my opinion...i don't like getting raped by paying food that is so overpriced it makes me freakin sick to talk about...the parking in over priced and i just hate the atmosphere in the quest to business like idk...i'm a student at UNL and when it was here it was talk about weeks to come but nobody really knew about it around here and all...the matter of fact is nobody wants to go to Omaha because Lincoln is more at home. Argue all you want but with drop in attendance...fans are agreeing w/ me also

OK -- let's just say, for the sake of argument, that the NSAA is not happy with the way things went in Omaha...what can Lincoln offer to get the tournament back?

And back away from the tradition card and look at it somewhere other thant he fans' perspective...how can it be a better venue for the WRESTLERS in Lincoln than it has been in Omaha? What can Lincoln do to provide EIGHT full mats WITH proper spacing between them?

The answer is simple...they can't. There is no place available in Lincoln to offer that. The ONLY alternative would be to put SIX mats on the floor at Devaney, which would take a lot longer to run than it did in Omaha.

Everybody whines about the parking, food, the extra drive, and those certainly are arguments to consider. But the NUMBER ONE concern is the safety of the kids competing, because it is THEIR tournament.

I've said it before and I'll say it again...provide a safer venue in Lincoln than the Devaney and I'll support the move back to Lincoln in a minute.

Lincoln's solution they presented previously was to split the tournament between the Pershing and Devaney. Trust me, if the tournament goes back to Lincoln, its going to be divided up. The tournament should stay in Omaha but the attendance this weekend simply provides Lincoln with ammunition when they make their pitch again in April.

i was wondering this abot the parking prices......

why did they offer 2 types of parking?

1 session= $9.00
All Day= $6.00

i did the all day, wouldnt everyone else do that as well? who would pay the $9.00 when you can pay $6.00?

That's exactly my point -- you CAN'T run this tournament in Lincoln SAFELY without splitting it up.

And for those wanting to move it back to Lincoln, let me ask you...is it worth destroying the vibe of this tournament to split it up between Pershing, the biggest dumphole in the state (and if you think paid parking in Omaha is bad, try parking ANYWHERE in downtown Lincoln) and Devaney?

Build an arena in Lincoln with more floor space than is available at Devaney, and THEN we can talk about moving it back.

If the tourney is to be split, leave A and B in Omaha and move C and D to Lincoln. That would be the correct demographic and philosophical arrangement. It makes no sense for A to go there- period.

quote:

Originally posted by Big Whitey:
i was wondering this abot the parking prices......

why did they offer 2 types of parking?

1 session= $9.00
All Day= $6.00

i did the all day, wouldnt everyone else do that as well? who would pay the $9.00 when you can pay $6.00?

It's to accommodate split sessions. If your were an A or D fan on Friday you had one session in the morning and one in the evening. If you bought the $6.00 ticket, left between sessions, and then came back at night you had to buy another $6.00 ticket. If you bought a $9.00 ticket it was good for both sessions and you saved $3.00.

Splitting the tournament is an idea that should die a quick and immediate death, whether it's between venues or between cities.

Splitting the tournament is the worst idea yet my son wrestles class c well at least this year we get bumped from c to b once in awhile but he has friends that wrestle in all classes so how can we watch all classes if one is in omaha and the other in lincoln i still believe the quest is the best for the kids yes the price of food is too high but i would pay double the parking price not to walk in mud to get to the devaney thats if you could find parking not a mile away

I love the Qwest and an all-class tourney but if it's true that the reduction in attendance was not due to weather or a downturn in overall wrestling interest but rather to a rebellion by certain classes, then the tourney is splitting itself and classes C and D should hold their state contest in Ord or Lincoln or Valentine or Scottsbluff or wherever they vote to do so.

