HB you make the point of it leaving the Colisium and Pershing, but they were both in Lincoln not Omaha. People don't have anything against the Qwest center, they are against Omaha. This is a big difference. People mention here that the Iowa tourney is moving, yes it is moving to a different venue in Des Moines it is not moving to Davenport or any other city. I also saw something about the Pepsi center in Denver for Colorado's state tourney well the Colorado activities association had to move state up one week to accomidate the NBA All-Star game and during the finals it was only 3/4 full. So the point is it is an Omaha vs. Lincoln thing that people have the problem with not Qwest vs. Devaney.

Well Bulldog I guess everyone will make up their own mind in due time. There would be just as many people complaining had it continued to be held in the dump they call the Devaney Center. I'm not gong to pursuade anyone to see it my way anymore. The one thing that is for sure is the tournament is going to be held up in Omaha next year and people will choose to either live with it or not participate. If they don't want to come to Omaha then they can stay home and listen on Huskermat and watch the finals on TV. I'll promise you the seats will be filled with someone that does want to be there. Adios!

HB there is one problem that you have, you keep saying Devaney is a dump well it might not be as nice as the Qwest but people consider it home. With your frame of mind why don't we demolish Memorial Stadium because compared to other staduims it is a dump. Newer isn't always better I would still take a 65 mustang over a 2005 Mustang. Sure the 2005 might get a little better gas mileage, it might go from 0-60 faster but it doesn't have the nostalga that the 65 tang has. Same goes for Devaney where we crowned state champions for over 25 years.

I really did like having the state tournament at the Devaney. However, I feel it will be very successful at the Qwest Center as well. But, there are a few things I would like to say about those complaining about the Devaney.

To Coach Denson:

You should not complain about the floor space at the Devaney or there not being enough seating for the coaches. For one, you let one of your former Millard South wrestlers walk in the lower gate with your state qualifiers. Yes, this is true. You let a former wrestler, who now wrestles in college, walk into the sports center with your team on Friday and Saturday. All he had to do was strap a duffle bag over his shoulder. I know for a fact because I know who the kid is. Also, he was in the building at 7:00 a.m. They don't let the general public in until later than that. After getting in with your team, he proceeded to put on a t-shirt, shorts, and wrestling shoes in order to get himself on the floor. He was in fact sitting on the floor and taking up a seat that could have been used for a coach. Maybe you could have used that seat Coach Denson. Let a deserving coach use that seat instead of somebody you snuck in.

I saw my first Parade of Champions at the Bob in 1994 and became a huge fan of wrestling . I told my boys how cool it would be to see them walk in that parade some day .The same year we started wrestling freestyle qualified for districts and saw how dificult it was to be the top 4 at districts and qualify for state freestyle .We were hooked on off season wrestling .My oldest got to walk in that parade in 96 and my youngest watched and said some day he wanted walk in that parade like his big brother and win state .

As his wrestling improved and his winning percentage went up we traveled further and further to find kids to beat him and make him better . He was never so focused as when he was wrestling in Lincoln it was the state capitol . Thats where he saw his brother win , thats where his uncle won it twice , that was where his cousin won it twice that was where the Huskers wrestled on TV and that was where he would win it just like the big guys !

Brock i am glad your dream came true and I feel bad for the ones dreams who will not come true .

I made a prediction about five years that if we tryed to force people to come out west to
qualify for USA Folkstyle in Topeka no one would show up and in two years it would be moved back east . This would be followed by an exit of the hard working clubs & people that had built USA Freestyle be cause they would be disheartened and walk away this would cause our Freestyle program out west to collapse .How did I do ?

We no longer have a state tournament we have an Omaha tournament . We get to drive 8 hours instead of 7 hours , sleep in expensive motel rooms , miss days from school and work .To have our kids from a town of 10,000 compete against all star teams from a population base of what a couple million , and hey they can do their home work sleep in their own beds and spend nothing .

Thanks for reading my ramblings .

