Omaha, Again.

Below is an Editorial that does not necessarily represent the views of SwimSwam.

So here we go again. For the 16th-straight year, the U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials are on their way back to Omaha Nebraska’s CenturyLink Center in 2020 to select the team that will travel to Tokyo for the 2020 Olympics.

And the swimming community yawned.

While the lack of build-up to the announcement that we saw in 2016 certainly hurt the *bounce* factor, our real-time traffic stats showed that even for such a huge announcement, the audience was just not that interested in Omaha and all that it has to offer.

We tend to agree.

When the Trials first went to the land of Corn in 2008, it was innovative. A temporary pool in a basketball arena that drew massive crowds. When they went back in 2012, people were still in awe of a meet in such a big event. 2016 rode the wave of Phelps’ comeback mania. But 2020? By 2020, Omaha will feel stale. This is not an assault on the city or the arena, which have done a phenomenal job in their hosting. Omaha have been great hosts. They’ve given us their full attention, once the baseball fans leave, opened their arms to swimming, they even let us watch the College World Series for free last year. But it’s time to move this meet elsewhere.

We’re Just Bored.

Swim fans have been to Omaha. We’ve seen the phenomenal zoo. We’ve eaten the food. We’ve walked the river. We’ve had the steaks. We’ve eaten at the cute ice cream parlors and candy shoppes in the Old Market, we’ve shut down just about every bar in town.

In a lifetime, the average person only gets a finite number of vacations. That’s doubly-so when so many of our vacation days and dollars are spent travelling to swim meets. We’ve seen Omaha. The Olympic Swimming Trials aren’t competing with Sectionals for a fan base. They’re competing with Disney World, or a trip to Vegas, or Caribbean Cruises. After seeing Omaha two or three times, people will want to use those finite vacations on new locales.

The Conflict.

This one has always been true, but in light of point one above, the costs driven up by the conflict with the College World Series will continue to make it expensive to find hotel rooms near the CenturyLink Center. Is it worth $200/night and having to drive 20 minutes each way when you’ve been to the Olympic Trials twice and there’s no Phelps?

Not if you’re a “swim fan.” A certain portion of the audience is athletes themselves and their parents. There’s always turnover in that demographic, always a new group that hasn’t seen the spectacle yet. But, as an overarching theme of where the sport is at, it continues to rely on the athlete base to drive its economy. If we’re pushing for the fan who is no longer/never was an athlete, these concerns are very real.

But Where?

There are logistical challenges to scheduling the Olympic Trials. They need a venue that’s around 20,000 seats, indoors, and most importantly – can be vacated several months in advance of the late July Trials. That means that most 20,000 seat arenas are eliminated because of their primary tenants in basketball or hockey. We don’t have a peak into how USA Swimming made the decision (even less-so than prior years), but sitting a few rows up, here’s a few viable candidates that seem like they’re worthy.

Author’s Note: We didn’t include Madison Square Garden, because New York would swallow the Trials up whole.

