[Husker] Bowls & NU Ticket Sales Further Comment & Omaha Opinion

[Gary Fead]

Greetings Again:

I would like to clarify something here. In my original note on this subject I stated that I would not expect NU (referring to the NU ticket office) to sell more than 4,000 tickets to a bowl in Orlando and perhaps as few as 2,000-2,500 to any other bowl. 

It is entirely possible that a large group of alumni would show up for a bowl in Houston or San Diego but they almost certainly will not purchase their tickets through the NU ticket office. Furthermore these aren't the people the local Chamber of Commerce are looking to attract. They want people who either fly/drive to the their location from Nebraska or some distance of over 750 miles and spend nights in hotels, eat in their restaurants and so on, something the locals don't tend to do. 

As far as demand building up I don't think so. There was an article in the Omaha newspaper last week where several travel agency officials were interviewed and I believe the general opinion was there would be little if any interest and most were not going to offer any tours.  

Another side note here, while at the Kansas State game the person sitting next to me (who lives in Lincoln) knowing that I live in Omaha asked me what the Omaha opinion of things in Lincoln was. I told him quite honestly that interest in Nebraska football these days is waning in Omaha, not to say there is some interest but not like it was 10-20 years ago. Omaha is a city that is rapidly growing with a lot of non-native residents now. A lot of people from the coasts have moved here and the Hispanic population is growing like mad and most of these people have little if any interest in Nebraska football. Basically the Nebraska population (or in this case Omaha's population) is becoming diluted. 

I even see this in my own home, my wife is not from Nebraska (she's from Minnesota) and while she hopes things go well for Nebraska she doesn't take time to listen or watch games unless I'm listening (which is never because I don't listen to the NU radio broadcast myself) or watching. My 14 year old son only watches on TV if I'm home (which means it's an away game) and never listens on the radio. When I was 14 I listened to every game on the radio no matter what, or we'd have a radio blasting outside while us kids in the neighborhood were playing touch football. 

Gary Fead
Omaha