A house cleaning..Some early trouble for Wells Fargo Arena..

Post by **Omaha Cowboy** » Wed Dec 07, 2005 7:37 pm

So the solution is, because the Royals are poorly attended at this time, for them to disappear?..Now I unerstand why the ORoyals have poor attendance in the first place (actually I already knew): Apathy..

AAA baseball has been left for dead in several other metros: OKC, Memphis, Indy etc..But have turned around (mainly due to a new venue built)..This may or may not happen for Omaha..But if metros smaller in size like Des Moines etc can have healthy AAA attendance, Omaha should as well..

I've said it before, the potential of Omaha losing AAA baseball after having a AAA team in the city for MOST of the last 50+ years would not reflect well on Omaha and be a black eye for the city..The same can be said for the AHL Knights..I would hope that city leaders, ORoyals ownership etc do not develop these same apathetic attitudes and come up with some visionary or innovative solutions to the ORoyals attendance..If not, indeed the ORoyals are done here..

The potential of a new fan and family-friendy ballpark in North DT is a start..

One edit-

'That is not 300,000 out of the metro's 800,000. It represents a high percentage of repeat customers (look at attendance per game).'..

There is really no way to determine this..But from my observation through actually attending ORoyals games (I attend 12 or so per season), there is roughly 250-500 core fans that attend most of the home games, the remainder of the fans are transient, or occasional game attendees..

By the way, does anyone have any additonal comments about the thread topic?.. If so, feel free to make them..

..Ciao..LiO....Peace

Ingersoll1978 · Post by **Ingersoll1978** » Wed Dec 07, 2005 10:14 pm

We have had 3 concerts announced for WFA over the past 72 hours:

Nickelback
Nine Inch Nails
Martina McBride

WFA is doing fine. It takes a while for a new venue to get into the flow of things (same as the Qwest).

We did just hear some GREAT news on another front for Downtown Des Moines!

From WHOTV:

Huge Expansion for Allied

Des Moines, December 7th - It will be the biggest construction project since the Principal building went up and the biggest expansion of a company Des Moines has ever seen.

Channel 13 has learned Allied Insurance tomorrow will announce a huge expansion of its downtown offices. City leaders have been working on this deal even longer than that. In fact, we were told that when Allied opened its headquarters building along Locust two years ago, Allied's corporate leaders pointed to the land next door and told city leaders they'd expand with a second huge building downtown. Tomorrow they'll come through on that promise.

The building will cover 650,000 square feet, the largest construction project in downtown Des Moines since 801 Grand was built. Now maybe the biggest "get" for Des Moines is the more than 1500 new jobs Allied will create with this expansion. The deal also calls for the construction of a new parking garage. The city will own it. Allied will guarantee parking in it.

Our sources tell us this wasn't an easy deal for the city. In fact, Des Moines was in competition with several other cities around the country for the expansion project. City leaders tell me they are pretty happy with the deal. Des Moines is giving Allied some tax rebates, but the city says it will still make about a million dollars in tax revenue the first year the building is open.

No comment yet from Allied. We should hear from them tomorrow at an 11 o'clock news conference.

MTO · Post by **MTO** » Wed Dec 07, 2005 10:20 pm

Ingersoll1978 wrote:We have had 3 concerts announced for WFA over the past 72 hours:

Nickelback
Nine Inch Nails
Martina McBride

WFA is doing fine. It takes a while for a new venue to get into the flow of things (same as the Qwest).

We did just hear some GREAT news on another front for Downtown Des Moines!

From WHOTV:
Huge Expansion for Allied

Des Moines, December 7th - It will be the biggest construction project since the Principal building went up and the biggest expansion of a company Des Moines has ever seen.

Channel 13 has learned Allied Insurance tomorrow will announce a huge expansion of its downtown offices. City leaders have been working on this deal even longer than that. In fact, we were told that when Allied opened its headquarters building along Locust two years ago, Allied's corporate leaders pointed to the land next door and told city leaders they'd expand with a second huge building downtown. Tomorrow they'll come through on that promise.

