They're expecting standing room only at a big basketball tournament this weekend. The turnout is only part of the reason. The other is that some of the seats at Sapp Fieldhouse have been declared unsafe.

Tickets are getting harder to come by for the high school basketball holiday tournament.

UNO fan John Green says, "They draw a lot more fans than UNO so it's going to be tough."

The unused bleachers sit behind a curtain. More than 1,000 seats have been benched all season for safety reasons.

UNO Athletic Director David Miller says, "We know there's going to be some games where people are displaced. We're not proud about that -- not happy about it but we have to live with it and manage it the best that we can."

Despite the need for new bleachers, the Fieldhouse has come along since it first opened in 1950. Back then it had a dirt floor. They would bring in a portable one made of wood for basketball games.

Part of the problem in getting the suspect seating replaced has to do with the turmoil in the athletic department before AD Miller arrived.

Miller says, "Another piece of the puzzle is the cost. As you know a lot of people know we have had a history of deficit spending, the athletic department, and we simply can't do that anymore."

The university is still raising money and estimates the cost for restoring the seating at $150,000 but that figure isn't firm because they haven't taken any bids yet.

Work on the bleachers should start in May with the job taking about a month to complete.