If the tournament was in Lincoln I'm not don't believe the attendance would have been any better and possibably worse. Standing outside in subzero weather while waiting for the doors to open may have detered quite a few. Although there were many great wrestlers and teams there was not the depth of competion to look forward to in the finals. Missing were the team races and classic year long anticipated matches like there has been in the past few years.

omg...if ure goin to say tat people didn't go to state wrestling because of the weather then ure an idiot! I remember past years at Devaney tat the weather wasn't ideal and people still came and filled devaney w/ spirIt. this year it was dead and nobody got involved in it. Nobody cheered for perkins undefeated seasons which is very upsetting because nobody's informed anymore on wats goin on w/ these kids since moving to omaha. i like the idea of building a place in lincoln for state or maybe splitting up the classes at devaney and Pershing..maybe like C and D at Pershing and A B at Devaney for the first session and then move C D to devaney semi/medal round/finals...and parking isn't an issue compared the the over price parking in omaha so don't compare. MOVE IT BACK TO LINCOLN OR THE TRADITION OF STATE WRESTLING WILL BE LOST...DON'T GET CAUGHT UP IN ALL THE QUEST HAS LIKE ITS FANCY FACILITIES AND FANCY SETUP...MOST WRESTLES THAT WRESTLED IN DEVANEY THEN LATER WRESTLED IN THE QUEST THE NEXT YEAR HATED IT. I WRESTLED IN THE QUEST IN MY SENIOR YEAR AND WISHED IT WAS AT DEVANEY...PISSED ME OFF...NEVER SETTLE FOR THE SPLEANDORS IN LIFE; SETTLE FOR THINGS YOU LOVE.

I think that it will be pretty hard for people to get over last years first impression of the Qwest & the way guys were treated. Lots of folks stayed home. The Nazi-like treatment of fans left a big impression. I heard some say that the whole thing had just turned into a money sucking trap & was messed up from the freezing "warm-up" area to the outragous searches for pop & stuff. To their credit this year, they did ease up on the body searches;-)
The place still has a weird feel to it, even a guy on a local AM station was making fun of all the bib overall farmers coming to the city. The whole thing just doesn't leave a very welcoming feeling to people from out of town so why come back? Also about standing out in the cold at Lincoln, you could solve that by selling assigned seats for the early sessions so there isn't a mad rush for seats that the early wrestlers have staked out with coats & stuff.

The words "splitting up the state tournament" should never, ever, EVER be used by a conscious, intelligent-thinking individual.

Ever.

And as much as I have criticized them over the years, I really don't think the Board of Control of the Nebraska School Activities Association is that COMPLETELY insane to do something that would shatter the ambience of this tournament...to say nothing of the ADDITIONAL work it would make for their staff.

Moving it back to Lincoln would require a MAJOR change, not only in arena setup but in scheduling, because it will take MUCH LONGER to run this tournament on six mats.

Plain and simple, Lincoln does not have the facilities needed to run this tournament SAFELY and EFFICIENTLY, the way Qwest does. And UNTIL Lincoln's powers that be pulls their collective heads out of their keister and gets the ball rolling to build the kind of facility that provides the space that allows for eight full mats AND proper spacing between them...then we need to stick the Lincoln vs. Omaha debate into the back of the file cabinet and stop complaining about it.

The point is we don't know what the effect of the weather would have been on attendance if the tournament was still in Lincoln. It is a state tournament and not just a Omaha tournament, so if attendance is down that is blame of the entire state wide wrestling community. Many of went to Lincoln to support wrestling and many of us went to Omaha to support wrestling. We can all make excuses but if wrestling is important to you will show up and support it where ever it is in the years to come.

