Omaha and its citizens build a showplace that cost hundreds of millions of dollars. It has an annual attendance that ranks in the top ten of all such venues in the United States. Major acts regularly fill the place and its presence has led to an extraordinary revitalization of a blighted area of town. No less a critic than Simon Cowell has high praise for it and Omaha. And yet, this thread has almost nothing but 6 pages of class-driven rants about security checks and the price of "Dippin' Dots." To those "insulted" by my prior post I think I speak for most Omahans when I say "Right back attcha'"

+

quote:

Originally posted by dswitz:
Omaha and its citizens build a showplace that cost hundreds of millions of dollars. It has an annual attendance that ranks in the top ten of all such venues in the United States. Major acts regularly fill the place and its presence has led to an extraordinary revitalization of a blighted area of town. No less a critic than Simon Cowell has high praise for it and Omaha. And yet, this thread has almost nothing but 6 pages of class-driven rants about security checks and the price of "Dippin' Dots." To those "insulted" by my prior post I think I speak for most Omahans when I say "Right back attcha'"

So out of staters like Omaha and instate Nebraskans don't then there is a probem dswitz and maybe the problem is people like your ego's towards the rest of Nebraska. I want the tourney in Omaha at the Qwest Doug, however if Omaha can not come up with a better way to treat outstate Nebraskans then the tourney will leave. It will be split between between two venues which is a shame, but it will happen unless we start working together.
Why don't you come out to the greater Custer and Garfield County during there town celebrations Mr. Switzer and see if you get treated like dirt and I guarantee you, you WON'T.

quote:

Originally posted by Bulldog:
People we still have not found out any solutions. Omaha people I guarantee you that the NSAA will be looking at the attendance and it is up to you to come up with some solutions. I have seen a lot of people post about it is for the kids, I agree 100%. I have had wrestlers wrestle at Devaney and the Qwest and I guarantee you they said Devaney was a lot better for the atmosphere. There is nothing like wrestling in a packed house, and I want a solution to make the Qwest a packed house that our wrestlers deserve. Devaney had the energy and I have seen the Qwest with energy during other events so what is the solution.
I know I went on my rant about hotels and eating establishments and I still won't back down from that, but that has nothing to do with the NSAA or the Qwest that has to do with the Omaha Chamber of Commerce getting off there duff and putting together a flyer for out of town fans. I have seen some posters mocked because they didn't pick the right eating establishments to eat before closing time, well let me tell you I don't make it a habit to drive around a strange town with the hope of finding something open especially Omaha because if you take a wrong street you are screwed. How many of you Omaha people would come out to rural Nebraska on a Friday or Saturday night and just take a dirt road and hope you find something I can see a completely lost person just like a rural person traveling through Omaha taking a wrong street. I want a solution people because 10,000 people for the semi's is unacceptable and 9500 people for the finals is pathetic.

Bump for dswitz

quote:

Originally posted by NWI:

quote:

Originally posted by Radio Man:
Probably the best middle ground for us was when we lived in Alda(near Grand Island)...Alda is a very small town, but only 10 minutes away from G.I., 30 minutes from Hastings, and 45 from Kearney...so everything we could possibly want to do was 45 min. or less away.

Wow...small (bleepin') world. I spent most of the first four years of my life in eastern Alda -- lived at the trailer park along Highway 30 just east of town.

Alda is one of those "blinknmiz" towns -- blink and you miss it.

Wow I am from Alda also, lived there until I was 21! This is bizzare...

OK, I have been reading this thread for days. First off we are not talking about a small town here. Life is different in Omaha than out here where most of us live. We will never get a welcome mat or red carpet rolled out for us at the Qwest. It was built to host events and make money. That is the bottom line. There are a ton of places to stay and Omaha is pretty easy to get around in, unless you only get there once a year. Second, I know the prices are high there, but they are high all over. If it was held in Lincoln, the prices would be higher than they were 3 years ago, Maybe not like the Qwest Center, but they would be high. I go to watch young men compete to be the best at their class and weight. Eat before you go, then go eat after you leave, simple. As for not being able to find a place to get right into, get off the beaten path and find a good place to eat, there are plenty of them there. I am not defending one side or the other in this, but you should be there to watch a great sport. Start searching for a room now for next year, you will get a better price, and you can confirm your reservations a few times next year to make sure you are ok. Learn to adapt, and remeber why we go to Omaha. For the love of the sport of wrestling.

