W-H confirms reason(s) Springsteen wont play Omaha..

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W-H confirms reason(s) Springsteen wont play Omaha..

Post by Omaha Cowboy »

Like we've stated..Qwest Center Arena expansion..And what we maybe didn't know: The Circus..

From the W-H piece:

'He might be the Boss but, in this case, the circus rules.

Rock star Bruce Springsteen's tour won't stop in Omaha this spring because the Ringling Bros. and Barnam & Bailey Circus already was booked at the Qwest Center Omaha on June 10, the date that promoters of the Springsteen show offered the arena.

Instead, Springsteen will play at the Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines on June 10.

This is only one of the blips in what will be an unusual summer concert season in Omaha. Because the arena will be closed for four months while workers add 1,472 seats to the arena's north side, the city probably won't be a destination for other big-name artists on the road.'..

It's interesting that the W-H piece states that had Omaha been able to get a Sprinsteen date (they offered the show to Omaha first), Des Moines probably would not have gotten the Springsteen show. So indeed it appears, Omaha's loss due to the circus and arena expansion, is Central Iowa's gain (in this case)..

From the W-H piece:

'The Boss was either going to play Omaha or Des Moines, said Don Sullivan, talent buyer for Chicago-based JAM Productions, the concert's promoter.'..

The complete W-H story link:

http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_pg=1458&u_sid=2160950

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Post by Ingersoll1978 »

LOL...reasons...reasons...more reasons... :wink:

This show isn't that big to begin with...here is the seating chart at WFA with the upper bowl closed off.
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Post by adam186 »

I'm not even going to say anything. I don't want this turn into a city vs city thread so.... :shock:
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Post by Omaha Cowboy »

Well, at least it confirms the reasons we had pretty much thought :lol: ..

But this is Central Iowa's time to shine..The show should be a sell out (it had better be :wink: )..As the W-H piece indicates, a goodly number of Springsteen fans from Omaha (and KC/throughout the region) will travel to see this show at WFA..

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Post by Omaha Cowboy »

adam186 wrote:I'm not even going to say anything. I don't want this turn into a city vs city thread so.... :shock:
Don't worry Adam..They only become one if flame bait is provided..

If one posts thoughtfully and without malice on topics such as this, we'd never have to concern ourselves with crapola such as that..

With that in mind, feel free to contribute..

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Last edited by Omaha Cowboy on Thu May 04, 2006 10:48 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by HskrFanMike »

If they are going to block off half of the arena, then why not offer up the Civic Auditorium for this?

Or move the circus to the auditorium?
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Post by omahahawk »

:cry: thats a bummer. Its just an unfortunate break though. I'm glad were getting the new seats and the circus is a paying act. Hopefully, the Qwest staff put in a strong effort to get him to double back.
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Post by Omaha Cowboy »

HskrFanMike wrote:Or move the circus to the auditorium?
I was wondering about that myself..I mean the circus used to play at the Civic for years..

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Post by Omaha Cowboy »

omahahawk wrote: Hopefully, the Qwest staff put in a strong effort to get him to double back.
The W-H piece stated that this was a possibility..

I'd like to see it happen..

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Post by MTO »

Reasons reasons, throw them out the window right. It sure feels good to bask in the glory for once. If you pulled your head out of your |expletive| Josh you would be quickly humbled. Isn’t school out by then, even with that in mind they still restrict the seating area… oh well makes them look better if they can say it’s sold out.
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Post by Coyote »

Springsteen added additional stops on his Rising tour, but that was a special tour. Maybe he will add more to this tour - I hope. He gives his all on stage like few do.
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Post by jsheets »

If the planners for the Qwest had put these new seats in to begin with, we wouldn't even have this conversation today. Why doesn't the OWH point out that it was bad foresight to begin with? We shouldn't be having this conversation after having the arena open for just a few short years, in my opinion of course. It should have been completed with these seats before the place even had a grand opening.

The OWH also exaggerates a bit on that list, don't you think? Radiohead and Madonna? As much as I'd like to see Radiohead, I don't think they'll ever get closer than Chicago or Denver to us! Doesn't matter how many seats the Qwest would put in...

And good for Des Moines on pulling our slack. Now it's up to them to keep the concerts coming back, as we here in Omaha have really shot ourselves in the foot and are letting Des Moines (and even KC really) catch up while we lose our momentum.

This is a BIG mistake in the planning IMHO!
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Post by MTO »

I totally agree but at least they are going to get them put in very soon. Unlike the stupid hotel that needs the 500 room addition but has no plans on starting it.
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Post by Swift »

jsheets wrote:If the planners for the Qwest had put these new seats in to begin with, we wouldn't even have this conversation today. Why doesn't the OWH point out that it was bad foresight to begin with? We shouldn't be having this conversation after having the arena open for just a few short years, in my opinion of course. It should have been completed with these seats before the place even had a grand opening.

