Grand Island/Hastings get State Volleyball (Omaha, Lincoln: school, move, arena)

[tpabes]

So first the State Fair moves to G.I. and now State Volleyball for at least 2 years. Any thoughts? Personally I think its great that they got the bid. The girls wouldn't get to play at the Colisuem anyway because of Husker football games, so I see the Heartland Events Center as just a good arena as Pershing. Hope GI/Hastings to a great job of hosting.

[Dave1215]

I think its great. Was just visiting with my son the other day about how it would be great if more things related to state sports were balanced between being more central in the state and the urban populated area... I would love to see things split between Omaha, Lincoln, and GI....

[BJEP]

I agree, I am from Grand Island and the impact of the transition will benefit our town greatly as an economical stand point. It will bring dollars to businesses of central nebraska and even though the Coliseum is kind of the trade mark of state volleyball, the Heartland Events Center is a really nice venue, that will play part better than the cramped stuffiness of Pershing. Plus I don't know if it's just me, but the Pershing's seating actually scares me.

[Go Ne]

Maybe, someday, Scottsbluff could get something.

[ehenningsen]

The state needs to keep sending events to the tri-cities..

While they need to keep events in Omaha/Lincoln, the tri-cities have a high population concentration that shouldn't be ignored..

The population rate in the tri-cities area is fairly substantial and it is only going to continue to become the second most dense population center of the state..

Grand Island is inches from becoming the state's third metro core city with Kearney starting to pick up steam and will likely become the fourth..

I see Hastings being a part of the GI metro area when the new definitions come out in 2013 with a population of nearly 110,000.. (Not including the Kearney Micropolitan area)..

I have posted this information before, but the tri-cities have a more potent market region than Sioux City, St. Joseph, Manhattan KS and etc... And only getting stronger and quicker as of late..

Let's keep pumping more resources into the state's second largest market and continue to grow it!..

[Sandhills Guru]

I think this is great news. Hopefully some of the other highschool sporting events will follow.
When it comes to football, why not hold them in different areas of the state anyways? Possibly keep your Class A & B in the eastern areas but you do get a lot of smaller class teams from the central areas so move those to the west.