The 2026 College World Series is underway in Omaha, bringing together fans, teams, traditions, and unique experiences from across the city. To help visitors, fans, and local residents make the most of the tournament, we’ve published interviews, event coverage, food features, and a visitor guide.
Whether you’re attending games, visiting Omaha for the first time, or following the tournament from home, we hope this collection of articles helps you learn more about the 2026 College World Series and the people, places, and experiences that surround it.
OmahaNebraska.com’s Interview withAmy Hornocker, Executive Director at College World Series of Omaha, Inc.
Amy Hornocker with statue
Amy, you’ve been doing this for several years now. What changes have you seen?
Every year, we’re trying to make things better. When I first started here, we were transitioning from the paper to the mobile ticket, and now we have almost everybody on the mobile ticket. I think one of the things that we are really excited about this year is that we replaced our original video board. It was original to the building in 2011, and we added a second one and then a ribbon. So since the stadium opened, we’ve been hearing from people that they’d really like to see another one. So all that stuff went in, and we actually have new lights that have the capability of doing light shows. We did about an $8 million upgrade in technology over there. So for the game presentation and venue experience, there’s going to be a lot more fun stuff to do.
How has it grown and evolved since you’ve become an executive director?
Well, it continues to grow. I think there’s more interest in the event as a whole, and we actually did an economic impact study with Ernie Goss from Creighton for the 2025 series. The last time we had enlisted Ernie was in 2019. So pre-pandemic in 2019 it was $88.5 million economic impact and last year it was $147.6 million, so it’s showing more than just a rebound from the pandemic. It’s popular, and there’s a lot of things that go into that…the teams that are here and that kind of stuff. But yeah, it continues to grow in popularity. We’ve had a really exciting regional round. The Super Regionals start today, so by Monday we should know who will be here. There’s been a lot of upsets, and there’s a lot of Cinderellas coming through, so I think one thing that’s kind of fun about college baseball is it seems like anybody can win.
There’s certainly a lot of dedication from the players and the coaches and the fans, and I think that really makes this a special experience.
Yes, definitely.
What challenges go into preparing Omaha or here for an event of this scale? How many did you have last year?
How many, attendance-wise? I think it was, like, 340-some thousand that went through our gates. That doesn’t account for the people that are down here just enjoying the atmosphere. I think it’s really cool to see how it used to just be kind of us in Baseball Village, and now we have the Millwork area that’s really building up, and there’s a ton of new stuff over here. And now west, over here by Kiewit’s headquarters, we have a new sports bar and an outdoor venue that will be another fun place for people to gather. We’re always saying that even if you don’t like baseball, you should just come down here because there’s just so much fun to be had, and as you mentioned, it’s a huge lift. We have five people working on it on our staff year-round, but we also have all the stadium staff and then the resources that the city provides: police, fire, public works, parks, everybody. We just had a meeting in April with everybody, and it’s, like, a room full of people that have a role in making sure that this thing runs smoothly.
I’m impressed, from the games and things I’ve attended, just how smoothly it goes.
Yes. MECA, who runs our stadium, are wonderful and they have a lot of pride in this, and so they’re good partners for us.
What feedback from fans has helped shape things for this year?
Of course we did hear about the scoreboard since we’ve opened, so we finally were able to make that happen. We hear about Wi-Fi. Those are things that we’ll look at, and just keeping the team or the fans engaged. We also look at different experiences for our student athletes to make sure that they have everything they need and they have a good experience while they’re here. So every year we’re looking at something new, and we have a lot of things in mind as we look forward. Our contract is through 2036. Obviously, we’ll want to start talking about an extension sooner rather than later on it, so we have some ideas cooking.
Are there still local nonprofit organizations hosting the event?
Yeah. We still have our team hosts. Some of these guys have been doing it since before I was born, and they love it. They have a lot of pride, so they go to the airport and meet the teams and then they will be with them throughout—they’re assigned to them, and they host one special event opening weekend that the team will get to go through…anywhere from Offutt Air Force Base, which they get to go down and tour the base, which is pretty cool, and then, too, the American Legion does a lunch and karaoke. So there’s just a bunch of different things that they do with the guys.
What are some of the behind-the-scenes preparations that people don’t normally see?
We’ll have road closures starting next week where they bring down barricades, and this is all for pedestrian safety, public safety. One funny story I tell a lot is that there is somebody from Public Works whose job is for the sewer perfume, just to help our visitors a little down here in the low spots of the downtown area sometimes.
Wow.
There are so many stories like that. You see all the tent companies. We were talking about this the other day, the little things that go on that people have no idea about.
It’s a new thing to learn about, sewer perfume.
Yes, always. Yeah, one thing we’re excited about is we had a local foundation that was generous enough to provide our first-ever drone show. After game two, so Friday night postgame, it’s actually an America 250 celebration, but it has baseball flair. We’re going to have 400 drones, and it has been interesting to learn about all the rules and regulations around putting drones in the air. Anyway, that’ll be exciting for people to see. There will be an end game component, like a video of the show, but if you are outside the stadium, you’ll be able to see the drones.
Where’s a good place for spectators inside and outside the stadium?
Inside, pretty much everywhere it’ll be visible because they came in and flew and then they sat in different seats outside. It will be over the convention center, so anywhere around there it should be visible.
What are you most excited about for this year?
