State Fair (Omaha, Lincoln, Grand Island: deal, park, island)

[Dave1215]

Originally Posted by shmccr

The NE state fair is THE NE FAIR. NOT where the old legislators want to move it fair. ..............Really we need to keep the fair near the people.

Anywhere the fair is in the state is near the people, because every person in this state is a Nebraskan. Just because you live in a population center does not make you any more a Nebraskan than someone that lives in a remote part of the state. The person in Hay Springs is just as much a Nebraskan as the person in Wahoo.

So you are correct, this is THE NE FAIR, so as someone who lives in the primary population center of the state (Omaha metro area), I fully support this being in Grand Island. The success of the fair is its rural and agricultural roots.

Its not all about the convenience of the city folk... its a State event. (coming from a city guy).

[mattpoulsen]

Schmccr,

First, you can't just move the fair anywhere you want. To host the fair you have to have significant infrastructure in place. You "Wahoo" idea would get absolutely no where as they have nothing that could remotely fit the bill!

Further, Lincoln had a chance at moving it to the Lancaster Co. Events Center, but no one could get their act together and ultimately GI stepped in and took it off their hands.

The truth is the fair has been near the population center for a long long time and to be honest the people in the population center simply haven't supported the fair. Not to many in Omaha (where I live) or even Lincoln really care that much that the fair is moving.

I say move the fair to the center of the population of people who appreciate the fair! And that's EXACTLY what they're doing!


I also won't even go into how extraordinarily ignorant of the issues related to the research park you seem to be. UNO and UNK don't even do a significant amount of research! The states leading researchers (minus those at UNMC) are at UNL. With those researchers comes 100's of millions of dollars of preexisting research equipment, facilities, and laboratories. That...in a very small nutshell is why the research park and "whatever business" needs to be near UNL's campus. This isn't a highschool science project!

If you truly think having funnel cakes near UNL's campus is more important than a $300 million research park...well then I guess I'd have to say you're crazy.

[star_gazer]

While I think it's good to move the fair closer to those who appreciate it... I do think you're going to see a -significant- drop in attendance. It took but a tiny percentage of those attending from Omaha/Lincoln who "didn't appreciate it"... to boost those attendance numbers. The fair will never be the same... in some ways, it may be better... but for any fair enthusiast who hoped to approach the type of success Iowa has... forget it.

By the way... I went to the Minnesota State Fair last weekend... my gosh... it makes the Iowa State Fair look like... well... the Nebraska State Fair. Apparently their 'big city' people appreciate the fair.

[itsMeFred]

The NE state fair is THE NE FAIR. NOT where the old legislators want to move it fair. LET THE PEOPLE DECIDE. Some from 'greater', less populated NE may feel left out but the people that PAY to go to the BIG fair reside in the populated areas of the state.

Oh good grief.. It's only going to GI, not Scottsbluff!
It's less than 100 miles from Lincoln to Grand Island. Barely out of Eastern Nebraska...

I drive farther than that to go to the mall. lol

[JustMe_T3K]

Well I don't have an opinion yet as I don't have all the facts yet.
But found this song on youtube made by someone that doesn't want
the state fair moved.


YouTube - Sad State of Affairs by Tom Roth


YouTube - Sad State of Affairs by Tom Roth

[Gunluvver2]

Although I live in Lincoln currently I want to see it move to GI. Hopefully they can add rodeo events and more dirt track car racing. Doniphan is just a few miles down the road with an existing dirt track. Maybe even some motorcycle events. Some of the top rodeo cowboys in the World live in Nebraska.

GL2

[Dave1215]

Originally Posted by Gunluvver2

Although I live in Lincoln currently I want to see it move to GI. Hopefully they can add rodeo events and more dirt track car racing. Doniphan is just a few miles down the road with an existing dirt track. Maybe even some motorcycle events. Some of the top rodeo cowboys in the World live in Nebraska.

GL2

Would love to see Rodeo added to the state fair - great idea!

[jlawrence01]

As an "out-of-stater" and veteran of three Nebraska State Fairs, I think that there will be a decline in the number of visitors to the fair. The Nebraska State Fair is NOT a destination fair IMO and moving it to Grand Island will make it less accessible to visitors in Lincoln and Omaha.

If you move the fair to GI, will there be enough hotel rooms in the Grand Island area to handle visitors or will you have to head to Kearney for accommodations?

[mattpoulsen]

Well, maybe the fair WILL become a destination fair if its in Grand Island. There are quite a few hotels in Grand Island and Hastings is about 20 minutes away, which, in terms of time, isn't any longer than many had to drive when the fair was in Lincoln. Plus, there won't simultaneously be a NU football game going on, which is the occupier of many many the hotel rooms on the weekend.

I would also add that GI already accommodates Husker Harvest Days which brings in something like 90,000 attendees (I can't find the exact #'s) in a three day period. Well, the state fair this year over Friday, Saturday and Sunday of the first weekend of the fair brought in approximately 103,000. And that was with the nearly 20% increase, attributed to the nostalgia effect. The prior year attendance was about 86,000 for the same period.

So I don't really understand why you think GI can't handle this volume of people. The Grand Island chamber of commerce lists 20+ hotels (not counting the no-name hotels) and that doesn't even count Hastings, 20 minutes away.

You'll have the state fair, Fonner park and Stuhr museam all a few minutes apart with easy access and little congestion. I think you're vastly underestimating Grand Island's ability to bring in a crowd. I also think most of this talk about how GI is completely incapable comes from people who have never spent any actual time in GI. Its pretty elitist and I'm going to get a kick out of the situation when GI turns it into a respectable event.

[itsMeFred]

I think you're vastly underestimating Grand Island's ability to bring in a crowd.

I agree.
Grand Island a major city.