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The Denver Nuggets begin the 2016-2017 season when training camp gets underway at 10 am in Omaha, Nebraska on the campus of Creighton University. Omaha was not on the many people’s radar for potential Nuggets training camp locations. After all, there isn’t exactly a reason to link the Nuggets with Omaha, right?
Upon further review, this isn’t the first time Omaha has been linked with the Nuggets. Last year Omaha was suggested as a potential spot for the Nuggets to have a D-League affiliate after Gary Green, owner of the Omaha Storm Chasers (Triple-A affiliate for the Kansas City Royal), told The Bottom Line host Mike’l Severe that Omaha had “deal with the D-League in place, we just gotta find a franchise now.” Green also mentioned having reached out to Denver and Minnesota about a potential partnership, with one team having Omaha on the back burner of interest with a potential D-League affiliate.
Heading into the 2016-2017, 22 of the 30 NBA teams have an affiliate with the D-League. Obviously, the Nuggets are among those eight teams without one. Yesterday at the Nuggets Media Day in Denver, Josh Kroenke said “there has been a lot of dialogue” about adding a team in the development league, which is interesting given the timing of the Nuggets holding training camp out-of-state in Omaha.
Here is the rest of the quote from Kroenke as reported by BSNDenvers’s Harrison Wind on a potential partnership with a D-League affiliate: “As the NBA as a whole continues to evolve more and more teams are having a direct relationship, more and more teams are having a direct relationship and we look forward to being one of those teams in the near future.” Where there is smoke a fire is usually found nearby, perhaps in Omaha.
The City of Omaha is a wonderful sports town that is best known for hosting the NCAA College World Series each summer since 1950. In addition to the Storm Chasers, Omaha is also home to the longest-running arena football franchise the Omaha Beef (who are coached by Thomas Jefferson High School graduate Corey Ross). Omaha also boasts that it is home to two Division I athletic programs in the University of Creighton Bluejays and the University of Nebraska-Omaha Mavericks. Last summer Omaha also hosted the U.S. Olympic Swim Trials for the third time (2008 and 2012) and will do so a fourth consecutive time in 2020. Simply put, Omaha supports sports of all kinds and has for years.
When it comes to arena options, there is no shortage in the Omaha metropolitan area. The three options that immediately present themselves as viable are CenturyLink Center in Downtown Omaha, Baxter Arena in the Aksarben neighborhood and Ralston Arena in the suburb of Ralston. Any of these three venues would be more than suitable for the Nuggets potential D-League franchise. However, I would give a nod to the CenturyLink Center (home to Creighton Basketball) as the leader in the unofficial clubhouse because it has an ideal location and proximity to hotels and transportation centers.
A partnership between the Nuggets and Omaha makes sense for another reason, its only a short hour flight from Denver to Peyton Manning’s favorite city or a seven-hour drive. The closeness in location would make it easy for players and staff to quickly get from one place to the other, which is ideal when considering last minute call-ups or send downs from the Nuggets front office.
Omaha wants a team and the Nuggets need a place for one. It seems like this could work out great for both sides. The organization would be hard-pressed to find another city within a five hundred mile radius of Denver that offers what the City of Omaha brings to the table as a minor league sports town.
The D-League already has franchises within two hundred miles of Omaha in the Iowa Energy (Memphis Grizzlies) in Des Moines and Sioux Falls Skyforce (Miami Heat) in South Dakota. It would make sense for Omaha, which boasts a larger population than both cities, to become home to the NBDL’s newest franchise.
At training camp this week, players will be auditioning for jobs and competing for positions on a crowded and talented roster. Behind the scenes, perhaps, the Nuggets will also be auditioning a city as a potential landing spot for its second home – away from the glitz and glamor of the Association. It certainly would be less than a long shot to suggest that Omaha is about to be linked with Denver, again. And this time, it will be a basketball team and not a quarterback’s audible as the connection.