This is just a fan's comments on this issue, but I don't care where the state tournament is held, if I want to attend, I will go to Omaha, Lincoln, Scottsbluff or Harrison (imagine that if you can). I personally don't think attendance was down this year because it was at the Qwest Center in Omaha. Weather, price of lodging, general economic conditions, and other factors all contributed. I don't think you can lay it on any one thing.
I went to approx. 20 wrestling meets this season and I though attendance was down across the board. I'm not sure why that is and I don't have firm statistics to back up that observation. I think it's just a cyclical thing.
Perhaps it's HB's fault. I did not attend state this year or last because I could get my wrestling fix over the internet. I watched most of the kids I was interested in wrestle several times throughout the season and knew how they did at State did not depend on me being there to cheer them on. Next year I will attend the Friday night and Saturday afternoon sessions personally. Thursday and Saturday morning I will again follow over the internet either from my daughter's house or from the hotel room. It doesn't matter if it's in Omaha or Lincoln.
I think any effort to increase attendance has to start by getting more young wrestlers into the sport. If my son, nephew or nephews son was competing, I would be there. Otherwise, I can follow the action from a distance. But hey, I'm kind of a wierd individual. Or at least that's what my shrink says.
In any event, I look for increased attendance in the next few years. Why? Just look at the crop of freshmen we had this season. That's exciting. There will be more next year. Also, several strong wrestling programs are on the rise. For example: Central City and Ogallala. I am excited for these and other programs in the next few years. Maybe attendance was down because Cozad wrestling was down this year. When Cozad is going good everyone shows up. Dad, mom, grandpa, grandma, aunts, uncles, even 3rd cousins twice removed. Now, there are some great fans to compete against. And if they're not wrestling against you're favorite, to cheer for.
Trust me guy's, wrestling is still growing in popularity. Attendance may have been down this year for a variety of reasons. But, don't expect it to stay down next year or the year after. Keep the State Tournament at the house with the most seats, period. Because it's only going to get bigger and bigger in the next few years.

I was a huge fan of the Devaney, and I am not a huge fan of the Qwest, but I dont believe the move to Omaha is solely to blame for the attendance. I was at districts in Schuyler, and the attendance was not fantastic there either. We are one of the smaller schools in class B and i think our numbers were as large as anybody else. The Omaha schools at our district didnt seem to have as many fans as they used to. Still good fans though. Another example was the Norfolk Catholic Invite/conference!!! in years past, northeast nebraska packed the house, but numbers were down there this year as well!! Big Question as to why???? I got no answers

I have to say, I was not able to make state last year so this was my first Quest experience. I was extremely upset with the parade of champions. I honestly feel those kids are getting robbed of the feeling. The Quest although for a fan is great for the seating but the atmosphere is awfull I felt like I was at any other tournament and that was it. Part of the reason I wanted to make the parade so bad when I was in highschool is because I got to see it first hand my 8th grade year. Anymore it was lame and not exciting, my opinion does not really matter but those guys deserve more of a "show" then that.

I can't believe we are even having this discussion.

The Qwest Center has all the modern amenities you need for this event. There are full-size mats and plenty of room for wrestlers and fans. It's a major-league, modern facility.

There are actually paved parking lots. And there are actually places to eat, socialize and stay within walking distance of the Big Q.

The crowds for the semis and finals would have still nearly filled the Devaney. The early-round crowds were down a little, but it was below zero on the first day.

I don't see the Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney or U2 booking concerts at the Devaney. You don't see the Olympic swimming trials, NCAA wrestling tournament or NCAA volleyball final four coming to Lincoln. But they are coming to Omaha.

The bad weather on Thursday and Friday may have kept a few people away - it was miserable out there (even for winter in Nebraska). But it wasn't like nobody showed up.

Splitting the tournament into two venues is the dumbest thing I've ever heard of. Especially when you now have it in the only venue in Nebraska big enough to host this.

If the NSAA moves this back to Lincoln they all need to have their heads examined.

1 Class - 1 Venue! That takes care of this whole debate! You would have the interest in a large tournament, more of the tough kids from all over the state would compete, and the team scores would not even approach the stupid numbers of 200+ that you now have in Nebraska! Watered down tournament that is dominated by the select few teams that do a good job of recruiting and coaching has made the NE state tournament a joke! Not the venue...WOW!