NSAA Board of Control Accepts Omaha’s Wrestling Bid

LINCOLN – The Nebraska School Activities Association Board of Control voted 6-0 to accept a bid from Omaha to host the 2006 and 2007 State Wrestling Championships.

The Qwest Center will be the new home for the tournament on February 16-18, 2006 and February 15-17, 2007.

Omaha’s proposal included an offer from the Omaha Sports Commission to pay for the entire rental cost, including staffing and security, required for the Qwest Center. “We want to be a partner with the NSAA and bring State Wrestling to Omaha,” said Dan Morrissey, Executive Director of the Omaha Sports Commission, during his presentation to the Board on Thursday. “We’re going to be doing our best to make this a sell out.”

Omaha’s winning bid also included free parking to the competing schools and workers as well as an offer from the Qwest Center staff to take over the ticketing functions from NSAA staff at no charge to the NSAA and no additional mark-up to spectators purchasing tickets directly through the Qwest Center. Those items were lacking from Omaha’s proposal in 2003, when the state’s largest city first offered to host the State Wrestling Tournament.

“The biggest thing with Omaha is that it looks like they really want it,” said District I Board of Control Member Brian Maher, Superintendent of Centennial Public Schools. “Omaha has bridged the financial gap in my opinion and made it a facility versus facility issue.”

The additional floor space at the Qwest Center was one of the many factors weighed by the Board of Control. With its flexible seating, Morrissey and Qwest Center Vice President Tom O’Gorman displayed 8- and 10-mat configurations that could be set up on the arena floor.

The Qwest Center also offers more seating for spectators. In the 8-mat configuration, 14,111 reserved seats could be sold. In the 10-mat configuration, Qwest Center would have 13,211 available seats. The Bob Devaney Sports Center, offered by Lincoln, holds 12,159 fans of which 8,738 seats were sold by the NSAA as reserved seats for the semifinal round on Friday night and Saturday’s championship finals.

“Omaha’s proposal represents a significant change from two years ago,” explained NSAA Board of Control Chair Glen Morgan during the open discussion. “I’m in support of moving wrestling to Omaha.”

Morgan went on to explain that he believed Omaha successfully addressed the parking concerns, as well as the issues concerning Omaha’s seat tax. “I think our people will go into the Qwest Center and their jaws will drop,” said Morgan.

O’Gorman also explained that spectators will be able to park and stay all day in the Qwest Center parking lots for $6 or have the option of purchasing an unlimited access pass for $9 per day, allowing fans to leave the arena and come back and park. O’Gorman also explained that State Wrestling Tournament tickets could be bundled into all-tournament tickets that would face just a one-time application of the seat tax.

On Thursday, Lincoln proposed the use of the Devaney Center, the host of the State Wrestling Tournament since 1977, and offered the use of the Pershing Center for wrestling action on Thursday and Friday if the NSAA wanted to increase the total seats available for spectators to 16,000. Wendy Birdsall of the Lincoln Convention & Visitor’s Bureau offered the NSAA $31,500 in annual financial underwriting to help defray tournament expenses if the Board of Control awarded Lincoln the State Wrestling Tournament for the next two years. The annual underwriting fee to the NSAA would have increased to $41,500 annually if a five-year deal had been signed with the Capital City.

Birdsall tried to sell the Board of Control on the notion of Lincoln’s familiarity as the traditional state tournament host as well as the free parking to the teams and fans at the State Fair Grounds, where the Devaney Center is located.

“We had two wonderful proposals for state wrestling and I believe our Board of Control did an excellent job examining the vital factors that go into a decision of this magnitude,” said NSAA Executive Director Jim Tenopir. “There has been much public debate and speculation over the positives and negatives for keeping the State Wrestling Tournament in Lincoln and moving it to Omaha. One of those factors was the tradition that wrestling has built over the years in Lincoln. We are looking forward to building upon that excitement generated at State Wrestling and forging a new tradition in Omaha.”

