OMAHA, Neb. (AP) – The Metropolitan Entertainment and Convention Authority is considering adding a Ferris wheel, a zipline and party houses in downtown Omaha for next year’s College World Series and the U.S. Olympic Swim Trials. The Omaha World-Herald reports staff members presented ideas for more family-friendly activities near TD Ameritrade Park to the MECA board Tuesday. The proposal also includes temporary bungalows that fans can rent for games and a grassy area north of the CenturyLink Center with food trucks, the Ferris wheel and other activities.

The board’s chairman Dana Bradford says the additions are an opportunity to attract more people, and would cost about $1 million. The board did not vote on the proposed additions, but told MECA President and CEO Roger Dixon to pursue the proposal.

The Exira-EHK Spartans (8-1) will play host to the East Mills Wolverines (7-2) on Wednesday night in the first round of the Iowa High School Football Playoffs at 7:00pm in Exira.  The Spartans have overcome adversity throughout the season including injuries and a heartbreaking last minute loss at Second ranked Newell-Fonda.  The Spartans hope that experience can help them to a strong postseason run.

In order to start that run they will try to stop the Wolverines and their star Running Back Josh Hopkins who has carried 183 times for 1,442 yards and 30 touchdowns.  The Spartans defense has only allowed an average of 16.1 points per game to opponents and have 8 players with double digit tackles.

On the other side of the ball the Spartans offense is led by Quarterback Brady Hansen and Running Back Drew Buckholdt, both have rushed for over 1,000 yards on the season and have accounted for a combined 50 touchdowns.  Martin Olson has also been a big ground contributor with 461 yards and 10 touchdowns. The Spartans hope having multiple ground weapons can cause opponents problems.

Kickoff is set for 7:00pm in Exira. KJAN’s Rod Christensen will provide updates from the game during our playoff coverage on Wednesday night.

The Audubon Wheelers Football team is preparing for an opening round playoff game on Wednesday night at home against Lawton-Bronson. The Wheelers (8-1) only loss came back in week 4 of the season to 5th ranked Logan-Magnolia, while the Eagles (6-3) three losses came to Treynor, West Sioux, and Akron Westfield.

Wheelers CO-Head Coach Sean Birks likes how his team has responded in tough games and knows they’ll have to continue that play to move on in the playoffs.  The Wheelers have a pretty balanced attack with Running Back Jake Mulford (1,736 total yards and 26 touchdowns) and Quarterback Tyler Riebhoff (1,094 yards passing and 16 touchdowns).  Coach Birks says it’s extremely valuable to have a player like Mulford that is so versatile as well as so many other players that work hard to do their job.

Audubon will face an Eagles offense that has a strong ground game.  Three players have rushed for over 450 yards led by Anteres Ashley who has carried 115 times for 1,018 yards and 17 Touchdowns and is averaging 8.9 yards per carry.

We will have coverage of the game on KJAN.  Join Chris Parks and Seth Christensen for the broadcast with pregame at 6:00pm and kickoff at 7:00pm.  Our playoff football coverage will kickoff at 5:30pm with our final weekly high school pick ’em show Who’s Gonna Win?.  You can listen on AM1220, FM101.1, online at kjan.com or on the KJAN mobile app.  IHSAA rules will not allow us to provide a live video stream as we had during the regular season.

The AHSTW Vikings wrapped up a 6-3 football season this past Friday night with a win over West Monona and a #2 seed in Class 1A District 1.  The Vikings now turn their attention to the postseason with an opening round home game on Wednesday against the Ridge View Raptors.

The Vikings will try to find postseason success without their Senior leader Nathan Herbst whom went down with a season ending knee injury on October 9th against Underwood.  Herbst certainly will be missed after accounting for 1,134 of offense and 18 touchdowns but Head Coach Davis Pattee knows he has a lot of leaders with great experience that can step up to push forward. Sophomore R.J. Harris has stepped into the starting Quarterback role in Herbst’s absence and has gotten a couple of weeks under his belt since entering that Underwood game in relief.

The Vikings defense will be tasked with slowing down a balanced Raptors attack lead by Quarterback Grant Anderson throwing for 1,595 yards and 16 Touchdowns.  The Raptors (7-2) two losses have come to rated squads Hinton and Western Christian.  Coach Pattee says his team will be ready to execute their traditional offense and defense and be ready to adjust as the game moves along.

Kickoff is set for 7:00pm in Avoca, KJAN’s Jim Field will provide updates from the game during our playoff football coverage on Wednesday night.

October 27, 2015 –Beginning today, the Kansas City Royals and the New York Mets will begin battling it out for the title of “World Champions,” and many fans are still looking to get their hands on tickets and World Series merchandise. BBB serving Nebraska, South Dakota, The Kansas Plains and Southwest Iowa is warning baseball enthusiasts to watch-out for phony deals, fake tickets and counterfeit World Series related items.