Wow,even smaller world, my mom's name was Alda!

quote:

Originally posted by uthinkso:
OK, I have been reading this thread for days. First off we are not talking about a small town here. Life is different in Omaha than out here where most of us live. We will never get a welcome mat or red carpet rolled out for us at the Qwest. It was built to host events and make money. That is the bottom line. There are a ton of places to stay and Omaha is pretty easy to get around in, unless you only get there once a year. Second, I know the prices are high there, but they are high all over. If it was held in Lincoln, the prices would be higher than they were 3 years ago, Maybe not like the Qwest Center, but they would be high. I go to watch young men compete to be the best at their class and weight. Eat before you go, then go eat after you leave, simple. As for not being able to find a place to get right into, get off the beaten path and find a good place to eat, there are plenty of them there. I am not defending one side or the other in this, but you should be there to watch a great sport. Start searching for a room now for next year, you will get a better price, and you can confirm your reservations a few times next year to make sure you are ok. Learn to adapt, and remeber why we go to Omaha. For the love of the sport of wrestling.

Start searching for a room now, well last year we had our rooms reserved the week after state for $110 and in September we get a call from the hotel that there rates went up to $160 per night. It does no good. The Qwest center and the city of Omaha are two different things. The Qwest can charge what they want, it is when the city doesn't help you out with any information it gets discouraging.

So bulldog you still go to that hotel then? If they are doing that tell them that you are ready have a rate of $110 and I'm sure the BBB will back that price!!!!!!!! The problem is you allowed it to happen to you, heck september gives you a lot of time to find another place.

quote:

Originally posted by miracle worker:
So bulldog you still go to that hotel then? If they are doing that tell them that you are ready have a rate of $110 and I'm sure the BBB will back that price!!!!!!!! The problem is you allowed it to happen to you, heck september gives you a lot of time to find another place.

Get it straight they did it to 4 other teams as well, and yes we ate the price because I refuse to be 1/2 way across Omaha, I just won't do it because you never no when you are going to have bad traffic and I called a lot of hotels close to the Qwest and they were booked up already. I never had this problem once in Lincoln, heck I have never had this problem anywhere but Omaha. The hotels got together and said let's raise the rates and screw them because we can. You mention the BBB, well guess what they can't do anything either. Hotels can screw the consumer all they want.

Hey, in 2006 we had rooms reserved at the Hampton Inn in August. We called a month before State just to touch base & were told that those rooms were no longer available. We had confirmation #'s & were told sorry, but there had been a mix up & they would put us on a waiting list but would not be able to honor the original reservations! Oh & by the way, if something would open up, it would be at a substantial increase over the original quote because there was a big event at the Qwest that weekend!!!!!!!!!

We ended up at the Super 8 on West Dodge . . .

Welcome to Omaha.

quote:

Originally posted by dswitz:
Omaha and its citizens build a showplace that cost hundreds of millions of dollars. It has an annual attendance that ranks in the top ten of all such venues in the United States. Major acts regularly fill the place and its presence has led to an extraordinary revitalization of a blighted area of town. No less a critic than Simon Cowell has high praise for it and Omaha. And yet, this thread has almost nothing but 6 pages of class-driven rants about security checks and the price of "Dippin' Dots." To those "insulted" by my prior post I think I speak for most Omahans when I say "Right back attcha'"

Good for you, you have a shiny arena and your city can pay for it. It is not up to the taxpayers of the state to do so. If I wanted to live in Omaha I would but I choose to raise my children elsewher right, wrong or indifferent. I could care less about the Qwest's financial woes just like someone from Omaha could care less about Sargent's financial woes. I don't ask you to finance us and by God don't ask me to finance you or to accept getting robbed which is what we get going to Omaha. The Qwest center is Omaha's shrine, guess what Devaney Center belongs to all of Nebraska.

Bulldog; I hate to tell you this but your tax dollars helped build the qwest, just ask your state senator.
We need to learn from what has been posted here, and try to improve the things we can and except the things we can't.

quote:

Originally posted by cowcatcher:
Bulldog; I hate to tell you this but your tax dollars helped build the qwest, just ask your state senator.
We need to learn from what has been posted here, and try to improve the things we can and except the things we can't.

I am sure the great legislators of Nebraska have found a way to use my tax dollar for Omaha's use and so be it there is nothing I can do you ae correct there. I will not sit here and see dswitz spout his speel without a reply however. If Omaha wants to keep this tournament they had better start coming up with some answers plain and simple.

quote:

Originally posted by Bulldog:
Why don't you come out to the greater Custer and Garfield County during there town celebrations Mr. Switzer and see if you get treated like dirt and I guarantee you, you WON'T.

