Kansas City, Omaha, and the Pittsburgh Penquins

[Hawkeye]

With Kansas City making such a bold offer (free rent and an ownership stake in the new Sprint Center) it made Ol' Hawkeye wonder if Omaha could have come up with any kind of pitch to lure the team here in the event that the city of Pittsburgh is unable to devise a plan to keep the team and build a replacement for the Igloo.

Isn't Omaha considered more of a hockey town than KC? And Mario Lemieux already has ownership of a team in town (Lancers). QWEST is a terrific hockey arena. And there are plenty of cities/metros in America not much bigger than Omaha/CB that are one-pro-team cities (talking Big Four leagues here, not AFL or Major League Soccer) that do quite well including Salt Lake City, Portland, Green Bay, Memphis, Columbus, Sacramento, etc.

With all of those factors, plus KC already having MLB and NFL, it seems like this would be Omaha's one big shot to lure an actual, true-to-life pro sports team to town.

Thoughts?

[Brad]

We have 3 threads on this not

Go see the "KC hockey" in the elsewhere section, or someone also posted an article under "sprint center"

[StreetsOfOmaha]

Whoa, settle down there little fella.

[Brad]

Whoa, settle down there little fella.

Little..... Apparently you havn't seen me lately.... I am growing quite the beer storage facility in my mid section.

Two things...

1. People need to use the search

2. This "Urban" "Suburban" etc... are under the development headding, not sports or news or general

[Ben]

Hawkeye-

While I'd love to believe that Omaha has a chance, given our size and beautiful arena in the Qwest center, our experience with the Knights have shown the professional sports world that we just won't drum up the support necessary for any pro team. I don't blame this all on Nebraskans - I think the Knights have done an awful promotions job - the Knights attendance is in the bottom 25% for all AHL teams, and we're one of the largest cities to have a team.

Being an outsider (I lived in NYC and Chicago prior to moving here 1.5 yrs ago), I can't understand why people here will flock to college events and not pro, but if we want a big time team, we've got to show support where we can. The Mavs generally draw twice the crowd that a typical Knights game will. The NBA exhibition game at Qwest earlier this year drew barely 10k, where Creighton can regularly fill at least 12-14,000 seats, even in non-conference games. Same sort of thing, but not to the same extent with the Omaha Royals. AAA baseball draws decent crowds over most of the country, but here, the only games we can sell more than a couple thousand tickets for are the CWS.

Growing up in NY, I bleed NY Ranger blue, and watch hockey any chance I get. There's nothing more that I'd love than a pro hockey team here in town (especially one with the likes of Crosby, Malkin and Fleury), but being realistic, we don't have a shot. I'll just have to be happy with the short roadtrip down to KC to watch them play.

[Asten]

Hawkeye-

While I'd love to believe that Omaha has a chance, given our size and beautiful arena in the Qwest center, our experience with the Knights have shown the professional sports world that we just won't drum up the support necessary for any pro team. I don't blame this all on Nebraskans - I think the Knights have done an awful promotions job - the Knights attendance is in the bottom 25% for all AHL teams, and we're one of the largest cities to have a team.

Being an outsider (I lived in NYC and Chicago prior to moving here 1.5 yrs ago), I can't understand why people here will flock to college events and not pro

I suspect a few things
1) college is generally plenty enjoyable, and has had decades (or years in the UNO hockey team's case) to establish a following.
2) college is generally more affordable. By a lot. For a similar product.
3) The Knights aren't NHL, and thus not really viewed as Pro by a lot of people. They don't understand the difference between them and the lancers, really. I agree that a lot of THAT goes back to shoddy promotion by the Knights backoffice, but regardless, the issue exists.

[DTO Luv]

Knights attendance has actually been up lately even with little promotions. (at least from what I haven't seen)

I was at both NBA games here and the first was 12,000+ and the second 11,000+. I don't think anyone especially cares for either team but Omaha would support our own team better.

I think Omaha could support ONE team. It's not nearly as important to me now about getting one but it would still be cool.

I also think part of the reason Omahans are spotty about the Royals and Knights is that they would prefer for it to be the next level up. Sports fans are used to a big deal. Case in point the huskers. They were a big deal for a long time and I think that's the level of playing people are used to. Not so much a minor leauge team.

[Brad]

http://eomahaforums.com/phpBB/viewtopic ... 7926#67926

[Greg S]

Qwest was not billed for pro sports. The Sprint Center has 72 luxury boxes, I believe Qwest has 32.

