CWS: Going, going, gone?
I know its not a Lincoln issue, but its a Nebraska issue.
This fight over the future home of the College World Series is getting a bit out of hand. If you don’t know, Omaha’s Rosenblatt stadium has been the home of the College World Series for well over 50 years. Omaha is synonymous with the College World Series. It has a huge economic impact on not only the city of Omaha but the state of Nebraska. Omaha has bent over backwards to keep the CWS in town. Improvements upon improvements have been made to Rosenblatt to appease the NCAA. Omaha gets it, they like the CWS, they want to keep it here and will do anything to keep it. Only so many improvements can be made to the old girl on 12th and Burt Murphy. Its an old stadium and it has gotten to the point where if they are going to make more improvements, major reconstruction needs to take place.
So a new stadium was proposed. But where to put it. Downtown Omaha? Great idea but where to put it. If you’re going to build a downtown stadium, it seems right next to the Qwest would make the most sense. How about demolishing the Civic and putting it there? There are several different camps. 1 camp wants to keep it right where its at and renovate. Another camp wants to move it to a brand new stadium. And that camp is split into several factions that suggest different places. No one can seem to agree on anything.
But wait...what about the original tenants and the people who use the stadium the most, the Royals?
Every Royals game is played in a near empty Rosenblatt. Don’t get the Royals wrong though, they love playing in the biggest, nicest ballpark in Triple A. But the Royals envision a smaller intimate ballpark they can call their own or at least share with Creighton.
The city of Omaha is at a real crossroads in my mind. Move the CWS to another location and you’re losing a lot of the “magic” you have. You now become like EVERY other place that wants the CWS and give the NCAA an excuse to move it. Keep it at Rosenblatt, yeah you keep the “magic” but you run the risk of running out of things/room to improve and eventually lose it cause its not up to NCAA standards. You also risk alienating the Royals to the point where they don’t feel wanted any up and move. Does the city of Omaha want a multi-million dollar stadium that is used only 2 1/2 weeks out of the year?
In my opinion, Omaha will lose the CWS eventually. Its inevitable. They’re foolish to think that in 2050 that they’ll be celebrating the 100th anniversary of the CWS in Omaha. Its not going to happen.
So where do you put it?
The Comments
Neal says Dreaming February 15, 2008 at 12:56pm
More than 50% of the CWS attendance comes from Omaha. The NCAA is fooling itself if it thinks any other city is going to give that kind of local support.
Of course, they might not really care. I think this situation was handled so badly that at this point, it’s just a game of chicken.
foxspit says Agreed February 15, 2008 at 1:54pm
Omaha/Nebraska supports the CWS to a degree few places will and I love having the series at Rosenblatt.
The problem is that the NCAA wants Omaha to spend millions of dollars on a facility with little guarantee that the series will stay in Omaha (a 10-year commitment isn’t enough for the expenses involved). It’s all about money for the NCAA and Omaha has played the NCAA’s game for a long, long time. The NCAA will never be sated, however, and at some point Omaha will blink at their requests.
I think private money will help get the stadium built downtown. As much as it pains me to admit, it doesn’t seem practical to renovate the Blatt. That would be my first choice though.
Neal says Maybe. February 15, 2008 at 4:12pm
Having followed this for the past year, it’s quite easy to see that there is a simple formula for How Much it Would Cost to Fix Up Rosenblatt According to The Mayor.
It’s always The Cost of A New Downtown Stadium + about $50 million.
It’s been amazing to watch how that has worked, ever since he was claiming that a downtown stadium would only be about $50 million. Ever since then, with each rise in the downtown stadium’s price, making it look like a less favorable option than renovating Rosenblatt, whoosh, all of a sudden, it just got way more expensive to renovate Rosenblatt!