Big XII Disses the Civic - Time to Blow It Up?

This week's news featured two body shots to Omaha's Civic Auditorium. First, the Omaha Ak-Sar-Ben Knights confirmed that they are folding and moving to the Quad Cities. Then, the Big XII conference rejected Omaha as a host for the Big XII basketball tournaments, citing the Civic Auditorium being unsuitable.

The Knights situation closes a sad (but thankfully brief) chapter in Omaha hockey history. In the end, the Knights finally realized one of the truths of fandom when Calgary Flames President Ken King said yesterday:

"There are a lot of loyalties to a lot of different sports here. And when you're the last of three hockey teams to enter the market, it's really tough."

The word "fan" is a derivative of the word fanatic...a word that in turn implies an emotional attachment that sometimes defies logic. Some people will talk about the AHL as being the "second best hockey in the world" and seem amazed that Omaha's didn't embrace it. But many Omaha hockey fans chose to remain loyal to "their" team, whether it was the Omaha Lancers or the Nebraska-Omaha Mavericks. Fans stay loyal to their teams no matter what. I may think Steve Pederson is a ego-driven used car salesman, but I still donate to the program, buy tickets, and support the team. UNO's ousted administration may have guilty of graft, misconduct, and gross mismanagement, but I still support the Mavs.

Apparantly Calgary somehow thought that they could get more Omaha hockey fans to dump the other hockey teams. They paraded out their "Best! Best! Best!" campaign as their opening game approached, and immediately started their downward spiral. Too bad they didn't try to grow the Omaha hockey audience instead. So there goes one of the anchor tenants in the Civic, who were given a sweetheart deal to keep the place occupied.

The Big XII's decision on the Civic Auditorium was rather curious when they somehow determined that the capacity of the Civic was 7980 instead of the actual capacity of 9300. Where did that 7980 figure come from? My guess is that they used the estimated capacity of Council Bluffs Mid-America Center, which in light of the questionable future of the Civic, was suggested as an alternative venue for women's basketball. My guess is that the Big XII was responding to the underlying premise of many...Omaha's Civic Auditorium is essentially obsolete at this point. The Big XII apparantly didn't even seriously consider the Civic, using excuses of lack of capacity (getting the figures wrong) and claiming they didn't want to play on someone else's home court (then putting 2 out of 3 women's championships on Missouri-Kansas City's home court). The Big XII just didn't want to come out and say "the Civic is a dump". We haven't heard the results of the feasibility study of the Auditorium, but the events of this week seem to indicate that the Civic's days are numbered.

Here's my take...Omaha still needs a secondary arena like the Civic. Not everything requires an 18,000 seat arena like the Qwest Center. High schools and colleges still need a place to hold graduations, not all concerts draw 18K. Meanwhile, the infrastructure of the Civic is aging and contains obsolete exhibition space underneath the arena that will be a money pit. In the near future, we'll find out that while the needs for the Civic still exists, it's going to cost more to maintain than it's worth. If Omaha is going to compete with the likes of Kansas City for championship events, then Omaha is going to need a facility to match. The Civic isn't that place...but a new UNO Coliseum near the old Ak-Sar-Ben complex just might be.

Some people locally might scoff at the idea of Omaha challenging the likes of Kansas City and Dallas for Big XII championships...but certainly others around the Big XII took Omaha seriously. If Omaha can find a way to replace the obsolete Civic Auditorium, they very well might find themselves as a future player for Big XII basketball.

Comings and Goings and Developments

Bill Callahan filled the open spot in the Husker coaching staff by hiring one of his former players at Wisconsin, Joe Rudolph, as tight ends coach. Rudolph doesn't have a lot of experience in coaching, so it looks like Callahan is basing this hire on their 5 years together at Wisconsin and with the Philadelphia Eagles. DoubleExtraPoint has a little more commentary on Rudolph.

The Lincoln Journal-Star reports that expected starter Mike Huff will miss spring practice after surgery on his Achilles' tendon, putting his status for the fall in question. Another starter, senior Chris Patrick, appears to be exiting the football program, with both Patrick and Callahan declining to say anything.

The Omaha city council yesterday voted to spend $70,000 to determine how viable the Omaha Civic Auditorium is in the long term. Currently the Music Hall sees sporatic activity and the arena is home to the Omaha Ak-Sar-Ben Knights (for this season anyway) and the Omaha Beef. This looks to be the first step towards justifying the construction of a new mid-town coliseum near Ak-Sar-Ben for UNO hockey and basketball. This one bears watching as UNO ponders the future of it's athletic programs. And as the Capitol Avenue corridor in downtown Omaha continues to be redeveloped, the land the Auditorium currently occupies will soon become much more valuable for future economic growth for the city of Omaha.

Speaking of UNO, Bowling Green is heading into town for the first round of the CCHA playoffs. While Bowling Green struggled for the first 4 months of the season, they've played better as of late, winning games at both Michigoon and Michigan State in the last few weeks. In any event, playoff hockey can bring out the best in a team, making playoff hockey one of the most exciting sporting events you can find. If that isn't enough of a reason, it's the Omaha swan song for UNO's career scoring leader, Scott Parse. UNO is firing up the Hobey Baker hype machine for Parse, who will attempt to break the 200 point barrier this weekend.

No word as to whether or not Bowling Green is bringing any duct tape or Sharpies with them this trip. Not sure what that means? AJ gets a little more graphic and explicit in his explanation....