‘On the Way to Everywhere’: Lincoln, Nebraska, Builds A New Era

On a drizzly summer afternoon, what might be the third-largest city in Nebraska is quiet. All that is moving inside Memorial Stadium are the memories, which give visitors ample time to use their imaginations and picture what a 103-year-old shrine to football greatness looks like when it’s engulfed by a sea of red. On seven Saturdays this fall from September through November, Memorial Stadium will fill with 85,458 fans, meaning that only Omaha, an hour to the northeast, and the state capital city that houses this venue will hold more people in a state with 580 distinct communities. There will be no empty seats, continuing an unbroken tradition that dates to 1962, and almost every person there will be a diehard Husker.

The impact of Nebraska football — its five national championships, three Heisman Trophy winners, and a sellout streak now numbering a record 410 consecutive home games — is undeniable. Equally so is the fact that in this city of 291,000 people, Nebraska football is not the only game in town.

Never was that more true than this summer. From the time the Savannah Bananas slipped into town for a two-game series in mid-June, through the five-day Gravel Worlds multi-race event that concluded on August 23, Lincoln delivered roughly 30,000 hotel room nights and an economic impact of $40 million. And all without a pigskin in sight.

“A lot of people claim Nebraska is in the middle of nowhere,” said Derek Bombeck, Director of Sports at Visit Lincoln. “But we’re on the way to everywhere.”

Big Love for Big Red

In a state without a major professional sports team — or another power conference football school —it has long been fashionable for Nebraskans to unite around the Cornhuskers. That loyalty goes far beyond just the football team, and has been on display for a national audience with regularity in recent years.

In August 2023, a record crowd of 92,003 people packed Memorial Stadium to watch Nebraska’s vaunted volleyball team defeat Omaha. It was 70,000 more people than have ever seen a volleyball match in person, and it helped electrify an entire sport, so much so that a women’s professional volleyball league (League One Volleyball) launched in 2025, with one of the six founding franchises placed in Omaha.

Nebraska, in fact, is the winningest program in college volleyball history, and has five national championships of its own as well as each of the past three Big Ten titles.

And yet in 2025 it might not have even been the best team on campus. That honor may belong to the softball team, which reached the Women’s College World Series for the ninth time, the first time since 2013.

Then there was the . . . men’s basketball team? Yes, the historically irrelevant Cornhuskers not only won a game in the NCAA tournament for the first time— becoming the last power conference team to do so — they won a second as well, advancing to the Sweet 16 last March while playing before overwhelmingly pro-Husker crowds in Oklahoma City and Houston.

Roping in Major Events

The summer of 2026 gave Lincoln the chance to show what it can do when school is out. In July, two major events were held in the city at the same time, competing for hotel space and attention.

The first was the National High School Rodeo Finals, a title that hardly does justice to what took place at the Sandhills Global Event Center. The organization includes members from Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Mexico as well as 44 states in the U.S. Held at a 400,000-square-foot building that has long been the site of the Lancaster County Fair as well as numerous trade shows and tractor pulls, for six days in July, it welcomed competitors taking part in everything from barrel racing, breakaway riding and goat tying (girls) and steer wrestling, bull riding and tie-down roping (boys), all in front of a grandstand packed with fans.

While some high school students were bullriding, others were across town were aiming at a bullseye. The Junior Olympic Archery Development Program’s Target Nationals & U.S. Open events took place at the Lincoln Sports Foundation, bringing nearly 1,000 competitors from around the the United States and several other countries to Lincoln.

“Their hospitality and support of us as a national governing body have been great,” said Mary Emmons, interim CEO of USA Archery who has been with the organization for 15 years. “They hit on all cylinders: plenty of parking, wonderful fields, an excellent field crew, and strong hospitality from Visit Lincoln and the foundation.”

According to Visit Lincoln, it was the biggest event in USA Archery’s history: 950 athletes and 2,500 spectators, which led to 3,000 hotel room nights and a $5 million economic impact. Combine that with the turnout for the rodeo event (2,000 competitors, 5,500 spectators, 100,000 attendees, an estimated 5,000 hotel room nights and a $15 million economic impact) and it made for the most significant sports tourism week for the city in recent memory.