I would say the drone show. We also are going back to the zoo. We have a closed team event on Thursday night to welcome the teams to Omaha, and they get to bring their families. We were trying to think of ways that they could see other parts of the city, and last year we went to the zoo for the first time, and it was fun. It was just like a bunch of very large guys, like children, running around the zoo. I think that’s another thing we take for granted, being an Omaha person, is how wonderful our zoo is and how cool it is. They get to do animal encounters, so they’ll get to feed the alligators, and there’s a cheetah that they’ll get to see, so it’s pretty cool. They’ll eat there. And then the other thing we wanted to make sure of is that they could see their families, because they’ve been in a really long season, and they go from Regional to Super to here. To give them a chance to reunite with their families without people around was important to us.
We’ve already touched upon what’s new for fans this year. On the games itself, for special events and family activities, what do you have on the different days?
Obviously these are always subject to what’s going on in the world, but for Game 1 we will have a flyover of F-16s—I believe that’s South Dakota Air National Guard. There’s the drone show. Kids’ Day is Monday, Game 8, so after the game, kids run the bases, and that’s always a popular event. Game 10, Tuesday night, is Heroes in the Heartland, so it’s a salute to first responders and military in our community. Teacher Appreciation Day is Game 11, Wednesday, at 1, so we’ll have some teachers that were nominated to be honored, and we’ll have some concession gift cards for teachers who come to the games so they can have some free food on us. Then we’ll have another flyover on Saturday, Finals 1. Those are F-16s from Colorado, I think. Another special thing that’s going on where there’s some involvement with the College World Series is that the United States Navy does what they call Navy Week where they go into markets where they don’t have a huge presence. All over the city a ton of Navy people will be coming in. So we’ll have an anthem and color guard. Their brass band will be here at one point, but they have some stuff sprinkled across the city that they’re doing. So that’s kind of interesting.
What week is that one?
I think they start on the 12th, and then they’re here until the 21st. On Friday night, our off night, on June 19th they are planning a show at the Gene Leahy Mall with a bunch of different Navy bands, like woodwinds and brass, so that’s something for people to do on our off day.
Okay. I don’t remember that previously.
Yeah, they go around the country, and this is the first time they’ve done this event here in Omaha.
Thank you. What are some of the well-known and lesser-known College World Series traditions?
Yeah, so Zesto’s, obviously the ice cream place, when it opened for Big Tens, we were always excited because, like, “Oh, the College World Series is coming.” Rocco’s has the Jello Shot Challenge that they do every year, and they donate proceeds to the food banks of the teams that had the most. LSU won by a lot, so a big check went to the Baton Rouge Food Bank. So that’s kind of become a fun tradition. And I’m sure there are other things I don’t know about yet.
What trends are you seeing in attendance or visitor behavior compared to previous years?
We continue to see it remain steady or in a little bit of a climb. Like I mentioned, it does depend on who’s here as far as a team fan base. We have some teams that have not ever been here before, like I mentioned, so it will be interesting to see what this year’s turnout looks like. We also have the youth tournaments in town. Almost a thousand teams come in and out for different sessions, so they buy a lot of our outfield seats, and they’re consistent. I think we’re staying about the same or climbing, just kind of depending on who’s here.
And how far in advance do visitors typically prepare or plan for their Omaha trip?
Some people will book their hotel for next year when they leave here if they can. And then some people will be trying to find tickets on Monday when they know that their teams are getting here. So it just depends. It’s hard to get a hotel at this point, I know, so people get pretty creative. We also have the World Cup going on in Kansas City and there’s, like, games, but they say that there’s a lot of time in between, so they feel like there may be some visitors even just for a day, because they’re looking for something to do, and we’re not far up the road. So we’ll see.
What surprises do you think first-time visitors might notice when they come to Omaha?
I think that they’ll be surprised by how vibrant the community is and how there are so many things to do and just the ease of getting from the airport to the stadium. People are surprised at how close that is, and I think they’ll be surprised by the food and entertainment options that they’ll have.
We have some really great options nearby and a little further away. too.
One of the major questions we get is brunch locations, so we’ve got a list of those.
Oh, that’s good to know. I’ve been having a hard time finding a brunch place.
Yes. Lola’s is the one downtown. But some of these folks, when they have time, they like to explore.
What neighborhoods have people been exploring?
I think Blackstone has become part of that, because it’s not terribly far from here. So that’s one neighborhood that we point people to, and Benson, Midtown area, Dundee. It’s not terribly far, but it’s kind of a different vibe from down here.
What advice would you give someone who is attending for the first time?
I would say our website is a really good resource: CWSOmaha.com. We have all the ticket information, all the information on the ways that you can get tickets, transfer them, and sell them now that they’re mobile. We also have city information. I think something interesting this year is that we’ve been working with the city on a GIS system. We’ll have a map on our site that will be kind of real time that we’ll be able to update, like with Park Omaha parking lots we’ll provide updates on which ones have spots available. What’s important is that while a lot of construction will stop, for the Series, some of the streetcar stuff has to remain, so just learning how to navigate around that, we have that information available on the website. We’ll communicate that through our social channels, and MECA will, and I know the police department will describe the best ways to get in and out of downtown. Obviously with large events you have to be bring your patience regardless of the street conditions, so plan way ahead. So that’s the resource for most questions you might have, and we also have a live chat feature on there that if you can’t find the answer to a question, then it uses some AI, and if that doesn’t help you, it will escalate to a live person.