If the O Royals had a new stadium (minor league baseball is all about the small, quaint, kid/fan friendly stadiums, they would draw well. If you look at the leaders in minor league baseball attendance you will notice they all have newer, smaller venues that Rosenblatt. The Salt Dogs in Lincoln don't draw well based on their ability, it's all about spending an evening in Haymarket Park.

Greg

[Hawkeye]

We have 3 threads on this not

Go see the "KC hockey" in the elsewhere section, or someone also posted an article under "sprint center"

Whoa! Sorry fella. SINCERELY didn't mean to break protocol or upset the apple cart. It's just maddening (as a lifelong Penguins fan no less!) to see that team potentially leaving Pittsburgh (first and foremost I'd prefer they just stay put) and then for the city of Omaha to APPARENTLY not even make a run at them when it looks like Pittsburgh has dropped the ball (or puck as it were) for the last time.

We've got this spectacular arena which is just now expanded to a more suitable number of seats...downtown in the midst of a total renaissance of the entire area, and we're a significant city of nearly 1 million and KC already has top level pro sports and I'm not convinced they can support another team, and Omaha is more of a hockey city than KC and yet, the city doesn't even make a pitch to bring the team to DTO? Again, I have no inside knowledge...maybe the city DID approach Lemieux and he shot them down quickly. If that's the case, then I apologize and withdraw the comment. But on the surface it sure looks like Omaha didn't even take a stab at it.

And to those who say "Omaha has proven it can't support pro sports because they don't show up for the Royals and Knights games"...that's ludicrous. It's like saying, "Nebraskans don't show up to UN Kearney football games, so therefore they won't show up to see the Huskers play."

The reality is Omahans and Western Iowans have shown time and time and time again that they will support BIG TIME sportis. And by BIG TIME I'm referring to Creighton DIVISION I basketball, Nebraska football, the CWS, the volleyball championships, the swimming trials, etc...These are things that make it on SPORTSCENTER for chrissakes. These are things that are on national TV. These are things people other than the die-hard sports-is-my-life-and-I'd-watch-a-competitive-tiddly-winks-match-if-it-were-played-here people care about.

NO ONE gives a damn about AAA baseball. No one gives a damn about minor league hockey, whether the players are being paid or not (i.e. pro v. amateur) is ABSOLUTELY MEANINGLESS in the debate over whether Omaha/CB would be able to support a MAJOR LEAGUE pro sports team.

People in this area are used to their teams and events getting national coverage, and that is what they are into, not some two-bit minor league pro stuff that is utterly meaningless on the national stage.

So to compare our POTENTIAL support of a major pro sports franchise (especially a marquee name like the Pittsburgh Penguins) with our support of some nameless, under-the-radar minor league schmucks is about as disingenuous and self-defeating of an argument as I have seen on here in many moons.

[Mr. Cox]

http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/attendance?year=2006

Here's the average home attendance for the NHL. So even if we sold out the QWEST Center every night, we'd still only be 14th in attendance. It's a tough sell.

Personally, I think Omahans would get behind an NHL franchise. We're definitely a hockey town. One thing though, if the team sucks, we won't show. But I guess that's the case with everybody.

[DTO Luv]

Forget the Penguins lets get the Blackhawks (Chicago). 10,000,000 people and the United Center is only a little over half full on average? Maybe the NHL isn't out of the question in the future.

[Hawkeye]

A lot of what some of you have said is very true. And yes, the QWEST isn't the "perfect arena". Maybe it doesn't have quite the same number of suites as some of the arenas in larger cities, and so forth.

But it's a thousand times better than Mellon Arena, AND it's already built, operating, and ready to roll.

Anyway, like most of you have pointed out, it's pretty much a pipe dream...just disappointing that there seems to have been absolutely no attempt whatsoever.

[murfj]

Omaha is my local city and I'd prefer to see a team like the Penguins end up there, however realistically I don't think it could happen, as Omaha is not actually in the same league size-wise as those others you mention (the exception being Green Bay). Portland is right at 2 million, Sacramento is about that, Salt Lake City is around a million and a half, and I can't speak specifically for Memphis or Columbus, but my understanding is that they are also around that 1.5-2 million mark. With Omaha being "only" around 875,000, I don't think it looks like an attractive place just yet- I think breaking that 1 million mark as many have talked about in the past for attracting businesses holds true for major sports teams as well.

I would LOVE to have NHL in Omaha, but if the Penguins end up in KC I'll have to settle for driving down there for some games, I'll just be happy to have an NHL team within reasonable driving distance for a change.

