College World Series Tickets

NCAA Sets Deadline for Omaha

The city of Omaha now has four months from now to decide how to secure a new contract with the NCAA that would let them keep the College World Series past 2010 when their contract expires.  This is good news for the city of Omaha who originally had a deadline of December 31 to come up with a new idea.

There is a committee set up in Omaha to decide the best plan of action to secure a new NCAA contract.  They are currently reviewing three proposals that would keep the College World Series in Rosenblatt stadium and four proposals that would move the stadium downtown near the Qwest Center convention center in Omaha.

Omaha.com also stated that the official deadline for a proposal is April 30th next year.  After that deadline the NCAA says they will look for other cities to host the College World Series.

Hosting Rights Rumors Start

Half a dozen different newspapers near Indianapolis including The Indianapolis Business Journal have reported that the city is looking at bidding on the rights to host the College World Series.  The College World Series has laid rest in the city of Omaha for 58 years at Rosenblatt Stadium.  Currently the city of Omaha is a mess with controversy about if they want to build a new stadium to house the CWS.

There has been public backlash at the mayor of Omaha Mike Fahey about the new stadium and this has cause other cities to get their act together if they want a chance to host the historic event.  Orlando, Oklahoma and Indianapolis have all been rumored as possible sights.  The rumors are likely to become bigger and bigger truths the longer that the people of Omaha think about improving their stadium or building a new one.  Hurry up Omaha!  The road to Oklahoma City just does not have the same ring to it.

The Pressure Is On For Omaha

The Omaha World Herald reported today that the College World Series was on the watch list for cities who were looking to bid on the series in 2011.  The NCAA lists their championship series on their website which is watched by city planners nationwide as to what city got what championship and which championships are open to speculation.

The NCAA baseball page showed that Omaha was only scheduled for the 2008 championship as of now.  It did not say that the future was open but it also did not say that any city had claimed rights to the College World Series.

This puts the pressure on Omaha to make a decision fast about a new stadium before the NCAA goes out shopping for other cities.  Omaha Mayor Mike Fahey has warned the people of Omaha about this possibility but has faced a large backlash and hit many speed bumps.  Maybe the people of Omaha will look at the NCAA website and figure out that the NCAA is not joking.

Fahey Speaks to People of Omaha

Omaha Mayor Mike Fahey faces an uphill battle this week as he visits various community organizations around Omaha to pitch his idea of moving the College World Series away from the historic Rosenblatt stadium to a new stadium downtown.  Already, there have been reports that Fahey is getting drilled hard on the issue.  Many Omaha citizens did not like the idea to start with, but when Fahey said that he would have to raise taxes and demolish Rosenblatt, I think people got a little angry.

According to the Omaha World Herald, Fahey fielded questions about renovating Rosenblatt and why it hasn't been an option.  Fahey says that if the city of Omaha wants to keep the College World Series here it has to meet the guidelines set out by the NCAA.  The NCAA has said that they would like open concourses as well as new locker rooms.  They would also like the stadium to be closer in proximity to hotels and restaurants.

Stadium Panel Meets Today

The six member committee assembled to find a new stadium for the College World Series will meet today to discuss new plans.  According to the Omaha World Herald, the committee will review eight different plans.  Five of the eight proposals would move the College World Series to a new downtown stadium, including one controversial spot in parking lot D of the Qwest Center in Omaha.

The other three proposals would either renovate or build a new Rosenblatt stadium where the current stadium lies on 13th St.  Omaha Mayor Mike Fahey is currently traveling across Omaha to do town hall meetings and take questions from the public that has been skeptical of the idea.

A private architect will be hired to work on the eight proposals.  He will be funded privately and will have results by the new year.  Hopefully the NCAA can wait that long, previously they said a new decision should be made by early next year.

Omaha Mayor Faces Opposition to New Stadium

Omaha Mayor Mike Fahey's plan to build a new stadium in North Omaha to house the College World Series took a step back a couple of days ago when two parties publicly came out and opposed the Mayor's plan.

The most interesting person to come forward and oppose the plan was David Sokol, chairman of MECA, a entertainment programming board in Omaha.  MECA oversees the Qwest Center, Omaha's biggest arena, and also the home of the proposed building site, Qwest's parking lot D.  Sokol opposes the plan because he says it will not allow for any more growth of the Qwest Center.  He also mentions the obvious parking problem of building a stadium in a parking lot that was already overcrowded in the first place.  Did I mention Sokol is on the 6 person board appointed by Mayor Fahey?  Uh Oh!

A second group that has raised concerns has been Strike Two, a group of restaurant owners that are upset with the proposed 2 percent tax hike on "entertainment" items such as prepared food and drink.  They say the tax hike will decrease business and is unfair to target such a small group.

Stadium Task Force Assembled

In the ongoing story of the possible new stadium for the College World Series, the Mayor of Omaha has appointed 6 citizens to review the possible plan to build a new stadium.  The six members will evaluate the logistics of building a new stadium and whether or not it would be a feasible plan or not.

Omaha's KETV reported that Fahey said "I am appointing a group of citizens to take a fresh and unbiased view of all alternatives."  Interestingly though the six members that comprise the panel all have a stake in what happens to the new stadium and thus are not unbiased.  Just a few odd choices were the Chairman of Keiwit Construction, the Athletic Director of Creighton University and the President of the Omaha Royals.  All of these people obviously want this new stadium to happen and in my opinion should not be the people that are finding out "all alternatives."

New Downtown Stadium May Cost $116 Million

Omaha Mike Fahey proposed today that the new College World Series home could cost up to $116 million.  What won't make many Omahans happy is that Fahey might raise taxes on entertainment items to help pay for the new stadium.  As reported by the Omaha World Herald, The entertainment tax would include things such as prepared food and maybe tickets to entertainment events such as concerts.

It's important to note that the people of Omaha will not be able to vote on this issue.  It only has to be voted on by the Omaha city council and approved by the mayor.  This means that the main thing that could have stopped this from happening (a public vote) will not be able to happen.

The estimate was much higher than expected but Omaha will likely do anything it can to extend its coveted contract with the College World Series and NCAA.  Omaha is the only city to hold an NCAA contract for a championship series.  They are currently in talks to extend the series another 10 or 20 years.

Petition and Commercial Sent to NCAA

14,000 signatures and the Kevin Costner commercial all supporting keeping the College World Series in Rosenblatt stadium were sent to the NCAA yesterday.  The petition simply asks the NCAA to consider their plan for renovating Rosenblatt before they make a decision on whether to move the CWS to a new downtown ballpark.

This is good news for Rosenblatt supporters right?

Not really.  Unfortunately for the group Save Rosenblatt who sent out the petition still does not have a proposed renovation plan.  An architect was hired but was reported by the Omaha.com to be nearly a month a way from completing the project.

It will be interesting to see the NCAA's reaction to the mail it will receive.  They already have been talking with Omaha Mayor Mike Fahey about building a new stadium in downtown Omaha for months now and are likely to take that route.