For families who will be visiting Omaha for the first time, what types of places would you recommend or make sure they experience between games?
Omaha Baseball Village is a really good spot. Our Fan Fest is great. There’s a lot of fun, it’s interactive, and it’s free. You don’t even have to have a ticket. There are fun, interactive things in Fan Fest, like wiffle ball, the Ferris Wheel, the batting cages. Omaha Baseball Village has a ton of vendors. You can buy gloves, bats, sunglasses, all that stuff. But outside of downtown, obviously the zoo. The Kiewit Luminarium is right behind CHI. So if you’re looking for other things to do, there’s a ton of stuff that we’ll promote through Visit Omaha on our website. There’s even like Fontenelle Forest. There are just a ton of things to see if you want to explore.
We covered a little bit of this, but what’s new this year? Is there anything else to add?
There will be some new things in Fan Fest. The drone shows are new, and the video boards.
What do you think makes Omaha a successful host city?
Everybody who gets involved is helping us to be successful. There’s a lot of pride in it. And then, just the way that the community makes sure that everything’s fun and safe. People just keep coming back for that.
I know there’s such a love for the College World Series here.
Yeah.
I’ve lived other places, and I’ve just not noticed that kind of love anywhere else, so that’s really nice. What would you like visitors to remember when they’re leaving Omaha?
Hopefully that they had a good experience and that they can tell everyone back home about that we’re not just a cornfield.
We get that a lot.
Yeah, yeah.
Or people are like, “Nebraska, where’s that?”
Yes.
How important do you think it is for the College World Series to serve as sort of an introduction for others to Omaha and Nebraska?
Well, we take a lot of pride in that, and we hope that we can be a piece of what makes Omaha attractive. So even if it’s for a visitor or if it’s for someone that may want to come live or work here—there’s always the conversation about brain drain and young people leaving—and so we feel like we could be a really good selling point for making this a fun place to live and work and visit.
And I’ve noticed around the ballpark so much economic activity and new businesses over the years.
Yes! So when they moved from Rosenblatt, the thought of this downtown ballpark was obviously twofold. Like, we needed a really nice facility to host this, but also their vision was that it would help revitalize the north downtown, and it’s been so cool to see how this has transformed. And not even just the north downtown, but our park systems with the riverfront and Gene Leahy Mall opening within the last few years. So, from when this went in to now has been super fun to see.
I’ve noticed these ripples economically.
Yes.
They’re really interesting, including, of course, Millwork Commons.
Yes, which is so great over there. It’s just very lively, and you go in near the Ashton and you’re just trying to get a coffee and they are always having some sort of activity.
People don’t even realize that we have all throughout, sprinkled through Omaha, in the different areas, award winners.
Oh, yeah, great coffee.
Are there any questions you would have liked me to ask that I didn’t ask?
No, I think we covered it. I think it’s gonna be a really fun year to see. There’s four teams that have never been to Omaha before, and they’re in the same side of the bracket, so they will come here and play each other. So for someone it’ll be their first time here and their first win here. So in the state of college athletics and NIL and all that stuff to see to get new people here. You know, schools that maybe don’t have the big brand. That’s pretty fun. And Omaha does a great job of embracing a Cinderella.
I know a lot of people here will be fans of any particular team.
Yeah, and then obviously we still have the schools from Mississippi. There’s three teams from Alabama. So the Southeast represents well, they travel well, so we’re excited with whoever we get.
Thank you.
CWS Omaha, Inc., Building Exterior with Signage
College World Series of Omaha, Inc.
808 N 13th St.
Omaha, NE 68102
(402) 554-4422 https://cwsomaha.com
Amy Hornocker at College World Series at Omaha, Inc.
Omaha, Nebraska.com here with …
Amy Hornocker, Executive Director, College World Series Inc.
You’ve been now doing this for a couple years.
Yes.
And you have the one for the 75th year of hosting it.
Yes.
Tell us about it, please.
It’s the 75th anniversary of the College World Series in Omaha. The event has been running longer. So we just want to make sure that people know that it’s just the one that…for the city. But it is still very important.
Obviously, 75 years in a city is significant. So we’re just doing some things to celebrate. I think our biggest one that we’re doing is the 75th at the Riverfront. [https://theriverfrontomaha.com/events/?&eventid=7971]
Thursday, June 12th at Gene Leahy Mall, we have three bands, food trucks, and then capping it off with fireworks. And it’s free, open to the public. We want to celebrate with the community that’s given so much to this event.
We’ll also just have some other general celebrations throughout.
We have Ashley Spitsnogle. She’s a painter. She started a painting, which is basically Rosenblatt fading into Charles Schwab Field, and then she’s going to finish it on Finals Game 1. She’s going to finish the field piece of today, and then that will be available for purchase when she completes the whole painting, following the Series.
So that’s kind of a cool thing. Yes, that’s about it for celebrating.
I know you celebrate different groups of people too.
Yes.
First responders, teachers…
Yes. Heroes in the Heartland is Tuesday, June 17th. Game 10. We’ll honor heroes within the community. So that’s police, fire, doctors, nurses, military. So that’s a cool night.
Teacher Appreciation is game 11. That’s Wednesday afternoon. The first 250 teachers that show their ID get a Levy concession gift card.
We have a partnership with Omaha Public Schools on a reading initiative. We’ll celebrate some of the top readers that came out of their competition at that game too.
Is that the Readers Are Leaders?