The OWH also exaggerates a bit on that list, don't you think? Radiohead and Madonna? As much as I'd like to see Radiohead, I don't think they'll ever get closer than Chicago or Denver to us! Doesn't matter how many seats the Qwest would put in...

And good for Des Moines on pulling our slack. Now it's up to them to keep the concerts coming back, as we here in Omaha have really shot ourselves in the foot and are letting Des Moines (and even KC really) catch up while we lose our momentum.

This is a BIG mistake in the planning IMHO!
Nah, Radiohead will play Omaha. Like I said previously, this isn't an actual tour, they're only playing 1 festival and a handful of shows to test out new material. They do this before every album.

I believe before Hail to the Theif they did it in Spain or Portugal.
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Post by Ingersoll1978 »

MTO wrote:Reasons reasons, throw them out the window right. It sure feels good to bask in the glory for once. If you pulled your head out of your |expletive| Josh you would be quickly humbled. Isn’t school out by then, even with that in mind they still restrict the seating area… oh well makes them look better if they can say it’s sold out.
LOL...you've got to be kidding. If the Boss really wanted to be in Omaha, he would have taken this smaller show to the MAC or the Civic. This is just another concert that I'm not interested in going to anyway in DM or Omaha (I had no excitement about U2, Coldplay, Aerosmith, Bon Jovi, Rolling Stones, DMB, Paul McCartney, etc.). The only concert that I've attended at the Qwest is Britney...and I haven't attended one, except for Stars games, at WFA yet (although I am going to Cirque Du Soleil). I'm hoping the Dixie Chicks do come to WFA though! :)

About your sold out comment, it would have worked for Sheryl Crow at the Qwest (she curtained off quite a bit as well). This "renovation" time will allow WFA to shine. Unfortunately, the real test will come after the Sprint Center opens.
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Post by adam186 »

Ingersoll1978 wrote:LOL...you've got to be kidding. If the Boss really wanted to be in Omaha, he would have taken this smaller show to the MAC or the Civic.
Too bad Qwest Center Arena was TOO BUSY for the boss. Is that why his managers chose Omaha before Des Moines in the first place? Just something to think about. :roll: Enjoy the hand-me-downs. :lol: LOL
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Post by Ingersoll1978 »

Enjoy the Circus!
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Post by adam186 »

Ingersoll1978 wrote:Enjoy the Circus!
Ha, I won't be going, but you enjoy all of us Omahan's going to DSM to fill up WFA since...
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Post by Ingersoll1978 »

It will be welcomed. :D
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Post by MTO »

Yeah I am a little worried about the Sprint Center it is true competition. BTW when is the WFA expansion? And when are they going to take out them blind spots?
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Post by DTO Luv »

jsheets wrote:If the planners for the Qwest had put these new seats in to begin with, we wouldn't even have this conversation today. Why doesn't the OWH point out that it was bad foresight to begin with? We shouldn't be having this conversation after having the arena open for just a few short years, in my opinion of course. It should have been completed with these seats before the place even had a grand opening.

The OWH also exaggerates a bit on that list, don't you think? Radiohead and Madonna? As much as I'd like to see Radiohead, I don't think they'll ever get closer than Chicago or Denver to us! Doesn't matter how many seats the Qwest would put in...

And good for Des Moines on pulling our slack. Now it's up to them to keep the concerts coming back, as we here in Omaha have really shot ourselves in the foot and are letting Des Moines (and even KC really) catch up while we lose our momentum.

This is a BIG mistake in the planning IMHO!

I don't think one summer of losing concerts is hardly losing our momentum. Losing it would have meant Springsteen wouldn't have even bothered to check out Omaha and gone directly somewhere else instead. In fact we have so much momentum going that we have to expand the arena to keep up.

I also don't think the Madonna show would have passed us over either. I don't think she's any more famous than U2 or the Rolling Stones. Her audience might be a bit more selective though.

I wish they would have gone with the outdoor area so we could have retained some of the concerts.
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Post by jsheets »

DTO Luv wrote:I don't think one summer of losing concerts is hardly losing our momentum. Losing it would have meant Springsteen wouldn't have even bothered to check out Omaha and gone directly somewhere else instead. In fact we have so much momentum going that we have to expand the arena to keep up.

I also don't think the Madonna show would have passed us over either. I don't think she's any more famous than U2 or the Rolling Stones. Her audience might be a bit more selective though.

