Local view: Lots of winners in State Fair's move

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BY DAVE FISCHER

Those of you who read my last Community Column, “Lincoln’s biker subculture exposed,” are now well aware that I have absolutely no credibility, so it should come as no surprise to you that this column is not going to be about hockey players, despite the teaser in that previous column.

For one thing, I know absolutely nothing about hockey or hockey players, other than they apparently don’t care to be referred to as “sweetie pies.” Who knew they could read? Just kidding here, guys. Besides, we shouldn’t be making fun of hockey players anyway; it’s not like they’re lawyers.

But speaking of hockey, the truth is that when the dust all settles from The Great State Fair Migration of 2010, it will be hockey that started the ball rolling.

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Dave Fischer

Dave Fischer

It all began 12 years ago when the State Fair Board removed the Lancaster County Ag Society from the Coliseum on the fairgrounds in order to install the Ice Box and create a home for the Lincoln Stars hockey team. Needing a new home, the Lancaster County Ag Society created the Lancaster Event Center on the east edge of Lincoln. Then along came a group of progressive business leaders who felt the University of Nebraska needed a research park, and so the university essentially did to the State Fair what the State Fair had done to the Lancaster County Ag Society.

Then things got really interesting. Many objective observers thought the Lancaster Event Center was the logical place to move the State Fair, especially because the university already owned a couple of hundred acres out there that was available for a convenient swap and the two entities shared similar missions.

But not so fast.

Would anyone be shocked that maybe those in charge of the event center were less than enthusiastic about providing a home to the folks who had run them off of the fairgrounds in the first place? And did the State Fair Board really want to place itself under the thumb of a county organization that maybe didn’t like it all that much?

You tell me, but for whatever reasons, the State Fair and the Lancaster County Ag Society will not be reunited in east Lincoln, regardless of logic, but will instead be moving to Grand Island.

There is a significant preamble to the whole saga of the State Fair, however. If the State Fair had been financially stronger and more popular with the public, it never would have been subject to relocation, even by the goliath that is the University of Nebraska.

The first major hit came 30 years ago when Husker Harvest Days began in Grand Island — ironic, huh? — and took all of the farm machinery (and most of the farmers) with it.

Then the second shoe dropped in 1982 when labor interests created Septemberfest in Omaha, which ran concurrent with the State Fair and offered rides, shows, parades, live music, cotton candy, funnel cakes, turkey legs and most all of the other stuff the State Fair offered, meaning that the population of our state’s largest city no longer had any reason or need to drive to Lincoln in early September, except to go to a football game. These two events combined to slowly bleed the State Fair, and it remains to be seen how the new State Fair will be affected.

Here’s a final scorecard from my perch:

n University of Nebraska: winner. It gets the much-needed research park.

n Lancaster Event Center: winner. It will thrive now that its biggest competitor is leaving town.

n City of Lincoln: winner. It got a significant expansion by the largest employer in town and an event center poised for growth.

n Omaha: winner. I predict that more Lincolnites will head east to Omaha for Septemberfest than will go west to Grand Island for the new State Fair if the events are held concurrently, at least once the novelty of that first year wears off.

n State Fair Board: If it attempts to replicate the traditional model that was the old State Fair in Lincoln, it will fail, but it has a wonderful opportunity to reinvent the concept in a fresh locale with new money and a supportive local community. Start by moving the date.

n Grand Island: Will having the site 90 miles farther away from the state’s two largest population centers further hurt fair attendance? Will the state’s farm community attend both Husker Harvest Days and the new State Fair, just a few miles and a few weeks apart? Will Grand Island’s taxpayers be willing to shoulder the financial burden into the future, should revenues fall short? That’s a local question that only they can answer, but give them high marks for stepping up and taking a chance.

Lastly, give credit to state Sen. Phil Erdman and the Nebraska Legislature for brokering the deal. Well done.

Dave Fischer is the owner of Frontier Harley-Davidson.