Yes, Readers Become Leaders. We worked with Omaha Public Schools district-wide this year. Before this year, we just worked with one whole school to see if that would be like more intentional. We worked with Skinner Elementary in North Omaha. We did a couple pep rallies there, and it was fun to see the kids excited about reading.
Saturday, Game 4, we have the All Star Award. It’s usually been coaches, former coaches basically for their contribution to the game. But with the anniversary, we’re actually honoring Jack Diesing Sr. and Jr. Obviously, Jack Jr. is the chairman of our board, and his father was instrumental in keeping this event in Omaha and growing it. They’re going to be honored on Saturday night.
And then the very famous Rawlings keychain giveaway is on Monday afternoon at 1, game 7.
I have one of those and enjoy it very much.
They are very popular. People like to collect every year.
Anything the fans should know about this year? I know there’s a clear bag policy …
Yes. So clear bag. And then it will be the same metal detector walk-through. So it should be the same process to enter the stadium.
We actually do have some enhanced security in the way of road closures. This is for fan pedestrian safety mostly. Two hours before each game and one hour after, 13th Street will be closed completely from Cass to Cuming. The only way you can get down here is if you’re escorted by the Omaha Police Department … And we have rerouted the ADA drop off to over by Rocco’s.
All that is available on our website. The information is at cwsomaha.com, and we have updated maps and everything like that.
You’ve been doing this for many years now. What kind of things have you decided to add to the fan experience? And then I know you’re very active in the community as well as the CWS. It’s not just a couple weeks of the year…
Yes. So I think this year, besides all the stuff for the anniversary, we also have our normal Fan Fest that’s presented by Capital One.
The Ferris wheel will be back, which was popular, and they’re actually extending the hours of its operation on that first Saturday because they usually close with Fan Fest at 6:30, but they’re going to leave it open until the final until the game 2 is over and just see how that goes and then we’ll kind of see if there’s a lot of ridership.
The Air Force also is bringing one of their national assets, which is pretty cool. It’s a VR, it’s called the Hangar. So it is going to be like a pretty big footprint, and you’ll be able to go in and they have some virtual reality simulator.
So those are some new fan enhancements. And you know, Fan Fest is open to the public. So even if you don’t have a ticket to the game inside, you can come down and go to Fan Fest.
Some of the other things that we do besides the Readers Become Leaders program that we talked about is we have a grant program. Since the ’70s, we’ve given over $8 million to community fields and baseball and softball programs in the community.
So again, we’re trying to leave a legacy at home.
What do people need to know besides the clear bags, the scooters, the cashless…Is there anything new?
I think the biggest thing as far as access is definitely those road closures that will take place during the game days because there still is obviously the ride share programs to get down here.
Metro has adjusted some of their normal routes to come down here at more frequent times.
So that stuff’s all on our website. But also if you go to Metro’s, the scooters are around, the bikes, those E bikes and everything. So there’s plenty of different ways to get around down here.
What do you envision for the College World Series going forward?
Because there has to be this balance of the dynamics of the love of the sport, the rich history of the sport and then still going forward into the future.
How do you balance that?
Yes, and we have the contract here in Omaha until 2036.
But our organization did a strategic plan this year looking at what do we talk about next?
Like, when do we go look for an extension to this agreement, and what do we need to do to ensure that it doesn’t look to go somewhere else?
We’ve seen that happen with the Olympic Swim Trials, that there are communities that are willing to get these things.
So that’s still a work in progress. We definitely are looking at fan experience and even student athlete experience upgrades so that we can basically make sure there’s no doubt that people don’t want to leave here.
I remember many years ago I was fortunate to be able to tour the facilities here when things were changing. And it was amazing…the use of technology that hadn’t been even considered before.
Yes. So we have and we’re looking at a technology upgrade next year. It’ll actually start in the fall when the CWS ends, and we’ll have new video boards. The original one is kind of at its end of life… that technology.
Yes.
And we are going to get the long-awaited secondary board that is in left field that people have wanted and then some ribbon panels on the fascia. So being able to do a lot more stuff in the game, a lot of more sponsorship activities. We’re hoping and we’re always just trying to find the best way to make it accessible.
And we actually just had a media availability this morning. This is the first year we’ve worked with Autism Action Partnership. We will have bags at our guest services. So if you have a need, they have the noise canceling headphones, fidget spinners, those kinds of things for anybody neurodivergent, because we want to make it accessible for everyone knowing that the stadium is a big, loud, scary place. We’re trying to help families feel like they can bring everybody,
That’s fantastic.
Yes, it’s great. We’ve been talking to them for about two years, and we were able to bring that to fruition. We’re interested to see how well it does.
Alec Woockman with a table in the foreground at Charles Schwab Field Omaha
Please tell us a little bit about your creations and your favorite ones. And I notice they’re very inspired by different ethnic cultures, which is a lot of fun this year.
Yeah, absolutely. We have, I think 12 new concessions items this year, which is a decent amount for us. It’s more than maybe in years prior. But yeah, we like to feature a lot of different flavors and a lot of different…you know, our favorite types of foods. So there’s some Middle Eastern items out there. There’s kind of some Mediterranean things with our gyro and our Mediterranean brat. We have some…definitely some southwestern flavors. That’s very normal for us… jalapeno jack cheese sauce everywhere and jalapenos and things like that. And then we definitely have some breakfast items this year that we’re…you know, we’re big fans of breakfast flavors. Bacon’s great, that type of thing. So we tried to include that in a couple items this year.