[Harpoon]

We already have too many hockey teams in this market, and nobody supports the best team of them all, the Knights. Face it, until we get high school hockey in Nebraska (which is never), we won't see a pro team here. That's all folks.

[UNOstudent]

high schools do have hockey teams, they have 'club' hockey teams.

http://www.hockeyteam.us/default.aspx

[UNOstudent]

after finding that wsj article about omaha, i decided to look up other articles about omaha from other newspapers. i found one about cities where pro teams might possibly relocate in the future.

from the baltimore sun, Oct 19, 2006

Headline: SMALL CITIES HAVE BIG HOPES FOR ATTRACTING PRO FRANCHISES; THE FLIP SIDE; THE KICKOFF


Ladies and gentlemen, your Boise Potatoskins!

MSNBC.com has compiled a list of top 10 U.S. cities that could land a professional sports team. Excluding cities that already have teams or have been widely mentioned as potential homes, the list (alphabetically) is Albuquerque, N.M.; Austin, Texas; Boise, Idaho; El Paso, Texas; Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers, Ark.; Fort Myers-Naples, Fla.; Naperville-Aurora, Ill.; Omaha, Neb.; Riverside, Calif.; and Tucson, Ariz.

Some highlights:

"Boise has a strong high-tech and potato-based business sector that each has plenty of chips available for the poker game that is wooing another city's team." (Chips, get it? Oh, that Web site humor.)

"One major strike against El Paso is all the talk of a wall along the Mexican border. As teams in Berlin during the Cold War could tell you, it's tough to draw from a fan base that has to clear a wall lined by soldiers with shoot-to-kill orders."

In Fort Myers, "it might be wise for whatever team locates here to have a lot of games start at 4 p.m., for 20 percent off the regular 7 p.m. game price." (Mr. Flip loves a good early bird special joke.)

If Tyson Foods built an arena for a team in Arkansas, it would be nicknamed the Chicken Coop.

And, of course, a major league team in Omaha would be called the Steaks and it would play at The Grill.

Not cricket

The International Cricket Council wants regular drug testing among the world's top cricket-playing nations. Pakistani bowlers Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif recently tested positive for a steroid. Given what little Mr. Flip knows about cricket - that the matches go on and on and on - he would assume governing bodies would be testing for NoDoz.

Compiled from wire and Web reports by Mr. Flip, who couldn't wear the all-white cricket outfits because he'd spill tea on them.

[UNOstudent]

after finding that wsj article about omaha, i decided to look up other articles about omaha from other newspapers. i found one about cities where pro teams might possibly relocate in the future.

from the baltimore sun, Oct 19, 2006

Headline: SMALL CITIES HAVE BIG HOPES FOR ATTRACTING PRO FRANCHISES; THE FLIP SIDE; THE KICKOFF


Ladies and gentlemen, your Boise Potatoskins!

MSNBC.com has compiled a list of top 10 U.S. cities that could land a professional sports team. Excluding cities that already have teams or have been widely mentioned as potential homes, the list (alphabetically) is Albuquerque, N.M.; Austin, Texas; Boise, Idaho; El Paso, Texas; Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers, Ark.; Fort Myers-Naples, Fla.; Naperville-Aurora, Ill.; Omaha, Neb.; Riverside, Calif.; and Tucson, Ariz.

Some highlights:

"Boise has a strong high-tech and potato-based business sector that each has plenty of chips available for the poker game that is wooing another city's team." (Chips, get it? Oh, that Web site humor.)

"One major strike against El Paso is all the talk of a wall along the Mexican border. As teams in Berlin during the Cold War could tell you, it's tough to draw from a fan base that has to clear a wall lined by soldiers with shoot-to-kill orders."

In Fort Myers, "it might be wise for whatever team locates here to have a lot of games start at 4 p.m., for 20 percent off the regular 7 p.m. game price." (Mr. Flip loves a good early bird special joke.)

If Tyson Foods built an arena for a team in Arkansas, it would be nicknamed the Chicken Coop.

And, of course, a major league team in Omaha would be called the Steaks and it would play at The Grill.

Not cricket

The International Cricket Council wants regular drug testing among the world's top cricket-playing nations. Pakistani bowlers Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif recently tested positive for a steroid. Given what little Mr. Flip knows about cricket - that the matches go on and on and on - he would assume governing bodies would be testing for NoDoz.

Compiled from wire and Web reports by Mr. Flip, who couldn't wear the all-white cricket outfits because he'd spill tea on them.