The building will cover 650,000 square feet, the largest construction project in downtown Des Moines since 801 Grand was built. Now maybe the biggest "get" for Des Moines is the more than 1500 new jobs Allied will create with this expansion. The deal also calls for the construction of a new parking garage. The city will own it. Allied will guarantee parking in it.

Our sources tell us this wasn't an easy deal for the city. In fact, Des Moines was in competition with several other cities around the country for the expansion project. City leaders tell me they are pretty happy with the deal. Des Moines is giving Allied some tax rebates, but the city says it will still make about a million dollars in tax revenue the first year the building is open.

No comment yet from Allied. We should hear from them tomorrow at an 11 o'clock news conference.

OK great! but what does Allied have to do with the WFA?

Ingersoll1978 · Post by **Ingersoll1978** » Wed Dec 07, 2005 10:25 pm

Just sharing the excitement. I just saw it on the news! I can't believe how large this expansion is. They just built a new 500,000 sq ft. headquarters building a couple years ago to the east of this land. It won't be a tall building though, it's going to be along Gateway West Park. It sure beats there old headquarters of 2 stories though (which hopefully will be demolished for a new WFA headquarters hotel).

MTO · Post by **MTO** » Wed Dec 07, 2005 10:29 pm

Speaking of convention center/arena hotels did you know we are getting couple more hotels in by the QCO? I can’t remember the room count but I think they will be kind of tall with plenty of amenities.

Ingersoll1978 · Post by **Ingersoll1978** » Wed Dec 07, 2005 10:32 pm

Yes...I am aware of this...one being a Hampton Inn and I forgot the other? There is a thread on here somewhere about it.

Linkin5 · Post by **Linkin5** » Wed Dec 07, 2005 10:35 pm

whoa, thats really good news for Des Moines, congrats!

Post by **Omaha Cowboy** » Wed Dec 07, 2005 11:10 pm

Excellent news for WFA and Des Moines in gereral..

Congrats!..

Edit: Looks like Nickelback will be playing at the Qwest Center as well..

..Ciao..LiO....Peace

DTO Luv · Post by **DTO Luv** » Thu Dec 08, 2005 7:08 pm

pkiphd wrote:
Ingersoll1978 wrote:We have had 3 concerts announced for WFA over the past 72 hours:

Nickelback
Nine Inch Nails
Martina McBride

WFA is doing fine. It takes a while for a new venue to get into the flow of things (same as the Qwest).

We did just hear some GREAT news on another front for Downtown Des Moines!

From WHOTV:
Huge Expansion for Allied

Des Moines, December 7th - It will be the biggest construction project since the Principal building went up and the biggest expansion of a company Des Moines has ever seen.

Channel 13 has learned Allied Insurance tomorrow will announce a huge expansion of its downtown offices. City leaders have been working on this deal even longer than that. In fact, we were told that when Allied opened its headquarters building along Locust two years ago, Allied's corporate leaders pointed to the land next door and told city leaders they'd expand with a second huge building downtown. Tomorrow they'll come through on that promise.

The building will cover 650,000 square feet, the largest construction project in downtown Des Moines since 801 Grand was built. Now maybe the biggest "get" for Des Moines is the more than 1500 new jobs Allied will create with this expansion. The deal also calls for the construction of a new parking garage. The city will own it. Allied will guarantee parking in it.

Our sources tell us this wasn't an easy deal for the city. In fact, Des Moines was in competition with several other cities around the country for the expansion project. City leaders tell me they are pretty happy with the deal. Des Moines is giving Allied some tax rebates, but the city says it will still make about a million dollars in tax revenue the first year the building is open.

No comment yet from Allied. We should hear from them tomorrow at an 11 o'clock news conference.
OK great! but what does Allied have to do with the WFA?