I would say my favorite items… probably the Walk-Off Burger, which is a burger that is nestled between French toast. It has bourbon, bacon, onion jam which has some maple in there as well. Cranberry compote, just to add some acidity and some sweetness. And like I said, it’s nestled between two pieces of French toast. So it kind of covers a lot of breakfast slots there.
One I feel like we need to touch on is the Stealing Home Colossal Pretzel. We love having shareable options that you can buy and feed a few people. Maybe, you know, you and a couple of kids and your friends? Whatever. So it’s a giant pretzel—I mean, probably 12 inches wide type of thing. And it has three different types of meat. So we have pork carnitas, chicken tinga, taco beef, cheese sauce, poblano crema, pico de gallo, so southwestern flavors, but just on a huge pretzel that is very shareable, very filling.
And I think I should touch on a hot dog. I mean, we got a lot of great hot dog options this year. We’re doing Footlong Frank and Bean Dog with baked beans on it, bacon bits, mustard BBQ sauce. And then we also have… in that Mediterranean kind of realm, we have a loaded brat with tzatziki, lettuce, tomato, feta cheese. Just have a nice fresh take on a brat. And then the Dinger Dog is a fun one as well. So that’s also more southwestern flavors. There’s avocado, poblano crema, lettuce, tomato, bacon, stuff like that.
So those are probably the ones that are my favorite this year. I can touch on any of them if you want more specifics, but those are the few that I could think of.
You told me before how you could share inspiration, but I always find it interesting. And then each year’s got to be just a little bit different.
Yeah. You know that that is the thing. Every year, there’s maybe one or two things that stick around from the previous year’s menu. And then this year we’ve got 12 new things. So it is a group effort. We have a group of chefs that all work together on these things. We couldn’t do it with just one person. It always helps to have a lot of minds thinking on it. And we have people from different cultures and backgrounds who have some great flavor profiles to work with, so… the Big Kahuna Burger’s got the Asian Hawaiian influence. And we’ve got, obviously, lots of southwestern flavors. But it’s really a group effort. It takes a lot of people to come up with these different types of…
Of the returning ones, which one is your favorite?
Of the returning ones, I think everyone’s favorite is usually the Grounds Crew Tatch. That’s come back for years and years now, so that one’s great. The Nacho Omaha has been a big hit for a few years now. We’ve got like an Italian Meatball Slider and a Home Plate Box that’s been popular for us. So those are the big three, I would say, that are returning. Yeah.
Please, tell us about the NCAA and ways that people aren’t thinking of it, because there’s so much hard work that goes on there.
Yeah. I think one of the comments I mentioned during the press conference was about the excitement that these young men will have. It’ll be reminiscent of when they played Little League, right? They’re still playing for their institutions, for their teammates, and that’s still important to them, so we just want to make sure that that’s not lost in some of the other news media that’s going on around name, image, and likeness to (?) as employees. What you’ll see over the next two weeks is young men playing for the love of the game, and that’s what we’re excited about.
I think the balance of all those things is rather difficult to achieve, so…
Yeah, it is. I think certainly there’ll be thousands of fans here watching and cheering for them, and should they reap some benefits from that? And I would say absolutely. And I think that’s the model that we’re moving to.
Tell us a little bit about your background and how you came into your position.
Well, I’ve been at the National Office for 15 years now, all in Championships. Prior to that, I spent some time in professional sport and amateur athletics and high school association and the Olympic movement, so all in sport for over 25 years. But just working through various groups and departments and connections kind of afforded me an opportunity to join the NCAA 15 years ago.
What baseball memories would you like to share with us?
Oh yeah, so I was a baseball player growing up and loved the sport. It was my first love. I was a catcher and outfielder…really enjoyed the game. I really like the…it’s a team sport, but there’s an individual component. When you’re in the batter’s box trying to figure that out or a ball’s hit to you and how you have to make a play on that, and other people are relying on you. So I remember those lessons learned playing Little League, high school, collegiate league to understand and have kind of a connection with the young men who are playing now. So, but yeah, I could never have played at the level that these guys are playing at, so I’m a huge fan. I just really like to watch and enjoy their talent and their performance.
I think that’s really key and important, and I’m glad that you’re emphasizing the love of the sport and all of that. It’s hard to have that balance between running it and preserving it.
I really enjoy seeing you year after year and all your presentations, and I’m so happy that this is finally the year I was able to interview you. So thank you.
No, no. My pleasure, and thank you for your coverage and your support, for sure.
A food tasting event was held after the Pre-Game Press Conference on 12 June.
Alec Woockman, the Executive Sous Chef at Levy Restaurants, presented his and his teams tasty offerings for the College World Series.
Alec Woockman with CWS NCAA sign in background speaking at the CWS Food Tasting
Transcript of Event by OmahaNebraska.com
Alec Woockman: I’m Chef Alec Woockman. I’m the Executive Sous Chef of the buildings here. I’ll walk you guys through everything we do around here.
So, first, on my right here, we have our Ancho Chicken Quesadilla. This is our house-seasoned grilled chicken, cheddar jack cheese blend, pickled jalapenos, cilantro and a chipotle ranch dipping sauce.
Next is our first hot dog. This is our biggest hot dog. We have a Footlong Frank and Bean Dog. So, this is a 100% beef, half-pound Omaha Steaks hot dog. A combination with hot dogs and campfire baked beans, so we’ve loaded it up with campfire baked beans, bacon bits, diced red onions and some mustard BBQ sauce.