I wish they would have gone with the outdoor area so we could have retained some of the concerts.
No, losing momentum is more like Springsteen liking Des Moines so much that he doesn't ask us the next time around. We haven't lost the momentum yet, as summer hasn't even started!

And has Madonna EVER gone to KC after became crazy famous? I don't know the answer. How about Radiohead after their star went crazy big? I don't know that one either.

I hope you're right, DTO, but I'm worried about losing momentum to Des Moines and KC. We had these acts coming here. I hope that they still call after we told them NO for a whole summer.
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Post by DTO Luv »

I'm not at all worried about Des Moines. They have had trouble selling out concerts. They had Green Day which pretty much guaranteed a sell out but they only drew around 8,000. (The national average for Green Day's concerts was 19,000) Gretchen Wilson's stop there was one of the least attended on that tour. I think they've only had 2-3 sellouts for concerts. Honestly think back to the last time when the Qwest Center didn't sellout. We either have or came very, very close. Even smaller shows at the Qwest (Dolly Parton, Matchbox 20) drew well and were some of the more profitable stops for those artists. I do think we will share concerts though. Shows that came to the Civic and Vets or the Coliseum in Ames have no reason to bypass the Qwest Center of Wells Fargo. But as far as it coming down to the big draws, Omaha will win.

As far as the Sprint Center.... I think we'll still do fine. KC has already had a bigger arena then us and more people. I think we must be doing something right to outdraw with a smaller arena (albeit newer) and less population. I remember after the Qwest Center opened the OWH did a story on how concerts in Omaha drew larger crowds than the same show in KC. The differance in crowd size was quite noticable.. By thousands of people in some cases. After that it seemed arena shows bypassed KC entirely.

One thing that may not make that bit of a differance is the the Sprint Center will actually seat less for most concerts (in the 14,000 range). Omaha's would seat 15,500 ( I don't think the addition would factor into end-stage concerts). However Des Moines seats the most for end-stage with 16,000+. But factor in that Des Moines can't sell well and Omaha sells better than KC, I think we stand pretty good chances.

I'm beyond tired of hearing how we compare to KC. Our arena is doing well and competing with places like the Pepsi Center in Denver, the Target Center in Minneapolis, and the Savvis Center in St. Louis.
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Post by Ingersoll1978 »

EDITED-I'm done beating a dead horse on this topic.
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Post by DTO Luv »

Well I thought the Green Day concert was lower. Sorry. But it's still hard tto justify not selling out the concert when they did practically every place else. Omaha, KC, and St. Louis didn't have any problems selling them out.

And I don't remember the Qwest Center having problems landing or selling events. You don't have problems with that your first year and then be one of the most profitable in the world. As of yet the Qwest Center has always done well.
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Post by MTO »

How many of those 16,000+ have an obstructed view?
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Post by Ingersoll1978 »

MTO wrote:How many of those 16,000+ have an obstructed view?
Not many (maybe 50 to 100?)...but does it really matter? They are still sold and count. The reason they even have them is because they would have had to close either 2nd or 3rd Ave permanantly to not have the support beams...which was out of the question.
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Post by StreetsOfOmaha »

I don't really care for Springstein's music, but it still would have been nice to have the concert.

At least it's jusified (albeit by poor planning) since we're missing the concert to ADD seats to the arena...aka more bigger concerts in the future.

But way to go DM.
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Post by Omaha Cowboy »

DTO Luv wrote: Omaha's would seat 15,500 ( I don't think the addition would factor into end-stage concerts). in St. Louis.
FYI-After the seat expansion..The Qwest center will seat 18,236 for center stage concerts, 17,860 for end stage..

And c'mon folks..If anything, the Qwest Center is on SUCH a roll, that it can actually turn down a Springsteen concert for the circus :lol: ..

It's hard for concert promoters to ignore the fact that the Qwest Center was the #8 grossing arena in the world in concert ticket sales for 2005..And now we will expand to an even larger size..

The Qwest Center is the premier concert arena venue of the mldlands..

And it will only get better..

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Post by Big E »

Wasn't it actually #8 in tickets sold (vs gross sales)? That's a potentially HUGE difference.

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Post by MTO »

Those are very consoling points there Lou. Yah hear that Josh we turned the Boss away, that’s how you got him.
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Post by Omaha Cowboy »

The ranking is for arena ticket sales..Qwest Center ranked #17 in 2004, #8 in 2005 (world-wide). Anyway you slice that one, it is huge..

And I think we can all agree that the Qwest Center Arena has been a smashing success and will only get better..It really is the premier arena venue in the midwest at this time..

And on that note, we'll close the book on this discussion..

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