I'm not surprised to see Nickelback in WFA. They are a pop band that will usually play in smaller markets because of their undeserved succes. NIN: good for the WFA but they still are coming 'here'. Martina McBride? I still go back to what I said about Tom Petty. When she was here she played at the MAC (or maybe even the Music Hall but I'm still thinking the MAC) and in DM she's in the premier arena. Other than Paul McCartney I haven't seen any acts that are big gets.

As far as Allied.... It's funny you should mention them Josh. I probably handled more payments from them than any other place today. To be honest I do handle a lot of payments from DM insurance companies. It's great to see all of that money from DM flowing into Omaha though.

I get a few EMC payments every week. I've only handled one from Principal. The rest from DM are kind of no name places. There's another one that starts with an A that I can't think of that I see regularly.

Ingersoll1978 · Post by **Ingersoll1978** » Sun Dec 11, 2005 11:06 pm

DTO Luv wrote: I'm not surprised to see Nickelback in WFA. They are a pop band that will usually play in smaller markets because of their undeserved succes. NIN: good for the WFA but they still are coming 'here'. Martina McBride? I still go back to what I said about Tom Petty. When she was here she played at the MAC (or maybe even the Music Hall but I'm still thinking the MAC) and in DM she's in the premier arena. Other than Paul McCartney I haven't seen any acts that are big gets.

As far as Allied.... It's funny you should mention them Josh. I probably handled more payments from them than any other place today. To be honest I do handle a lot of payments from DM insurance companies. It's great to see all of that money from DM flowing into Omaha though. I get a few EMC payments every week. I've only handled one from Principal. The rest from DM are kind of no name places. There's another one that starts with an A that I can't think of that I see regularly.

As you know, the Qwest is able to curtain off sections to accomodate smaller concerts...WFA can do the same thing and that is what they are doing for some of these concerts. If they wanted to play at Vets, Civic Center, Hoyt Sherman Place, or the Val-Air...they could. The Mid-America Center is evidently doing a better job at attracting these events now than before when they were bypassing it for other venues.

I don't quite get what your logic is with the payments from Allied etc...after all...there are many in Omaha paying premiums to these companies???? They are creating 1600 jobs, with expansion...downtown...that is all that matters to me really. Minimalize it if you want...I know its a great thing for Des Moines and the region (including Omaha).

DTO Luv · Post by **DTO Luv** » Mon Dec 12, 2005 9:26 pm

Ingersoll1978 wrote: I don't quite get what your logic is with the payments from Allied etc...after all...there are many in Omaha paying premiums to these companies???? They are creating 1600 jobs, with expansion...downtown...that is all that matters to me really. Minimalize it if you want...I know its a great thing for Des Moines and the region (including Omaha).

I wasn't minimalizing anything about Allied. I'm just saying that it was kind of coincidental to go to work and handle a ton of payments from Allied and then coming home and reading about them on the computer.

Uffda · Post by **Uffda** » Tue Dec 13, 2005 10:40 pm

Volleyball is a terrible sport to watch

I will have to disagree strongly here. After watching a UNO hockey game last weekend.... I will say hockey is a terrible sport to watch..

OmahaRules · Post by **OmahaRules** » Wed Dec 14, 2005 8:03 pm

Hockey is fun to watch if you know what you are watching. Plus I enjoy the Knights because they fight, I know most people think fighting is bad for the sport but I enjoy it. Go to a Knights game drink a few beers and try to sit next to the glass its a blast.

Scuzz · Post by **Scuzz** » Wed Dec 14, 2005 10:10 pm

Ingersoll1978 wrote:What can the Royals (and the Knights) do to get better support?

As Al Davis would say, "Just win baby!" That's what these teams need to do to attract fan support. The Royals just have not been a good ballclub for a while. The surest way to win over fans is by having a quality product that wins most of the time. If that happens, more fans will show up and the infection would be contagious. Unfortunately, with minor league players, when chemistry starts coming together with the players, they may be called-up to the pro team. Therefore, you need a very solid coach, and there are very few coaches that can pull off long-term success with a semi-pro team (Flip Saunders with the Sioux Falls Skyforce is one recent coach that comes to mind).