Tuesday, February 12, 2008

UNO Bumped By Keith Urban, Carrie Underwood, Wrestlers, Circus

But not Keith Urban and Carrie Underwood wrestling in a circus, which would be something entirely different.

Nebraska-Omaha plays their homes games at the Qwest Center in Omaha, which is actually one of the nicest facilities in all of college hockey. Of course, the problem is that UNO doesn't own the facility, and when you're a college hockey program in The City You Never Knew Was So Big, you're not always the top priority.

This weekend, Nebraska-Omaha hosts Bowling Green in a two game series. But the Nebraska state high school wrestling tournament is this weekend, and that gets higher priority at the Qwest, meaning UNO will play their games at the Civic Auditorium in Omaha. The Civic Auditorium was the former home of the Mavericks before the Qwest was built, and isn't that terrible for the Mavericks. The smaller arena creates a more intimate, intense atmosphere, compared to the cavernous Qwest, which UNO has trouble filling.

A more important scheduling conflict could be on the way though. The Mavericks, who are currently in 5th place in the CCHA, seem like a very strong bet to host a first round CCHA playoff series, which was scheduled to take place March 7-9. The problem is, the Qwest is currently booked to host a Keith Urban and Carrie Underwood concert on March 7th, and the ice at the Civic Auditorium won't be available because it is being taken out to accommodate the Shrine Circus.

Because of the conflict, the CCHA has allowed UNO to schedule their first-round playoff games for Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday. Luckily, moving the game one day earlier shouldn't hurt their opponent too much. The CCHA will have five home-and-home series in the final weekend of the regular, so nobody will be too far from home.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

For a minute there I thought you were talking about Uno, the beagle that won Westminster this year.

Anonymous said...

On senior night, the announced attendance was 10,598. That's more than what most college teams were pulling in that same night.