It will all happen again next year, too. The NHSRF will be back for the second year of its two-year stint, and USA Archery will also be returning for an event, with the city well-positioned as a candidate to host the sport’s Olympic trials in 2028.

History in the Heartland

Visitors who want to enjoy the past as well as the present have plenty of options in Lincoln. The Museum of American Speed is home to more than 400 full-sized automobiles. There’s the five-millionth Ford Model-T that rolled off the assembly line in 1921; land-speed racers from the early 1960s, such as the jet-engine-powered “Spirit of America” driven by Craig Breedlove that once went a record 407.5 mph in 1963; and a display of open-wheel cars driven by the Unser family that would win nine Indianapolis 500s.

The most touching part of the museum is the wall of lunchboxes from the 1970s and ‘80s collected by Clay Smith, more than 600 of which are on display. As a sign in the museum reminds visitors, Smith had never had a lunchbox, so he created the display and dedicated it “to all the kids like me who didn’t get a lunchbox.”

Across town is the Nebraska High School Sports Hall of Fame, which chronicles more than a century of prep preeminence in the state. One display lists every high school in the state, including those that have closed over the years, ensuring full representation, and a collection of helmets from football programs across the state. The highlight for football fans: the full uniform worn by future Nebraska Heisman Trophy winner Eric Crouch from his days at Omaha’s Millard North High, helmet included.

The sports future of Lincoln is also getting plenty of attention. In April 2025 the city opened the Sandhills Global Youth Complex, the first baseball and softball complex of its kind in the state, featuring all-turf fields for ages 8-14. One year later, the county board approved $12 million in Visitors Improvement Funding, $2 million of which will go to that complex, with another $1 million going to the Lincoln Sports Foundation.

Of course, sports are far from the only thing to do in Lincoln — though they often come with a sports twist. Author and Lincoln native Joel Green left behind a career working for multiple NBA teams to return to his hometown where he authored a book on Robber’s Cave and serves as a tour guide through the underground tunnels that once served as the coolest party rooms in town, and have the carvings on the cave walls dating back more than 100 years to prove it.

In a town full of exquisite places to eat and drink, the best dining experience isn’t (officially) a restaurant. It’s The Portico, the name of the dining establishment chef Kevin Shinn operates out of his home on a quiet street not far from the city’s downtown. For years Shinn ran the popular Bread & Cup restaurant in the city, but when Covid-19 forced it to shut down, he simply pivoted to operating out of his own one-story home, where he serves nine-course meals to one table per night, four nights per week, in a screened-in porch in his backyard. The only thing harder than getting a ticket to a Nebraska football game might be getting a reservation to The Portico. It advertises solely by word of mouth and, according to Shinn, has had inquiries in the thousands from those who want to sample his ever-changing menu that includes signature cocktails such as The Kansas Lawsuit (mezcal, Amaro Rabarbaro, lime and tonic), appetizers such as his blue-cheese stuffed profiteroles, and a main course such as Nebraska ribeye (grilled in his backyard) with new potatoes and sage.

Keep Shining

There are plenty of stars in Star City, but if one light shines brightest it is Memorial Stadium. The original façade of the building is still visible, but over the past 103 years, it has grown, expanded and modernized, and, much like the city it calls home, it is embarking on another phase of growth. The massive Big Red Rebuild kicked off in April, and at the end of this season, the South and West seating bowls will be demolished, with construction of those areas beginning next March. By the time the $600 million overhaul is complete in the fall of 2028, the stadium capacity will have dropped from 85,000 to 80,000, but enthusiasm for the Cornhuskers will have soared even higher.

It is all part of what university president Jeffrey Gold called, “an ambitious and strategic,” plan, and “a fan-driven, once-in-a-multigenerational investment.”

When completed, the new stadium will be a monument not just to a school or a football program, but to a city.

“People underestimate our size and capacity and entertainment value,” said Bombeck. “Lincoln is built for this.”