  • Houston, Texas – this one is a bit of a longshot, but the old Astrodome has sat in purgatory south of Downtown Houston, with a decade-long battle as to whether the fabled ‘8th Wonder of the Modern World” should become a parking lot, a parking garage, an indoor park, a convention center, or tons of other out-there ideas. Perhaps a major tenant for 2020 would sway the “keep” crowd. Plus, Houston has two airports, tons of hotels after hosting the Super Bowl earlier this year, and is easily accessible on direct flights from most parts of the country.
  • Kansas City, Missouri – Kansas City shares Omaha’s geographically-central location. In many ways, it has a similar vibe to Omaha, as a frequent host of major NCAA events and an agricultural history, but with a better music and food scene. 19,000-seat Sprint Center  doesn’t have a permanent tenant, though there has been lots of discussion about welcoming the NHL or NBA there. There’s also the Kempner Arena as another option, though older and planned to undergo a conversion soon to make it a regional amateur sports facility. The airport is small though.
  • Chicago, Illinois – The old Rosemont Horizon, now the Allstate Arena, seats 18,500 spectators – the perfect size. The arena plays host to the Chicago Wolves of the AHL and Chicago Sky of the WNBA, but those teams would be easier to shift to other arenas than would be NHL and NBA teams. It’s not in the city, but the public transport system makes it better. This is probably not a great option, but it could work.
  • Louisville, Kentucky – the 19,000 seat Freedom Hall and Kentucky Exposition Center is a perfect setup for the joint swim meet/Splash Zone setup. Not as central of a location as the other cities on this list geographically, but it would be in a city that supports swimming. There’s a relatively low count of around 20,000 hotel rooms in town, but there’s a building boom happening too that would fix that up by 2020.
  • Memphis, Tennessee – Again, an east-coast favoring city when the country’s swimmers tend west, but the 21,000 seat Memphis Pyramid could do the job. Great food, great night-life, and very driveable for a lot of swimming hubs. The Memphis Pyramid is now a giant Bass Pro Shops.
  • Las Vegas, Nevada – UNLV’s Thomas & Mack Center holds 19,522, the MGM Grand Garden holds 17,000, and Las Vegas knows how to throw a part…host a large-scale event. Plenty of hotel rooms, plenty of entertainment. Probably too much competition for butts in the seats and too many temptations that USA Swimming would like for its athletes and coaches to avoid, but everyone else would love it.
  • Seattle, Washington –  Seattle has a 17,500 seat Key Arena that plays host to the Storm of the WNBA, which is a potential conflict. But, Seattle is a fun city that can hold everyone. The added benefit is that USA Swimming is well-established in town, things to the King County Aquatic Center, which could serve as off-site training to relieve congestion in the main pools

Other viable arenas, if in more off-the-beaten-path cities (because hey: you probably didn’t know much about Omaha before 2008 either, right?):

  • Tacoma Dome, Tacoma, Washington – 23,000
  • Meadowlands Arena, East Rutherford, New Jersey – 20,049
  • BOK Center, Tulsa, Oklahoma – 19,199
  • Verizon Arena, North Little Rock, Arkansas – 19,000
  • Legacy Arena, Birmingham, Alabama – 18,500
  • The Forum, Inglewood, California – 18,000
  • U.S. bank Arena, Cincinnati, Ohio – 17,556
  • Times Union Center, Albany, New York – 17,500
  • Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena, Jacksonville, Florida – 16,301

This is an abbreviated list of the 40-or-more arenas with 14,000 seats that don’t host NBA or NHL teams. Each of these arenas has pros and cons, and it would be easier to cherry-pick why each one might not or would not work. The goal is to get it out of peoples’ heads that there’s only “a few” viable hosts.

The Olympic Trials have a lot of momentum. They’re going to be televised live every day in 2020. But they don’t have Phelps, and to keep that momentum and interest going, they need a shot in the arm. When an event is every year, like the College World Series, the vibe of the “home city” event works. When it’s every four years, the event doesn’t stake a claim to the city, they invade the city, and everyone forgets about us the next time we’re there. But we haven’t forgotten Omaha. We know it well. And we’d like to see somewhere else.

64
Leave a Reply

Subscribe
Notify of

64 Comments
newest
oldest most voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
SwimDad
7 years ago

What about Dallas. By 2020, there will be 3 stadiums sitting side by side. AT&T Stadium could easily host the main events in a fashion that would be tough for any other facility to match. And a brand new domed stadium for the Rangers will sit beside the existing Globe Life Park stadium which both sit next door to AT&T stadium. And I won’t even mention Six Flags sitting beside all of them. Plus Dallas has some of the best air service in the world. And clearly has 1,000 times the infrastructure (hotels, eateries, etc…) than in Omaha.