Tickets to the games sold out almost immediately. This means that anyone who still wishes to get tickets must purchase them from a ticket reseller. Currently, prices on the secondary market range from hundreds of dollars for standing room tickets to more than ten thousand dollars for seats closer to the field. Bogus tickets may not be delivered after payment, will not be awaiting the buyer at the ballpark’s “will call” window, can have invalid bar codes or may simply be counterfeit in other ways.

Last year, federal agents seized thousands of bogus “World Series” items ranging from caps and tee shirts to baby clothes. Counterfeit merchandise is not the authentic memorabilia that fans want and often is also of very poor quality and does not support the league.

BBB offers these tips so baseball fans can avoid being ripped off:

• Avoid buying tickets from unknown sellers through online classified listings, auctions, or bulletin boards even if they offer face-to-face exchanges. Stick to reputable ticket sellers with a track record you can verify.
• Before purchasing tickets through an online broker, visit their BBB Business Review page bbb.org for a history of complaints and Customer Reviews. You can also check to see if they are a member of the National Association of Ticket Brokers at natb.org/MemberList.aspx – an organization that works with law enforcement agencies, professional sports teams and other organizations to fight against counterfeit tickets.
• Research the ticket broker’s refund policy before purchasing. Tickets for World Series games are very expensive so you’ll want to check to make sure that the ticket broker will cover the full cost of the tickets in the event that one of the games is canceled or if the tickets don’t work when you arrive at the gate.
• Do not buy tickets from sellers who may approach you on the street claiming to have tickets for sale. There’s no way to verify that tickets from individual scalpers are real until you attempt to use to them to get into the stadium.
• Always use a credit card so you have additional protection. Never pay with cash and don’t wire money: in these cases, there is no way to get your money back if the tickets do not arrive.

Counterfeit World Series goods may be hawked by sellers outside the ballpark, on the street or on counterfeit websites that may not originate in the U.S. Fans who want the real article should rely on purchasing from authentic MLB-licensed sellers, such as the teams’ own websites and shops in the ballpark.

Check merchandise to see if it bears the official MLB hologram on the sales tag which is very hard to fake, along with an alphanumeric ID. Authentic team apparel should carry official team logos and copyright marks, instead of just tags bearing information about the country of origin.

If you believe a business is scamming consumers in connection with the World Series, you can file a complaint with BBB at bbbinc.org or 800-649-6814.

The 7:20-a.m. Sportscast w/Jim Field.

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Class 3A
Region 2
(3-0) Kuemper Catholic, Carroll 25-25-25, Greene County 8-12-13
(3-0) East Sac County 25-25-25, Southeast Valley 14-11-10
(3-0) Clarinda 25-25-25, Atlantic 21-10-14
(3-0) Red Oak 25-25-25, Shenandoah 11-12-12

Class 4A
Region 1
(3-1) Denison-Schleswig 25-24-25-25, Storm Lake 20-26-14-19
Region 2
(3-0) Winterset 25-25-25, Des Moines, Hoover 13-12-12
Region 3
(3-2) Lewis Central 25-27-22-25-15, Glenwood 17-29-25-18-8
(3-0) Creston 25-25-25, Carlisle 19-17-13

Class 5A
Region 2
(3-1) Abraham Lincoln  Thomas Jefferson, (25-23, 25-20, 13-25, 25-12)

Class 1A

Region 2
Ar-We-Va @ Boyer Valley
Gehlen Catholic @ Westwood
Kingsley-Pierson @ Siouxland Community
Trinity Christian @ George-Little Rock

Region 3
Nishnabotna @ Sidney
East Mills @ Fremont-Mills
Bedford @ Mt. Ayr
Essex @ Stanton

Region 4
Coon Rapids-Bayard @ Audubon
Exira-EHK @ Adair-Casey
Grand View Christian @ Guthrie Center
East Union @ Murray

Class 2A

Region 2
Ridge View @ Unity Christian
IKM-Manning @ Manson-NW Webster
Maple Valley-Anthon-Oto @ Lawton-Bronson
Woodbury Central @ Hinton

Region 3
Underwood @ Council Bluffs St. Albert
Southwest Valley @ Treynor
Missouri Valley @ Tri-Center
West Central Valley @ Panorama

Iowa Prep Football Poll
The Associated Press

AMES, Iowa (AP) – Iowa State coach Paul Rhoads says offensive coordinator Mark Mangino has left the program. Rhoads says he and Mangino haven’t been on the same page for weeks. Rhoads wouldn’t say whether Mangino quit or was fired. The move Monday came on the same day Iowa State promoted sophomore Joel Lanning to a starting role over senior Sam Richardson, but Rhoads says Lanning’s promotion was not the reason Mangino left.

Rhoads announced that passing game coordinator Todd Sturdy will take over for Mangino, starting with Saturday’s game against Texas (3-4, 2-2 Big 12). Mangino was 50-48 in eight seasons as the coach at Kansas. He joined Rhoads’ staff prior to last season. Iowa State (2-5, 1-3) is averaging 26.9 points per game.