Anyone from the Omaha out there? I was looking at Creighton's Morrison Stadium and thought "what a great place for a USL pro team?". I looked up some stats on Omaha. There's estimated 438,646 people in the city proper, 837,925 in the metro. That's a lot of people. Economy? Guess who claim's the city as hometown? Billionaire Warren Buffett. Wiki says "Omaha ranks eighth among the nation's 50 largest cities in both per-capita billionaires and Fortune 500 companies". And take a look at this cool stadium? Any thoughts?
Somewhere in some thread on here I've seen a pic of the downtown skyline from field level at that stadium. It really is sweet.
I've thought for years that Omaha would be a great USL-1 market and that Creighton's stadium would make a perfect place to play. If you could add like Tulsa and Des Moines and another Midwest city (bring back Milwaukee, per se) to Minneapolis, you'd have a nice little Central Division with decent rivalries and relatively cheap travel costs for both teams and fans.
Here's a little concept art to fan the Flames (so to speak)... What if the Omaha FC supporters group/development academy gets together with a venture capitalist to launch a top-flight men's pro team in USL? I brought back the old Omaha Flames name and colors and give you, The Omaha FC Flames...
First of all, here are a few more pictures of Morrison Stadium for you guys. (One with the skyline in the background, just for violetcrown ). I actually go to Creighton University, these were the best pictures I could find, the arial one is good, but I feel like I could take better ones of the main grandstand and I could even get some pictures from field level, but that's for another day. Now, as you guys already said, its a great stadium perfect for USL-1. The main grandstand is chairback only and fully covered. It has suites and a pressbox, as well as a video scoreboard. It is listed with a capacity of 6,000 but with the grass berm and standing room could actually accomodate closer to 8,000. Also, although i know most of you hate it, it has field turf. That being said, the turf is probably a positive because that helps ease fears of wear and tear from overuse. That leads me to Omaha's viability as a USL-1 market. As SoccerPrime noted, it is a good sized market. It's also i financially stable one. Most of all, however, it is one that supports soccer. Creighton University mens soccer ranked second in the nation in attendance last year and is poised to move into first this season. (last week against Missouri State the official attendance recorded 5,609) Also, for as large of a metro as it is, it doesn't have any professional teams other than the Omaha Beef of Arena Football. Competition probably wouldn't be an issue. The problems are if there is anyone with money willing to back a USL-1 team here, and if Creighton University would be open to sharing their beloved Morrison Stadium, even if rent was payed.
Very nice very nice. Sounds like its the Universitie's potential cock/stadium block and the lack of an ownership group, and little else, that has kept Omaha in the shadows as a potential USL-1 expansion frontrunner.
With 250 more of them, the USA would be a soccer nation. Not just 'could become'. Hell, with just 20 more of them, we'd be in awesome shape.
Equivalents = Rochester, Lochart, Nat'l Sports Stadium, Creighton, STLU, Cary, ReMax Atlanta, Uihlein (Milwaukee), Germanton MD... Battery < Rio Tinto, HDC, PHP, RB Arena, Toyota Park, Crew Stadium, Dick. So there is 16. We doing any better?
Key word is 'more'. While I wasn't being specific, I was meaning 20 more than we already have. And, yeah, looking back to where we were before we had the 16 that you list, I'd say that we're doing a lot better than we were then.
I remember that the Des Moines guys were talking about putting a team in Omaha, but that never got off the ground.
I'm pretty sure the only city the Des Moines (Menace) guys were trying to put a team in is Des Moines.
Menace couldn't even get their own pro team and stadium off the ground. Why would they want to place a team in Omaha? Of course, this is pro minor league soccer in America, so I am sure it makes logical sense.
I think the Cum and Go guys donated a ton of money to Creighton and they thought it was a better market than Des Moines.
CREIGHTON coach Bob Warming has said in the past that the University wanted another Soccer tenant in the Stadium... USL would only overlap with the CU Soccer season for a couple of weekends in early Fall! Easily accommodated... There are some people here in Omaha who are actively looking to put a USL team into Morrison Stadium...