Bulldog...While I will admit that HB's adjective of the DSC as "a dump" is a bit of a stretch, let me say that there is no alternative to Memorial Stadium, and until one is built, that will always be the crown jewel for football in Nebraska.

The bottom line is that the DSC no longer is capable of hosting this tournament. It is simply too small a venue on so many levels, and now that there IS a bigger and safer alternative, we should embrace it and look forward to going to Omaha.

I'm with you on the small town vs. big city concerns. I grew up in small-town Nebraska. Until I moved to the burbs 11 years ago, the population of towns I lived in ranged from 800 to less than 5,000. Driving in Omaha scared the bejeebers out of me the first time I did it (going to state track those first couple of years were sheer torture, both on me and my vehicle).

But once you know where you're going (and getting to Qwest is so easy it's scary), Omaha is not THAT bad of a city to drive in. And for the areas where you and your fans will spend the vast majority of their time in Omaha, you don't have any more to concern youself with than you do in Lincoln.

DSC is a great basketball venue, but its days as being wrestling's mecca are done. And if the day comes when Lincoln builds a similar facility to the Qwest Center (or another city closer to your front door pulls the trigger on a facility), I'll be the first to say let's move it. As long as the safety of our wrestlers is put first, that's where it should be.

At the risk of stirring the hornets nest; I will respond to:

<<
We get to drive 8 hours instead of 7 hours , sleep in expensive motel rooms , miss days from school and work .To have our kids from a town of 10,000 compete against all star teams from a population base of what a couple million
>>

I think most of this is unchanged by the move to Omaha.

I will give you the extra hour drive; heck maybe its 1:20 or so if the traffic is heavy between Lincoln and Omaha. I wont give you that this amount of time translates into any extra days lost from school or work.

The "all star teams" from Omaha already exist; and you already have to compete against them. The population base they have to draw from will continue to be the same regardless of the venue of the state tournament.

I think the "expensive motel rooms" issue in Omaha is really one that is not substantiated. You don't have to stay at Embassy Suites or Hilton.

In fact; I only stayed one night in Lincoln this year due to the cost of the hotel that was picked out (Embassy Suites, $150+ per night after taxes). I am sure there are cheaper ones; but that was the one picked out by the school.

To Coach Denson:

You should not complain about the floor space at the Devaney or there not being enough seating for the coaches. For one, you let one of your former Millard South wrestlers walk in the lower gate with your state qualifiers. Yes, this is true. You let a former wrestler, who now wrestles in college, walk into the sports center with your team on Friday and Saturday. All he had to do was strap a duffle bag over his shoulder. I know for a fact because I know who the kid is. Also, he was in the building at 7:00 a.m. They don't let the general public in until later than that. After getting in with your team, he proceeded to put on a t-shirt, shorts, and wrestling shoes in order to get himself on the floor. He was in fact sitting on the floor and taking up a seat that could have been used for a coach. Maybe you could have used that seat Coach Denson. Let a deserving coach use that seat instead of somebody you snuck in.[/QUOTE]

Whoa, somebody is a little mad, I agree with you, this is pretty messed up, this really really messed up, i couldn't agree with helgith20 any more, let a deserving coach on the floor, or if that is tooken up let an official on the floor or someone with more authority than that wrestler, I feel that the state tournament in Omaha will be a great asset to Omaha, I have read all of the articles that have been posted and stand by my word, it will be a great asset to omaha, and GO HELGITH20!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Move the state tournament to the city furthest away from the center of Nebraska, Great Idea... Hell what's even trapping us in, on keeping it in Nebraska, Let's just hold it down in Kansas City where we can get even more room and nicer facilities

Green Goblin
You missed the whole point .
We travel 8 hours , miss more work and school ,pay for gas and motel rooms .

Omaha and surounding areas do none of these things and sleep in their own beds .

Our fans and students can not come because of time off and expense .

When we have had large events set for this end of the state we have asked why don't you guys come out and compete . The answer is we can't drive that far are you nuts ! May be we are .

