FAB 50:
GOOD MORNING, OMAHA!
Business Journal
SHERRY KENNEDY BROWNRIGG’S LIFELONG LOVE OF BROADCASTING
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CELEBRATING 50 YEARS
YOUR BUSINESS AUTHORITY ACROSS NEBRASKA & BEYOND
MBJ.COM
VOLUME 52, No. 33
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AUGUST 7, 2026
Lincoln’s Quiet Catalyst JASON BALL BETS ON LINCOLN’S HIDDEN ECONOMY BY DAISY HUTZELL-RODMAN
Jason Ball calls himself the mortar between the bricks. After a decade running chambers of commerce in Kansas, South Dakota and the booming Austin suburbs of Texas, the Sidney, Nebraska, native came home in January 2022 to lead the Lincoln Chamber of Commerce, the Lincoln Partnership for Economic Development and the city’s tourism arm: three organizations, one office, one mandate. The job has gotten harder, not easier. A study released last year found Lincoln’s employment growth running at less than a third of the pace of peer cities like Des Moines and Sioux Falls. Nebraska’s population between 2020 and 2024 was sustained almost entirely by international immigration, a fact Ball states plainly and defends without hedging. The state ranked 40th in economic incentives. Nebraska tied for last in GDP growth in the first quarter of 2025. Ball’s response has been to hire outside public relations firms for the first time in the chamber’s history; study Boise, Idaho’s, playbook on housing and talent attraction; and press the case that Lincoln’s economy is more BALL ON PAGE 06
LINCOLN GROWTH REPORT:
PART 3
Starts on page 08
• FUNDING LINCOLN’S FUTURE • LINCOLN’S ARTS ENGINE • WORK TO DO • CAREER READY • DURABLE GOODS