Our next hot dog is our Dinger Dog. Dinger Dog is—once again all of our hot dogs are 100% beef Omaha Steaks hot dogs. This has avocado on it. It has lettuce, tomato, red onions, bacon bits and roasted poblano crema.
Next up, we’re going to talk about our gyros. So, something new this year, we have a portable gyro cart, which we haven’t done in the ballpark yet and we’ll be offering two different types of gyros. So, we’ll have a traditional Lamb Gyro and a house-made Chicken Shawarma Gyro. So, we’ll have both to try. It’s naan bread, house made chicken shawarma, lettuce, tomato, onion. We’ve got cheese and then of course tzatziki sauce on it.
We have one loaded fry this year. Our loaded fry is the Moon-Shot Fries. So, it is crinkle-cut fries, jalapenos, cheddar and jack cheese sauce, sliced kielbasa sausage, bacon and onion jam, which we liked it so much we put that bacon jam on a few items today we’ll talk about, and then some fresh diced jalapenos.
So, next we have our first burger of the day. Our first burger is the Walk-Off Burger. It is a breakfast-themed burger. I think breakfast food, it’s good. Breakfast, lunch, dinner. We don’t have to confine it to just in the morning, but that being said, double headers, we’ll have folks walking around here at 11:00 a.m., so maybe they’ll need something to eat yet. So, we have an Omaha Steaks All Beef Patty. It is nestled between two pieces of grilled French toast. We have pepper jack cheese and we have bacon, onion, and maple and bourbon jam. And then to round it all out, give a little acidity, we have a cranberry compote on there.
So, next we have our loaded brat option. So, this is our Mediterranean Loaded Bratwurst. So, basically, we take the same toppings we have on our gyros and put it on a brat. So, shredded lettuce, tomato, onion, feta, tzatziki. It’s a fresh take on a brat, which you can find, obviously, in any stadium.
So, next we’re going to talk about our shareable option. We always like every season to come up with something that you could buy and share with your kids or share with a couple of friends. So, this is our Stealing Home Colossal Pretzel. So, it’s this giant soft pretzel. There’s three different types of meat piled everywhere, so we have pork carnitas, chicken tinga, ground beef taco, our jack and jalapeno cheese sauce, and our roasted poblano crema.
We’ll move on over here to a few sandwiches here.
So, our last burger we’re going to talk about today is our Big Kahuna Burger. So, this is a Hawaiian-themed, you know, kind of tropical Asian take on a burger. So, we have that same Omaha Steaks burger patty, we have pineapple chutney, teriyaki aioli, cheddar cheese, and bacon.
Two different fried sandwiches here. First one we’re going to talk about is the Fried Chicken Club. This is more of a classic flavor combination, but just a new take on our fried chicken sandwich here in the stadium. So, we have lettuce, tomato, a heavily dilled ranch aioli, bacon, cheddar cheese on a brioche bun.
And the last sandwich, maybe my favorite sandwich among our concession sandwiches, is our Triple Play Pork Sandwich. This is a fried pork cutlet topped with two other types of pork called the triple play. So, there is smoked pork, and then that same bacon jam we’ve been talking about and some whole-grain mustard aioli.
And last but not least for our concessions’ items, we have our Everything Toasted Turkey Bagel sandwich, another item I think you know for our double headers, we have people walking around at 11:00 a.m. for that breakfast option at any time of the day. So, it is an everything bagel that is toasted, schmeared with chive cream cheese, lettuce, tomato, pickle, and a thick stack of smoked turkey breast. That kind of concludes our concessions food.
We have a couple of premium items too that will be available only in the suites, but I just wanted to touch on a couple of those.
So, we have our summertime fresh mozzarella, cucumber, tomato salad, balsamic glaze, basil. It’s just a nice new fresh salad for our suites. And a new salsa offering we’ll have upstairs is our roasted corn and black beans, salsa, house-fried chips.
And that concludes the food today. So, it’s a lot of concession items and premium things. I think we have a wide selection for everybody out there. So, we’re excited to be able to have all these offerings and hopefully give folks what they want. So, that’s all I have today.
Here is some of the food that is prepared for the fans!
Stealing Home Colossal Pretzel
This massive pretzel is sure to steal home and so big it might feed your team of four or more. With a hefty amount of taco beef, pork carnitas and chicken tinga for the base and three more tasting toppings (jalapeno jack cheese sauce, roasted poblano crema, pico de gallo) it is sure to be a crowd please and a win for team Levy and Alec Woockman.
The Big Kahuna Burger
This big boss of a burger is made with an Omaha Steak burger and is topped with bacon, cheddar cheese, crisp shreds of lettuce, and tomato. It also has pineapple chutney, teriyaki aioli delivering big flavor of the Pacific.
Walk-Off Burger(Left) and Mediterranean Loaded Bratwurst (Right)
This walk-off burger was my favorite. A hefty Omaha Steaks burger with a surprise. Instead of a bun, there are two slices of french toast! No need to add ketchup or mustard, It’s perfectly balanced by the maple-bourbon bacon jam and cranberry compote. Definitely a walk-off for a burger. It’s also so hearty that you may also want to … walk it off.
Grilled Chicken Shawarma Gyro
Grilled chicken nestled in a warm naan, covered with crisp shreds of lettuce, tomatoes and onions. Add feta cheese and tzatziki sauce and you have another of the ethnic inspired dishes for this year.