DC3
7 years ago

Love the idea of the Key Arena, they do funky events like this all the time and that place gets loud real quick.

Omaha Resident
7 years ago

I think its worth going a little deeper on the business side of things. The $$$’s. What resources are required to put on this event? Those will always drive decision making. Omaha works aggressively to price their facilities, court local sponsors, provide infrastructure and logistics, etc. Other cities mentioned may simply not put as much on the table for planners and organizers of this event to work with. That’s a big deal. Budgets are a big deal. This isn’t the Super Bowl folks. Lot’s of cities will not put as much of their back into trying to help put a solid event together.

Also, don’t forget about the $125 million multisport facility (big swimming emphasis) that is being built… Read more »

Ancient swimmer
Reply to  Omaha Resident
7 years ago

The problem for me has ALWAYS been the conflict with the CWS. Not only are the rooms completely outrageous ($400 for a Hampton Inn) but you can’t even get a reservation. In 2012 and 2016 I had to switch hotels mid event. Plus I am a busy physician with limited vacation time so even though I am a huge swimming fan three 8 day vacations to Omaha is MORE THAN ENOUGH!!!

swimswammer
7 years ago

16th straight year? They host trials every year now?

SwimNerd
7 years ago

I think Pepsi Colleseum would be a good choice. Being in Indianapoils you can find good food, good hotels (hosted a super bowl), and good people.

SwimNerd
Reply to  Braden Keith
7 years ago

Never realized it was that small. In my opinion Indy would be a great area to host trials with Bankers Life or Lucas Oil Stadium (which before has hosted the NCAA Basketball tournaments many times). The was also previous Trials history in Indy with The Nat as well.

MikeA
7 years ago

Trials isn’t just about the swimmers. It’s about selling the sport. Omaha changed the game in 2008. Time for someone to change it yet again. My two candidates: St. Louis, and the Twin Cities. But not ScottTrade or Xcel…I’m talking Edward Jones Dome (or whatever they call it today) and USBank Stadium. If one can sell 15,000 seats in Omaha, why not 25,000 or more in STL or MSP? Two cities that are great to visit that time of year. No conflicts at all with St. Louis, and too early to conflict with the Vikings in Minneapolis. Cities small enough to care, but big enough to be a Big Deal.

sven
Reply to  MikeA
7 years ago

Minneapolis is not a bad idea, but if I had a Rocket large enough, I’d load St. Louis onto it and launch it into the sun.

Swimclh
7 years ago

Greensboro would be great, now that sporting events are coming back to NC. Not a phenomenal city, but the ACC stadium is less than 100 ft from GAC. They could put up a tented hallway between the two structures and use GAC as the warm up and cool down pools. That would save a ton of money.
I think GAC also has a plan to add a second Olympic sized pool? That certainly wouldn’t hurt its chances.
Koury convention center is also cery close to there which could house a ridiculous amount of swimmers.

PA Swim Fan
7 years ago

Philly anyone? Just hosted a fantastic NFL Draft, has plenty of hotels, major airport, and the South Philly Sports complex is huge with boatloads of parking. Sixers and Flyers (unfortunately) stink so Wells Fargo center will probably be open. Not to mention that Philly/Pennsylvania has a lot of Swimming history with one of the fastest and most successful LSC’s in the Northeast and the country in Middle Atlantic LSC.

G.I.N.A
Reply to  PA Swim Fan
7 years ago

No .The Orangatang from Indianapolis Zoo stole the show .

Sean S
Reply to  PA Swim Fan
7 years ago

Clearly you don’t trust the process. Joel will be taking the Sixers to the finals in 2020

Leto
Reply to  PA Swim Fan
7 years ago

Philly is a great idea! Huge swimming fan base here and plenty of hotels etc. the are is in desperate need of a top notch LCM facility too. By 2020 I’m thinking Hextall has the Flyers as playoff contenders so WFC is out.

About Braden Keith

Braden Keith

Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

Read More »