As the city of Omaha prepares to roll out the red carpet and welcome NCAA Basketball fans to town this weekend, tickets and downtown hotel rooms are becoming scarce.
The tickets are officially sold out for the three games at the CenturyLink Center, but they are available for big bucks through a broker. Chad Carr with Ticket Express in Omaha says tickets to the tournament are hard to find because each of the four participating schools first gets about 500 all session tickets.
"So about 2,000 seats are gone and Creighton season tickets holders have an opportunity to purchase tickets as well as club seat and suite holders." Carr says with marquee teams like Kansas and Duke coming to Omaha the demand for tickets is very high.
A ticket for Friday includes both games and both rounds will run you about $300 and up depending on where you sit. A ticket for Sunday's Elite Eight game could cost from $200-$400.
Deb Ward with the Convention and Visitor's Bureau says they are seeing hotel rooms in downtown filling up fast in anticipation of the big weekend. "Currently the Magnolia and Marriott Hotels in downtown are sold out," Ward says. "The Embassy Suites in the Old Market is sold out Friday and Saturday and the Hilton across from the CenturyLink Center, they expect to be sold out by Tuesday or Wednesday.
Ward says there are more than 15,000 hotel rooms across the metro area and they are anxiously waiting to see how many fans travel to town from each school.