Ancho Chicken Quesadilla
This was another surprise for me. While I enjoy quesadillas, a lot of them taste the same from place to place. Not this one! It’s the wonderful cheddar-jack cheese blend and chipotle ranch dipping sauce that give this a special depth of flavor that goes so well with the ancho chicken.
Fire Roasted Black Bean & Corn Salsa with House Fried Chips
This was another surprise winner for me. It had an unexpected depth of flavor that with a complexity worthy of an entree.
Footlong Frank and Bean Dog
Franks and beans-always a good idea but you’ve not had them like this before! This footlong hot dog is all beef and weighs in at half a pound. It is covered by crumbled bacon and campfire baked beans. Sounds great, right, but what’s different? It’s the sweet, but not too sweet, baked beans that is different. Not sure how they got so much flavor in the beans and how it’s delightfully a bit sticky, so grab some extra napkins and take this dog for a walk to your seat!
Everything Toasted Turkey Bagel
You guessed it from the name. It’s an everything toasted bagel with layers smoked turkey. What you haven’t guessed is that it has a hefty schmear of an amazing chive cream cheese that brings this all together with a dill pickle, lettuce, tomato, and red onions transporting it from breakfast to lunch.
Summertime Fresh Mozzarella Tomato, and Cucumber Salad
This one was light and refreshing. The balls of mozzerella were light and fresh. The cucumbers and tomatoes were good sized and very fresh also. The dressing was alsp light and tied the ingredients together well.
Dinger Dog
Amazing cremas on this one make it a dinger. We have a herbaceous and satifying guacamole crema and a delightful poblano crema (my favorite new condiment this year). Next up are bacon crumbles and red onions to make this extra tasty and give some crunch. Now we must not forget the star of the bun-an Omaha Steaks all-beef hot dog!
Crispy Chicken Club
This was another surprise for me. You are thinking tasty, right, but we’ve eaten these before. Not so! This is the best crispy chicken club I have ever had. The breading was perfectly done giving food credit where food credit should be done-to the chicken! The chicken was delicious and complemented by with a dilly-ranch aioli. Add crispy thinly sliced bacon, cheddar cheese,lettuce and tomatoes for the perfect chicken club. This one is the standard to judge the others and if it were a contestant in the Chicken Sandwich Wars, it would win.
Triple Play Pork Sandwich
The triple for this tasty sandwich is pork cutlet, pulled pork and bacon-bacon jam that is sure to win. Add a grainy mustard and let the flavors play across your home plate, I mean palate.
Moon-Shot Friesa
This one was my friend’s favorite. For him, it was the creamy jack cheese sauce that put this shot of crinkle-cut fries over the moon. Add the sausage, jalapenos and of course some bacon jam and your aiming at the stars, for sure.
2024
Please check out our posts on the College World Series for this year, so far, and share!
The College World Series Pre-Game Press Conference was held this morning.
Jack Diesing
Anthony Holman
Marcus Blossom
Mayor Jean Stothert
Roger Dixon
Speakers included:
Jack Diesing, President of College World Series of Omaha, Inc.
Anthony Holman, Vice President of Championships & Alliances at NCAA
Mayor Jean Stothert, City of Omaha
Marcus Blossom, McCormick Endowed Athletic Director
Roger Dixon, President/CEO MECA
Topics included:
App is available for the CWS.
Cashless Concessions- No cash will be accepted at concessions.
Reverse ATMS- For people needing to turn cash into a card, reverse ATMS will be available.
Clear Bag Policy- Still in effect.
Paperless Tickets- Tickets will be digital. If you do not have a cell phone or computer, you will still be able to attend. Admissions will be open and you can buy your ticket there.
Food- Favorites will be returning from years past.
75 year anniversary_ It is next year not this year.
Transcript of Event by OmahaNebraska.com
Jack Diesing: So good morning, everybody. Thank you all for coming. Welcome to the greatest show on dirt. I wanted to first of all recognize some of the College World Series…my board members that are here: Herb Hames, Tarci Slaybaugh, George Wachtler, Lisa Diesing. Thank you all for coming. As president of the College World Series Omaha, Inc. I’m excited to be here leading off the start of the 74th College World Series here in Omaha, NE. Today is the…really, the culmination of the Road to Omaha Journey. Omaha has become synonymous with the Men’s College World Series, much like Louisville is synonymous with the Kentucky Derby and Augusta, GA, is synonymous with the Masters, and Indianapolis is synonymous with the Indianapolis 500.
We really are proud and privileged to be able to be integral partners with the NCAA in both the past and the successive wonderful championships that this event ends up with. So we’re really looking forward to it. And as one head baseball coach said, “There are no bad days in Omaha.”
So up here with me today are Anthony Holman, Vice President of Championships at the NCAA; Mayor of the City of Omaha, the Honorable Jean Stothert; Marcus Blossom, the McCormick Endowed Athletic Director at Creighton University, the host institution; and Roger Dixon, the CEO of Metropolitan Entertainment, Convention Authority. And all of them will make a couple of comments here in a few minutes.
