CHI Health Center — Attraction in Omaha

I went to the Lainey Wilson concert on November 8th with my mother and sister, and we didn't have a great experience.

I'll start with the fact that I had to pay $10 for parking. Since the arena is located in a busy downtown area and it's the only parking option, it feels like a money grab. The only other alternative would be to take an Uber or Lyft, but that would cost just as much money. With all the extra fees that were tacked onto my concert ticket, you'd think parking would be free.

Then, when we entered the arena, I found it incredibly difficult to navigate and find our seats. I'm not an architect or an engineer, but it was clear how poorly designed the arena was. There were many staircases in the outer part of the area that led to nowhere, and in order to get to our section, 210, I had to walk through the seats of another section, 209. The signage within the entire arena was also poor/absent. The only signs for our section were inside the actual concert space (which I could only see by going up a random, unlabeled set of stairs) and high up on a pole in the the outer part of the arena. For all the money we spent on our concert tickets and parking, I would assume that finding my seat would be the least of my issues. Alas, navigating the train stations in Japan was far easier than navigating the CHI Health Center.

The last part of my experience was the most disheartening. We left the concert area about 10 minutes early because my sister needed to use the restroom. When we went to leave the arena, I opened the exit door and immediately realized it wasn't the right exit. We were parked on the opposite side of the arena (remember: the lack of signage had us all turned around). All I did was open the exit door & didn't even step outside, yet when we tried to turn around and find a different exit, one of the arena staff members started scolding us and saying we couldn't come back in the arena after leaving/we were sneaking in. Keep in mind, we are 2 women in our late twenties and a 64 year old (also all dressed in full cowgirl getup), so it was quite obvious we weren't trying to sneak in and cause problems. When I tried to explain that we hadn't actually left yet but were trying to leave (we just needed to find the right exit), he continued to speak to us in a demeaning tone and treated us like we were criminals. He didn't stop telling us to leave until my sister showed him she had on an 21+ alcohol wristband that the arena had given her, proving that we'd been inside already. Then he told us we could stay in the arena and find our correct exit, but we weren't allowed to watch the concert. When my sister said "Isn't the convert over?" he told her, "No, there's 5 minutes left." It felt like an incredibly petty response.

It was also frustrating that during this entire situation, there were about 8 other staff members who watched the whole incident. Their job was to stand and watch the exits (so they likely saw we never actually left the arena), yet not a single one of them spoke up or defended us.

In no point during our entire conversation did any of these staff members try to help us find our exit. We continued to look for it and ended up looping around the arena 1.5 times because the signage was THAT BAD. We still ended up leaving in a different exit than what we entered in (closer than the first exit we tried) because we were so sick and tired of being in that arena. Did we survive just fine? Yes. Was it humiliating and frustrating? Absolutely.

I just want to know what ever happened to common courtesy? Or just being helpful and understanding? I fully understand the importance of safety, but when it comes at the cost of kindness, what's the point of going to a concert at all? Concerts are about being entertained & having a good experience, not to be lost in an arena and ridiculed by staff.

For all of these reasons, I will no longer be attending concerts at the CHI Health Center in Omaha. I'll gladly go to Minneapolis, Kansas City, Des Moines, or Sioux Falls next time I'm...

Went to the Linkin Park concert here on 8/29. It was an incredible show and the venue was great for it. They played in the middle of the pit and we had a ferocious mosh pit going, it was a lot of fun.

What was less fun was an interaction I had with a member of the staff at the event. All were very helpful and courteous. However, when in line for merchandise to support the show, me and my friends waited about 25 minutes in line and got to the front kiosk same as everyone else, when all of a sudden the barriers are moved over a few feet and a line is made for a fast-pass type of entry to the merch stand. A family then barges in front of us when we were standing in front of the register about to ask for merchandise. When they finish and bump us on the way out of the merch line with no clear exit route, I then step up to order, but am met with a rejection of service by an older cashier named Sandy. She very rudely turned me away and stated that “they have bar codes” and did not show any sympathy or offer a solution when I told her I and everyone behind me have been waiting in line to get merch. I then think to ask the line next to me on the left if I could possibly cut in behind someone at the line, and I am very kindly allowed in to purchase with the register adjacent.

This would have been the end of a generally unpleasant incident, had I then not picked out my merchandise and got ready to pay to overhear Sandy complaining to the patrons in the priority line how “she was yelled at”. I did not raise my voice to Sandy, I simply asked if we could not just go every other person until our line was cleared, to which I was simply turned away and subsequently ignored with no recourse or alternative that I then had to figure out myself. If you’re going to turn away a customer who waited in line like everyone else, at least have the courtesy not to lie about their behavior, which was witnessed by others, right in front of their face.

This was very unprofessional and quite frankly felt deliberately cruel for Sandy to fluster me by leaving me on my own in a crowded merch line when I had waited and watched as a priority line got spontaneously created next to me. If the line had been there from the start then it would have been different. To turn me away and then claim to be yelled at when I tried very hard not to overly escalate the situation, was disingenuous at best and outright mean at worst. I did not appreciate the way Sandy handled that situation, and the interaction made an otherwise amazing concert have a stain on it. I reiterate, everyone else, but Sandy,...

Good large-event venue in Omaha. The CenturyLink Center Omaha Convention Center and Arena is a staple venue for large events in Omaha, from conferences to concerts to major trade shows. I’ve been to many events at the venue; this review covers my experience at a recent concert for a legacy mega-band. The venue is located in a prime spot off of the downtown, close to hotels and restaurants. We stayed at a hotel right across the street from the venue (at the new Omaha Marriott Downtown at the Capitol District) and was able to walk over to the CenturyLink Center in just one crossing of the street and up a walkway to the higher level. There is a lot of surface parking in the area which can get crowded when multiple events hit the area simultaneously, but overall, I’ve never had a problem finding parking in the Omaha downtown (although, expect to pay). There are multiple entrances to the venue at multiple levels due to some elevated walkways. There was plenty of security in layers at the event, starting with street barriers to searches at the doors to roaming security in the venue—I felt pretty safe throughout (plus, the Omaha crowd are generally pretty nice folks). The common areas included seating, escalators, and clean bathrooms. There were many food and drink vendors with a pretty decent variety and pretty decent prices when compared to other large venues I’ve attended in other cities. The signage is good, and there are helpful staff who will help for finding seats. We found our seats pretty easily, and the seats were a little tight but not too uncomfortable. There are some strange concrete formations around the steps and isles that can be treacherous, especially when things go dark; I witnessed several people trip on poor isle design throughout the night. The acoustics were generally good, although not crystal clear, so it was sometimes hard to understand the words of the artist. The band we saw erected a massive rig from stage through the center of floor, and it all appeared to merge in well with the venue infrastructure. The exit was relatively smooth with only a minor delay at escalators. Price for this and other events at the venue can be a bit higher than I’d like to see; I’m not sure how much of this is the venue costs, but ticket prices are getting ridiculous. Overall, I give CenturyLink Center Omaha Convention Center good ratings for great location, event flexibility, security, helpfulness of staff, cleanliness, and food/drink...