While I essentially agree with "buffet rules not"'s sentiment, I would point out that living somewhere and visiting somewhere are 2 totally different things.
I travel all over the world. I currently live in Minneapolis, only because my wife is from here and wanted to move home. The good thing about it is that O'Hare is not too far, with direct flights to many destinations globally.
I wasn't just basing my decision not to go to Omaha on that one opinion--for last trials a whole bunch of people I know went down (I had to work), and the opinion was universal.
Granted, all those people were rather monolithic in their cultural composition--all white, all 30-55 yrs, all educated, all employed, all urban, etc.--and all fairly narrow in their interests, the only interest they have in the outdoors is typically gardening.
So I'm not saying that Omaha has no redeeming factors--I can find something almost anywhere (almost)--but the question is whether or not there is anything of particular significance or interest to experience there, relative to doing something else. For me, having been steeped in what passes for a cultural scene in the Midwest for over a decade, I know that there is nothing that Omaha can offer nothing of any significant difference in quality or quantity relative to other places in the midwest that I have visited, like KC, Mpls, StL, etc..
I would certainly visit the Joslyn, and enjoy running in 105F on a local track...but I can run here in 100F and visit the MIA, while sleeping in my own bed and not going through the expense and hassle of travel. It takes around 6 or 7 hrs to drive from here to Omaha--in that time, I can be canoeing in the Boundary Waters, a much more appealing option. Or, I can be in Chicago and go to their museum, go on a great architectural tour, whatever.
And the architecture in Omaha? Forget about it. Mpls is as good as it gets in the Midwest, outside Chicago.
The food? What can I get in Omaha that I can't get anywhere else? Is there some regional specialty that I'm missing, like some rare seasonal mushrooms, or a special variety of landlocked trout?
Topography and variety of biomes? There is none, as I understand.
Not that there is much of interest in Minneapolis, but if you subtract what there is, you are likely left with Omaha.
Sorry, it's just not worth it. Maybe if I lived in some BF town 30 mins outside Omaha, in the middle of nowhere, it would be.
And the fact that they host those sporting events is actually a negative. I know what places like that are like, what is required to host those types of travelers--uninteresting, factory-style restaurants, service stations, bars, hotels, all in the same buildings but with slightly different but universally garish signage, connected by dehumanizingly impersonal roads, the city walls comprised of strip malls.
No thanks.