We were not in Custer or Garfield County, but just got back from a small town kids tournament over an hour outside of Omaha. My wife and kids were treated rudely by a couple of the fans. To make things clear it had nothing to do with the host school. I am not trying to start something, just want you to know there are good people and rude people where ever you go.

On a separate comment the worst fans we have seen in any sport came from a small town. I am not trying to put down all rural people because my roots are from a rural community and many friends still live there. I am just pointing out that people are the same everywhere, good or bad.

Shannon, I saw your post and will reply tomorrow. It is late, the bus leaves at 6:00 am for a Jr. High tournament, and I am the driver.

quote:

Originally posted by Badger:

quote:

Originally posted by Bulldog:
Why don't you come out to the greater Custer and Garfield County during there town celebrations Mr. Switzer and see if you get treated like dirt and I guarantee you, you WON'T.

We were not in Custer or Garfield County, but just got back from a small town kids tournament over an hour outside of Omaha. My wife and kids were treated rudely by a couple of the fans. To make things clear it had nothing to do with the host school. I am not trying to start something, just want you to know there are good people and rude people where ever you go.

On a separate comment the worst fans we have seen in any sport came from a small town. I am not trying to put down all rural people because my roots are from a rural community and many friends still live there. I am just pointing out that people are the same everywhere, good or bad.

Shannon, I saw your post and will reply tomorrow. It is late, the bus leaves at 6:00 am for a Jr. High tournament, and I am the driver.

Badger you make some great points and I will relent. However I would think you could find a bus driver in Bennington.

I think the attendance at the state tournament should be a concern for all true wrestling fans. This thread has brought out many theories as to why attendance is down. Those theories fall into 2 categories, fluff and meat. Some people use fluff theories to advance their cause when they hate someone or something. The George Bush haters are convinced that AlQueda would never have attacked on 9/11 if Bush had not been in office and that Bush is responsible for the New Orleans floods. On the other side of that coin the Bill Clinton haters know that he caused the tsunami in Indo China and that the rise in the price of haircuts is directly tied to him.

The Qwest haters, many of whom started their tirade against Qwest as soon as it was selected, before they had been in the building, are offering some fine fluff.

PRICES OF FOOD ARE TOO HIGH. No one will disagree. It is highway robbery to ask $5.00 for a hot dog. That same hot dog is probably $4.75 at a Husker football game. Are people going to stay away from the state tournament for a quarter? Check concession prices at any Major League baseball or NFL venue.

THE PRICE OF TICKETS IS TOO HIGH BECAUSE OF TICKET MASTER AND THE SEAT TAX. The Ticket Master situation will be addressed in my final point. The Qwest Center was not built with donated materials and voluntary labor. It costs a huge amount of money to build and to operate a facility that can attract national championships in volleyball and wrestling, the Olympic swim trials, regional basketball tournaments and a multitude of concerts and other cultural events. The seat tax helps pay for some of those costs. Before you write a post saying that you don't go to any of those events, think about whether you might be one of these people: "I don't read books so none of my tax money should go to support the libraries or schools". Or, "I never fly so we can eliminate all of the airports".

OUR SEATS ARE ALWAYS UP IN THE NOSE BLEED SECTION. It's interesting that some of the same posters who complain about being so high up are also complaining about the smaller attendance. Why didn't they move down to lower seats that had to be open if the house wasn't full? More about this later.

OMAHA PEOPLE DON'T TREAT US WELL. The haters are trying to turn this into a Qwest Vs Devanney, Omaha vs Lincoln, city vs small town, or panhandle vs Eastern Nebraska forum. It's none of these, it's an attitude problem. As one of your wrestlers is going out on the mat try telling him, "You'll get pinned". He probably won't let you down. I grew up on a farm, attended high school in a town of 2,000, lived in a town of 500 people, lived in towns of 10,000 to 50,000 and now live in Omaha. In every one of those towns about 2-3% of the population were jerks and the other 97-98% were great people. Our son's first job after college was teaching and coaching 8 man football at Wheeler Central in Bartlett. My wife and I attended nearly all of their games. We often stayed over on Friday night and then took a different route home each Saturday. We went church hopping. There are some beautiful churches in many of the small towns, or free standing in the country. We really enjoyed going in and looking them over. After the church tour we would head to a local bar and grill for a hamburger and conversation and maybe watch the Huskers on TV. We met a lot of people. About 97-98% were great people, about 2-3% were jerks. If we had walked in with the attitude, "We're from Omaha and I suppose you jerks are going to mistreat us," they probably wouldn't have let us down. We would have walked out of there complaining that they were all a bunch of jerks.

