manager all rooms in downtown area were booked for this volleyball tourney.

If/when the opportunity to move back to Lincoln comes, I hope the Lincoln folks take note of this. That volleyball tournament has been a huge pain in the butt and has been in conflict with the state wrestling tournament almost every year it has been in Omaha. Why MECA continues to allow these events to run the same weekend frustrates the crap out of me as a wrestling fan.

Also plan on paying some extra taxes when you come this year.

I would check for hotel rooms in Bellevue just down hwy 75. I would say the driving distance would be similiar to driving from the hotels on 27th to devaney. Plus you would be out of the downtown area and wouldn't have to pay Omaha taxes. NWI as far as why MECA allows it, $$$$$$$. They could have something scheduled at the ballpark as well. Remember the NCAA teams and coaches loved the venue and if we sold out the Qwest we would be caring alittle more weight. This year during a break walk through the "convention area" and see how many people are in there. We had what 9500 people in a 17000 seat arena, they have several thousand in a lot smaller area. When you have the best venue you use everybit of it to make the all mighty $, if the lincoln arena is big enough to support both I promise you they would do the same thing.

Miracle - I know fully WHY the fine folks at MECA do this, and I certainly don't fault them for it. They need to keep that building buzzing as much as possible, but it's just a pain in the backside to have to deal with a gazillion preteen girls at the same time as our most important event of the year.

If we could get some people to get over their five-year-old (going on six) temper tantrum about the tournament moving out of the ticking time bomb known as Devaney and get them to support the kids' efforts in Omaha, those attendance numbers might go up and might make hosting a second event a little more of a challenge for MECA.

I can understand the frustration with the taxes. But I personally never really ran into any problems with the girls and volleyball supporters. You have to walk by them in the entrance hallways and then when you're in the actual arena you don't have to compete with them for space. Additionally, even with both events, parking was never really an issue. That may change with the new baseball stadium going in.