When will tickets go on sale?

WHOA THERE MR. HELGOTH. Now you almost sound like you are attacking me? "I LET" this guy in? What happened to the ACE Devaney Detectives? I didn't let anyone in and the guy you are talking about isn't a part of our team. Hey, if you knew about inproprieties, you should have approached this person or made like 5-0 and told someone in authority. Now that would have been the right thing to do. I control my team and my coaches. The rest is up to the staff of Devaney.

And on the seating. OK, if you guys want me to get into actuary sciences (which is not my forte), I will point out that the seating on the South Side during the Semi action can seat roughly about 1/4 of all the coaches in attendance. So you have about 1/4 chance of getting a seat down below. Are you following me? Now this number gets even less when you count wrestlers and their gear. (I think that guy that you were talking about actually didn't take a seat from a coach, he moved some GEAR that had been sitting in the seat the whole time. LOL!) So for the rest of the coaches and wrestlers. If you want to watch the action - WHERE do you go? Are you taken care of like you deserve? Hey, I hope you are a reasonable Man, Helgoth, but my good ole DCA education tells me clearly what the answer is.

ANYWAY, it is water under the bridge, my man. We are off to QWEST, and next year the people will start formulating their own opinions. I think people will see that it is easy to get to QWEST, they will see that rooms aren't that expensive, they will like close up parking, and they will like the other amenities of Omaha. Just a hunch, but that is what I'm going with on this one.

Right now, I have very important things to do like finding out who is the head of security of QWEST so I can bribe him and get extra people on the main floor! This is a worthy endeavor. NAW, wait, I just have to get ahold of one of those companies that own SUITES in QWEST. Now there is the ticket! Have your own SUITE. Got to run and get on that right now.

Later Grapplinman

Omaha couldn't be more than an hour farther away from Lincoln for anyone. I doubt it would cost much more.

Concerning the whole travel issue.

When my son Dan was a youth wrestler; he wrestled for the Bryan Youth club (south Omaha club). We traveled each and every year out to Kearney for Huskerland. It was fine with me. I remember it being in Omaha once; and it was awful (in some hotel, a really awful choice).

In youth wrestling; we traveled to tournaments in Beatrice, Lincoln, David City, Schuyler, North Bend, Fremont, Kearney, Falls City, Auburn, Norfolk, Milford, Waverly, Palmira, and a few in Iowa (Shenandoah, Neola, Sioux City, Indianola (AAU tournament), Council Bluffs). We traveled to Tulsa, OK on 3 different occasions for the Tulsa Nationals.

This year; I traveled out to Grand Island and Aurora for tournaments and duals, as well as Fremont and David City. As did a lot of the parents of the Gross HS wrestlers.

If the state tournament was in Ogalala or Kimble ... I would go.

Right this minute; Dan is in Blair, NE wrestling. So, the traveling is frequent as a wrestler from Omaha.

Travel time is a non issue, like Mr Pederson stated, if youve been around wrestling at all before high school, you should expect to travel a little, and the extra hour of a drive is going to be worth it when you see the parade of champions in the Qwest.

I will agree that travel time is not an issue really. If you are in school vans you can make it from Lincoln to west Omaha in about 45 minutes...or maybe that is just me

Coach Denson, I think Helgith20 might be thinking of two years ago. I don't remember seeing any former Millard South wrestlers on the floor this year, but I did talk to one last year. One seat I really don't think made much of a difference though, so it is really not an issue. I would like to know how he got in because I showed up this year at 6:30 am with a tie on carrying a team packet and they asked to see my wristband. How much seating is going to be set up for coaching at Qwest though? Mikey, I was hoping since you saw the proposal you could help me out. This is one of my concerns. I would hope they have taken it into consideration.

MM...they don't have it specified in the proposal, but if I remember right from the discussions Thursday, there was going to be seating available for coaches/wrestlers on the floor level. How many exactly, I don't know, but I would guess that both ends of the floor would have seating.