Doug Emery, City Council chair of Lincoln’s Northeast District, announced in last Friday’s meeting that the Bob Devaney Center, home to the Nebraska Cornhuskers basketball team, was named Lincoln’s fifth most beloved venue for basketball. 

The complex, named for celebrated Cornhusker football coach Bob Devaney, dropped one place from last year’s rankings due to a dip in spectator traffic.

While many have theorized about why the venue has seen fewer student and community visitors than previous years, none has been more outspoken than Sheila Richt, a frequent attendee of Devaney basketball games.

“To me, it all started when they raised the price of those chocolatey malt cups a few years back. No matter what any of these folks tell ya, that’s where it all started. Can’t have good business with no happy customers, ya know? I don’t know how many lukewarm Valentino’s pizza slices and Polish Dogs I’ve had over the years. Folks can only take so much,” said Richt.

The abandoned lot on South street, the underdog basketball venue candidate that usurped the Devaney Center’s long-held number four spot on the Lincoln Basketball Venue Chart, reportedly saw a spike in traffic during an atypically warm day January 11th when four neighborhood friends had a short pickup game, putting the lot’s attendance at 200% of Devaney’s.

Christopher Lynch, member of the winning “shirts” squad on the South street lot, was quoted as saying, “60 degrees in mid-January? Hell yeah, man, we balled it up.”

Board members of the Lincoln City Council are excited about the progress the abandoned South street lot has been making in recent years. They are working on a plan to pool the city’s resources to advance the lot’s value before the new Haymarket arena is completed.

“We have to do everything we can for the South street lot before the new arena comes in and makes a clean break for third place,” said Emery