WE CAN'T HANG OUR BANNERS. As I mentioned earlier, it takes a huge amount of money to operate a facility like the Qwest Center. Much of that revenue comes from advertising. Want to hang your banner next year? You can. Pick out the space where you would like to hang it, then go to Qwest and tell them that you want to outbid the current advertiser for that space.

Now, to some of the meaty problems.

THE ECONOMY IS KEEPING A LOT OF PEOPLE HOME. I think that's probably true, but maybe in a way that you hadn't considered before. More about that later.

ATTENDANCE IS DOWN BECAUSE THE NUMBER OF WRESTLERS IS DOWN. I don't mean the number of qualifiers, that will always be 896. GoeckeS gave the theory that each wrestler brings 10 fans to the state tournament. It doesn't matter if 10 is exactly correct. The principle is what is important. If we use that number and you have 35 wrestlers on your team your school will bring 350 people to state. If your team drops to 25 wrestlers your school will bring 250 people to state. Multiply that 100 person decrease by the number of teams in the Nebraska and you have a serious attendance problem. But that's just the tip of the iceberg. In general, state tournament fans fall into 2 categories, temporary and permanent. The temporary fans are those who follow wrestling while their kids, friends of the family, cousins, etc. are wrestling. When those kids graduate most of them stop being fans. The permanent fans are those Genuine, Grade A, Black Belt, bleacher butts who get hooked on the sport and continue to be fans whether they have family or friends wrestling or not. Here is the hiden part of the equation. I didn't have a chance to call GockeS to give me a statistic so I'll make up my own. (72.9% of all statistics are made up on the spot, including this one.) Let's assume that 10% of all temporary fans get bitten in the neck by the wrestling werewolves and become permanent fans. If your school has 350 temporary fans it's going to create 35 permanent fans. If team size drops to 25 you will create 25 permanent fans. Multiply that 10 fan reduction times all of the schools in Nebraska AND THEN MULTIPLY IT BY 5, 10, 15, 20 YEARS. I don't have any proof that participation is down but it seems that way to me. It seems that every year I see more and more open weights. Coaches, does NSAA put out lists of wrestlers who have certified their weights? And, if so, are any of you packrats enough to keep them from year to year. Or, post on here the approximate size of your school and number of wrestlers and then the the same info for ___ years ago when you started at that school.

In the absence of concrete info please humor me and agree that participation levels are down.

WHY ARE NUMBERS DOWN?

A couple of posts farther up this thread say that the economy is keeping people home from the state tournament. That is probably true but there's more to it that we will feel after the economy turns around. Suppose that a family has a freshman who had a very mediocre junior high career. They may discourage him from going out for wrestling this year because the money for wrestling shoes, workout gear, and travel for practices and meets could be spent elsewhere. When that kid didn't come out for wrestling that took away 10 temporary fans, one of whom would have become a permanent fan.

Maybe some kids who have been in high intensity wrestling programs since kindergarten are just tired of the sport. I have no doubt that those programs have produced some great champions. But I wonder if they have also run off some late bloomers who may have been high school champions. I'm not bilingual so I can't spell or pronounce his name but everyone will know who I'm talking about when I say the heavyweight from UNK. He is probably the best college heavyweight in the country, regardless of division. He started wrestling either as a sophomore or junior in high school. I watched Aaron Denson wrestle in the state tournament and pole vault in the state track meet. He was also a fine football player for Millard South. I think they qualified for the playoffs, but am not sure. If he had picked one sport and worked on it year round he probably would have been better in that sport than he was when was in three sports. But he would have missed the great experience in the other two sports. And, on the other hand he may have got burned out, walked away, and missed the great experiences in all if the sports.

SO WHAT'S THE SOLUTION? I don't think there is a quick fix but the best place to get a start would be for all of us to accentuate the positive. I read in an earlier post that the accoustics were so bad that the poster couldn't hear anything during the Parade of Champions. I'm nearly deaf so I'm not qualified to judge the accoustics. Many of the top musicians and singers, who can basically name their price and venue, have performed at Qwest, or are booked to appear in the future. It seems strange that they would risk their reputation by playing in a venue with bad accoustics. If everybody picks out a couple of piddly diddly things they don't like and go bad to their communities and complain about them that will hurt attendance. If you go back and tell people that it's a great venue where mats are laid out without curling up on the walls, and you can see the entire mat even if it's on the same side of the floor that you are on, then attendance will go up.

