Beef Home Opener

Uncle Neil (left) tracks the statistics from press row.
The Omaha Beef opened their (its?) 2008 home schedule with a game Saturday night at the Civic Auditorium.

This is the Beef's ninth season and Dad and Uncle Neil have been part of the team's statistical crew from the very beginning. Things have changed over the years:

> The pre-game press meal went from a prime rib and full buffet to sandwiches to pizza to popcorn to just pop to nothing.

> Parking for the crew went from inside the building to a lot outside the arena to a lot down the street to parking on the street.

> Per-game pay used to be $15. Nine seasons later, it still is $15.

> We used to get two season tickets. Last year, we didn't get tickets until the day of the game. This year, no tickets (so far).

> They used to back-time the start so the game really kicked off at 7:05 p.m. Saturday night, the kickoff didn't occur until 7:27 p.m. and, combined with a 25-minute halftime (25 minutes?), the stats crew didn't get out of there until nearly 11 o'clock.

Oh well. The Beef won. And more importantly, more than 7,000 fans were on hand - the second-largest turnout for a Beef game in franchise history. The next home game is March 29. If you're in town, consider checking it out.