When
Husker Heaven opened our doors back in '83, the owners had 2 tickets
to the University of Nebraska football games, but needed a third so
their 8 year old daughter could attend. We put up a note on the cash
register that simply read "Need 1 Ticket."
As
the weeks passed, a few of our customers asked if they too could put
up a note. After a while, you could barely see the register. We decided
this might be the time to graduate to a bulletin board, and grabbed
a small cork board out of our back room. Soon enough it was covered
with all shapes, sizes and colors of notes.
As
customers would come in with tickets the couldn't use, they would write
down names and use our phone to call. Our only request was that they
had to sell their tickets at face value.
As
the season progressed, we got more and more requests. As it happened,
the Omaha World Herald (our local newspaper) thought it was a good idea
for a story. They came out and snapped a picture of the board, and did
a little write-up the next day. This created our first real "problem"...
(our first mini-problem was easily fixed by getting a larger bulletin
board) ... because notes were now beginning to mysteriously disappear
from the board.
Some
of the customers who had left ticket request notes informed us that
they had been receiving calls from people wanting to sell their tickets
for more than Husker Heaven's requested face value. At this point, we
had to come up with a better plan. We went through MANY different ideas
ranging from lists - to us calling while the ticket-holding customer
waited in the store. Trial and error over 19 years has brought us up
to the system we use today.
We
are still providing our Cornhusker football Ticket Exchange as a complimentary
service to our customers, and continue to promote "good old Husker
values" by keeping everything at face value.
Our
humble beginning has grown into a full-blown Husker Heaven - Omaha feature,
helping the University of Nebraska maintain the NCAA record for consecutive
sellouts!
(
and our family still attends every Cornhusker game in Memorial Stadium!
)