WHO NEEDS TO IMPROVE? There are lots of groups that need to improve. Qwest needs to train their employees in the arts of public relations and customer satisfaction. This is true of every business in the country. Personally, I have never had a problem with a Qwest employee. But then I never went there expecting to have problems.
I have never able to get a handle on the structure of Nebraska High School wrestling. I don't know who calls the shots and how they decide. I know that the Board of Control is involved. I don't know where they get their information for decision making but I assume it's given to them by the NSAA. It doesn't appear to me that NSAA bends over backward to promote or support wrestling. Perhaps I'm being unfair. Maybe they have adopted the duck on the pond philosophy, "Remain calm on the surface and paddle like hell underwater". I don't know where NSAA gets its information for decision making. The fans could help by writing letters to their Board of Control representative, with a carbon copy to NSAA, expressing their concerns about problems that you think need to to be corrected. I don't mean fluff, like, "The handles on the spoons at the Dippy Dots stand are too short". I mean meat, like, Does NSAA need to outsource the sales and allocations of tickets to Ticket Master? Are there alternatives that would be more fair and less costly to the fans?

Now let's jump on one of my favorite groups of people, the coaches. When I have asked many of them how much influence the coaches have in shaping wrestling policies I usually hear that is slim or none. I get the same answer when I ask how much influence the Nebraska State Wrestling Coaches Association can exert. I don't think we should become a clone of another state but I think that if another state is doing something that works well we should look at it to see if we can pick up an idea that would help us. When I coached in Iowa I was a member of the Iowa High School Wrestling Coaches and OFFICIALS Association. I don't know if all coaches and officials belonged but I didn't know of any that didn't belong. At the district tournaments we had a brief meeting to discuss the concerns that we had and try to prioritze them. After the Saturday weigh ins at the state tournament we had a breakfast. I would guess that over 90% of the coaches and 50% of the officials were there. We elected the Coach of the Year, the Assistant Coach of the Year, the Junior High Coach of the Year, and the Official of the Year. Most years we elected the Contributor of the Year. It may have been a team doctor, a timer or scorekeeper who never missed a meet, or a mother who went to the hospital, gave birth to one of her twins, checked out of the hospital to watch the meet, then went back to the hospital to deliver the other twin. (That didn't happen very often.) That night, before the Grand March, we presented the awards. These presentations are shown on the telecast of the state toutnament.

About a month after the state tournament the coaches of the 24 district championship teams (8 districts in each of the 3 classes) met with the Board of Control and IHSAA officials to discuss problems and shape the future of our sport. We never got everything that we wanted, but we always seemed to get a little bit. When I have talked with coaches about this I often hear, "NSAA would never agree to that". Most of us are programmed to say,"No" without having a real reason to say, No". Our kids don't think we mean, "No". They think that "No" just means that we don't understand the question. So they ask it again, in a slightly different way. After about 12 rounds we often think a little deeper and decide, "Maybe there is no reason for us to say, "No". We can learn from our kids.

I'm getting off my soap box now. Give me a minute to get hidden behind it and then let the rotten tomatoes fly.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Frank Ryan,

You obviously all have computers, you want to find restaurants, it's called 'Google', need directions? 'Mapquest'.

nice post Frank, you're doing your best to bring both sides better understanding of the other's perspective. However, I think both sides are actually enjoying slinging the rhetoric and neither side is ' hearing ' anything other than insults. I enjoy Bulldogs posts because in fact he is right and is not one bit afraid to expose himself to criticism by those protecting the Qwest Center. I really enjoy dswitz posts because he's so good with semantics that I might just have enjoyed being insulted but I don't yet realize it.

Sadly, the real fact remains untouched; atendance is way down and it seems an easy consensus that the excitement and electricity level of the event is way down too. Its being held in unquestionably the best venue the state can offer yet it is being destroyed at the same time. Initially the Qwest was packed, and now the missing thousands of fans in just two years are sending a clear message without saying a word. Bulldog and others are trying to put it into words but its difficult; the real answers lie between the lines of their posts. The protagonists however are not filling their posts with solutions, clearly good suggestions or otherwise. So far berating Bulldog has been the only game in this thread, meanwhile the Qwest Center was only a little over half full just 2 years after it was completely full for this event! People, that is not Bulldog's fault, what's going on here? For all of us that supported the move to Omaha's Qwest Center, we better be listening to all of the detractors and if possible find those 8000 missing fans and ask them too just why the Qwest is now only half full in just two short years. The best venue in the state will be small consolation with further erosion in attendance and further erosion in the actual production of the event. JMO

TK: My semantics is good for that I was trained decent in the law school place. And no, I wasn't insulting you for a gentleman never insults anyone by accident. Further, in the mutual admiration society, I find your posts thoughtful as well. I better stop or people will think we're dating.

Just thought I would add we were treated very well by the Qwest Center personnel. They were kind but did the job they've been asked to do.