Lincoln successfully wrestled the State Baseball Tournament from Omaha and Bellevue with Hawks Field at Haymarket Park as the host site along with Sherman Field. The Board voted 4-2 with Board Members Nate Stineman and Dr. Bob Reznicek casting the dissenting votes. Lincoln proposed a change in the tournament format, beginning tournament play on Saturday, May 13, 2006, allowing all of the qualifying teams to play their first round games in the facility that houses the University of Nebraska baseball team and the Lincoln Saltdogs of the independent Northern League. Winners’ bracket games would continue to be played at Haymarket Park, while losers’ bracket games would be played at near-by Sherman Field.

The Omaha Public Schools and Bellevue Public Schools offered the use of Omaha’s Seymour Smith Park and Bellevue’s Roddy Field as the host sites for the tournament with the championship finals and possibly first round games at Rosenblatt Stadium.

In other agenda items, the Board of Control accepted proposals from the following communities to host other NSAA championship events, accepting bids for boys and girls basketball, swimming & diving, track & field, boys and girls tennis, and state speech and debate.

Event	Cities Bidding	Winning City	Facilities to Be Used	Length of Agreement	Board Vote
Wrestling	Lincoln & Omaha	Omaha	Qwest Center	2006 & 2007	Passed 6-0
Swimming & Diving	Lincoln	Lincoln	Devaney Sports Center	2006 & 2007	Passed 6-0
Boys & Girls Basketball	Lincoln	Lincoln	Devaney Sports Center, Pershing Center, Lincoln Public School High Schools	2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 & 2010	Passed 6-0
Baseball	Lincoln & Omaha-Bellevue	Lincoln	Haymarket Park, Sherman Field	2006 & 2007	Passed 4-2
Track & Field	Omaha	Omaha	Omaha Burke	2006, 2007 & 2008	Passed 6-0
Class A Boys & Girls Tennis	Omaha	Omaha	Koch Family Tennis Center @ Tranquility Park	2005-06 & 2006-07 academic years	Passed 6-0
Class B Boys & Girls Tennis	Lincoln	Lincoln	Wood Tennis Center	2005-06 & 2006-07 academic years	Passed 6-0
Speech & Debate	Kearney	Kearney	Univ. of Nebraska-Kearney	2006 & 2007	Passed 5-0-1

For basketball, the Devaney Sports Center, Pershing Center and two Lincoln Public School’s high school facilities will host the events for boys and girls through the 2009-10 seasons. Lincoln Public Schools will again dismiss school at the high school sites to alleviate parking concerns at those locations.

In other Board of Control action Friday, the Board decided the following:

q To split baseball into two classes beginning in the 2008 season if the number of schools registered reached 42.

q Rotate the starting time for classes at the State Cross Country Meet.

q Keep the 45-point mercy rule in 8-man football, but not extend it to the 11-man classes.

q Keep the four sets of 8-team brackets for the football playoffs in Class C1, C2, D1 and D2.

q Not allow bonus points for D1 and D2 football schools playing 8-man schools that are ineligible for the playoffs because of being over the enrolment list for 8-man football.

q Move State Journalism to Monday of Week 45 (May 8) beginning in 2006.

q Table the bids from Kearney, North Platte and Lincoln for the Boys Golf Championship site selection, requesting more information.

On Friday the NSAA also hosted its 2005 Representative Assembly in Lincoln. The 2005 Representative Assembly passed a proposal to allow Class A football schools to begin 2006 regular season play one week earlier. By starting earlier, first round and quarterfinal football playoff games in Class A will be played on Friday nights. The current football schedule has first round games beginning on Wednesday with subsequent rounds played every five days after that (Wednesday, Monday, Saturday).

The Representative Assembly also passed a proposal allowing schools to hold student-earnings from team fund-raising events in a school account for the student’s use at summer camps or clinics. In music, the Representative Assembly also passed a proposal adding jazz choir as a competitive category to the district contests.

NSAA Board of Control members are: District I - Dr. Brian Maher, Superintendent, Centennial Public Schools; District II - Dr. Bob Reznicek, Athletic Director, Omaha Westside; District III - Glen Morgan, Superintendent, Neligh-Oakdale Public Schools; District IV - Mike Troxel, Principal, Sutherland High School; District V -- Nate Stineman; Superintendent, Southern Valley Public School; District VI - Chuck Hafer, Superintendent Mullen Public School.