When the Nebraska State Fair fell on hard times a few years ago, moving the event out of Lincoln surfaced as a possible solution.
JOE DUGGAN / Lincoln Journal Star | Posted: Tuesday, September 4, 2007 7:00 pm
When the Nebraska State Fair fell on hard times a few years ago, moving the event out of Lincoln surfaced as a possible solution.
Now that the fair recorded its fourth straight year of higher attendance in the Capital City, the relocation pitches are rolling in again.
The Kearney Area Chamber of Commerce sent a letter Friday expressing interest in becoming the new home for the fair. Meanwhile, a member of the Sarpy County Board of Commissioners has declared his county the perfect spot between the state’s two largest cities.
While the attention is nice, any talk of moving the fair is premature, said Barney Cosner, executive director of the State Fair.
“We’re happy here,” he said. “We’ve been here since 1901 and I’m going to still say … the Nebraska State Fair is going to be at State Fair Park in 2008 and beyond.”
Roger Jasnoch would like to see a new State Fair Park about 135 miles west of Lincoln. In his three-paragraph letter, the president of the Kearney Area Chamber of Commerce said his city is poised to be the fair’s permanent home.
“Our central location provides a convenient venue for all Nebraskans to attend this annual event,” he said.
Jasnoch decided to send the letter after University of Nebraska Chancellor Harvey Perlman said last week that the fair should be moved to make way for a public-private sector research corridor that would link the university’s city and east campuses. A possible location for the fair at Kearney would be near a proposed Interstate 80 exit at the Archway Monument.
While Jasnoch doesn’t expect the State Fair’s board to jump on his proposal, he wanted to let them know the city of 27,000 residents, 1,500 motel rooms and 50 restaurants is very much interested.
“We want to be at the table if it comes to that,” he said.
The pitch to move the fair to Sarpy County didn’t even come with a letter. Instead, Rich Jansen, a county commissioner and farmer near Gretna, said he simply wanted to throw his county’s hat into the ring before it got too crowded.
Jansen, who also is president of the Sarpy County fair board, said he’s thinking a State Fair somewhere near the Gretna I-80 exit would draw strong crowds from Lincoln, Omaha and Fremont.
“I think it would be a great idea,” he said.
Most State Fair board members, however, think the event should stay put. Even board member Steve Rogers, who lives between Gibbon and Kearney, said he supports keeping the fair at its historic location.
Moving the fair likely would cost tens of millions of dollars and the board is not willing to take on debt, said Jerry Fitzgerald of Gering, the board’s chairman.
“We have said from the beginning we are not going to strap the taxpayers of Nebraska with the funds it would take to move it,” Fitzgerald said Wednesday.
The idea of moving the event from State Fair Park came up last year when a group of Lincoln leaders called the 2015 Vision Group suggested relocating it to the Lancaster Event Center.
Their suggestion got the Legislature involved, which ordered a study of the issue. The study, due on Nov. 15, will determine what it would cost to build an ideal state fairgrounds and what it would cost to bring State Fair Park as close to the ideal as possible, Cosner said.
Jeff Maul, executive director of the Lincoln Convention and Visitors Bureau, said ultimately the Legislature will decide whether the fair stays in Lincoln or moves. He said he’s confident Lincoln will prove to be the best home for the fair.
A 2003 study estimated the fair’s statewide economic impact at nearly $28 million. Maul, however, said he’s never seen a study that estimates how much the fair generates in lodging revenue for Lincoln.
Reach Joe Duggan at 473-7239 or jduggan@journalstar.com.