Rosenblatt Stadium: Weekend Stompin' Spot Photo by Jim D. Berryman NebWrap June 16, 2003 STOMPIN' WEEKEND CWS and Comstock stompin' fun; "Hot Tub Hatch"; rural airports see decline By Jim D. Berryman MissingNebraska.com Editor This is NebWrap, a new weekly column on MissingNebraska.com. It’s a wrap-up of some of the things going on in Nebraska and a look at what’s to come. Let’s rap about Nebraska… Ho hum. Grass growing, birds chirping and not much else going on. Just another warm and lazy weekend in Nebraska. Think again. Sections of Nebraska were rockin’ over Father’s Day weekend. Perhaps “stompin” would be a better word. From tens of thousands of music fans stompin’ to a country beat at the huge Comstock Festival near Comstock to the Texas Longhorns stompin’ the Miami Hurricanes in the College World Series, unfolding before the nation’s eyes in Omaha. Yes, Nebraska is a busy place this summer. And it couldn’t have been a better weekend. Even though it’s been stormy, the terrible nasty weather from last week has quieted down a bit. It was a great weekend to do just about anything. And there was plenty going on. The College World Series has showcased Omaha in an amazingly positive light. Around the country I’m sure Omaha is the butt of many of the old Cleveland-type jokes. I know because I’ve heard them first hand. However, ESPN’s coverage has been outstanding. The network has conveyed Omaha in a light that feels nostalgic. It really is a great setting for the nation’s best college baseball teams. Newspaper reports suggest Omahans continue to get into the CWS spirit. One guy on ESPN’s coverage commented that it’s the one thing that brings people in Omaha together each year more than anything else. At Comstock, Kenny Rogers closed the show to the delight of thousands of concertgoers Sunday night. The Comstock web site features musical artists saying how “down home” the event is compared to the “big business” feel of concerts in major cities. Comstock is in a field in the middle of nowhere. It has to be one of the most unique, natural settings for a venue in the country. To get this many people together three times a year is a remarkable accomplishment. Of course the Windmill Enterprises Co. puts on a Rock Fest, God Fest, and another Country Fest all before mid-September. -- Also going on, about a dozen or so doses of reality came to Lincoln this past weekend. At a fundraiser for a children’s AIDS camp, a number of television’s reality TV celebrities were on hand for a number of appearances and events around town. Celebrities from “Survivor”, “The Amazing Race”, “The Bachelor”, and MTV’s “TRL” participated. According to press reports, Richard Hatch, the Rhode Island man who won the first “Survivor”, dropped his towel and got into the camp’s hot tub nude. (For those who aren’t familiar with the first installment of “Survivor”, Hatch was famous for getting naked on a regular basis.) Still a lot of money was raised for a worthy cause, a growing camp called Camp Kindle. It is a camp for kids either infected or affected by HIV and AIDS. -- On a down note, air traffic into Nebraska’s smaller airports is down again. According to a story in the Omaha World Herald, the Alliance, Chadron, Grand Island, Kearney, McCook, Norfolk, North Platte and Scottsbluff airports saw a 2.8 percent decrease in traffic in the first quarter of 2003 compared to a year earlier. Great Lakes Aviation and United Express serve these Nebraska cities. Lincoln’s airport saw traffic decline again as well. Only Omaha’s Eppley Airfield increased traffic. I think with improved schedules and competitive rates, numerous more people would fly into Nebraska’s rural airports. The small express jets of today allow for this. As long as you don’t mind flying in a small plane, it would be so easy to connect to flights anywhere in the world through Denver. As for Lincoln, I know why passenger traffic into the airport is declining. It is because there are fewer seats going in! Lincoln Municipal Airport has become an almost exclusive “express jet airport”. It used to be the airlines would fly 737s and other larger passenger jets into Lincoln, but now it’s almost all smaller express jets. It seems the airlines have branded Lincoln a secondary market, cut costs by shrinking the size of jets flying in, and have no intentions of thinking otherwise. I’m happy about Eppley’s success, but don’t see why Lincoln’s airport can’t offer the same fares and types of planes as Omaha. In the week ahead, the College World Series continues, so check in with MissingNebraska.com for updates. Plus details on Nebraska’s football schedule through 2006. That and more in the next NebWrap, for now, that’s a wrap. Feedback/Suggest A Topic Previous NebWrap Columns: 06-09-03: Give Me A "C" NebWrap