Just a few other things. We really, as I said, are at the Mecca of college baseball. To be clear, it all started on a much smaller stage: typically, local community fields across the nation, and that’s why every year CWS and the NCAA provide grant money to baseball and softball programs throughout the city. The “Restore the Diamond” program is what we call it. It’s a grant program that’s been supporting the community organizations’ baseball and softball programs since 1972, and this year is no different. This year, we supported eight different fields and facilities across the Metro, surrounding areas, and over the course of time from 1972 we’ve contributed about $5.3 million to these organizations to give something back to baseball and softball in the community, and that’s not to mention some of the larger contributions we’ve been involved with… with the UNO baseball field and soon to be Creighton baseball field, both of which are serving as practice fields for this wonderful event.
Finally, I do want to say—and I hate to use the word announce, but I’ll use it and know I’ll get in trouble for doing that, but we’re going to be celebrating the … College World Series 75th anniversary here in Omaha, but not this year. We missed a year. So this is the 74th of like, old Tom should tell…. He’s a hard guy to get rid of. And I kept telling this was the deal, and he said, “No, they want to do a story anyway,” so… but as part of this process, the planning is going to almost be a year-long process, and you all will be getting more information about this what will be taking place in the coming weeks following this year’s College World Series. So our partners will share a little bit more about what else is happening this year. And now it’s my pleasure to introduce Anthony Holman, the Vice President of Championships at the NCAA…Anthony.
Anthony Holman: Okay, I’ve got a few notes here, and I’ve got to change my glasses because I’m getting older and I couldn’t hit the slider before. They didn’t know that I needed glasses. I’d tell my parents I’d be in the big leagues if only they’d got me glasses earlier.
Jack was so kind to talk about the 75th anniversary that’s coming up and what the College World Series is synonymous with. I get so many calls, emails, text messages from folks that this is a bucket list type of event for them, just like Jack was saying for the Derby and the Masters and other events like that. And part of the reason why that is… it’s not just the location, it’s the people, it’s the community, that’s embraced and taken ownership in those events. And that’s certainly what we have here in Omaha. We’re so thankful for that. So we really appreciate all the support that we continue to get.
So a couple of things that are coming up with the championship. I think everybody… hopefully you’ve seen that the teams that are going to be here, we’ve got a number of institutions that are back for returners, some who were here more recently. We’ve got one that’s making their first appearance, but we’re excited to have Tennessee here for their seventh time; Kentucky is here for their first time. The Aggies of Texas A&M, making their eighth appearance. North Carolina, in for their twelfth appearance. They’re so excited they came yesterday, so we’re excited to have them. Florida State, making their 24th appearance, and the last time they were here was in 2019. And then both Virginia and Florida were both here in 2023, so we’re excited to have them back, and then NC State, excited to have them back, and I’m sure we’ll get questions about the last time that they were here.
But we’re just excited that… how resilient all of the teams are, and the opportunities that they come. There’s been so much talk, and I’m sure you guys are paying attention to it. So we’re not going to ignore the elephant in the room about what’s going on with name, image, and likeness and student athletes as employees and all those types of things. I’ll guarantee you nobody will be talking about that on the field here this weekend, right? Those…the excitement you’ll see from these young men in competing will mirror what you’ll see in August at the Little League World Series, where they’re playing for the enjoyment and the love of the game. And that’s what we want to celebrate over the next two weeks, so we’re excited about that.
A couple of announcements about our fan fest. We’re excited that our fan fest will continue to be available and open at 11:00 tomorrow and then it will be open on each of the days of competition. There’s a number of additional activities that that we would encourage folks to take part in. Thanks to our friends at MECA for helping us secure additional space to add some additional items and activities for our fans to take part in out there, so we’re really excited about that. Our partners, Capital One, AT&T, Coca-Cola, Buick, Great Clips, Rawlings are all returning with baseball activities, photo ops, giveaways, prizes, tons of activities. So we encourage everyone, even if you don’t have tickets, come on down and check that out for sure.
And we’re never sold out. There are always tickets. We don’t say that “sold out” word. Come on down; there’s something for everybody. And one of the other… last things that I’ve wanted to talk about was that we’ll also be inducting our fourth ever College World Series All Star, recognizing outstanding contributions to this wonderful event. And I’m so thrilled and excited that this year we’ll be recognizing one of my mentors and good friend Dennis Pope. And many of you know Denny, who was so integral in the development and the growth of this championship for a number of years for… both in attendance and exposure, and even bracket expansion. We were… folks won’t remember, not everybody remembers, but this was 48 teams for a long time and it went to 64 and Denny helped to usher that in. So we’re excited to have him and Donna and his family here to recognize them during the series, so please come out and help us thank him for his support.
And then the last thing is that if you if you want to stay up to date and in the know on all of the Men’s College World Series games, news, and happenings at the stadium, we encourage fans to download our Men’s College World Series app. My social media and communication team was all over me to make sure I got a plug in for that. So download the app. Plenty of information and activities to follow through that app. So we really appreciate that.
Thank you again, Omaha, for all the continued support and excitement that that we have. Folks come here in droves for a number of reasons. We’ve got tons of people who make this an annual trip and others that it’s a bucket list item for them and they can’t wait to get here. So thank you for your continued support. And we look forward to another great Series. So now I’ll ask our Honorable Mayor Jean Stothert to come up and provide a few remarks.
Mayor Jean Stothert: Good morning, everybody. Thank you, Anthony. I’ll take my sunglasses off. I don’t need reading glasses like you do, and I believe I’m a little bit older than you. But you know, just a few months. But it’s so good to be back at Charles Schwab Stadium, and we are very, very proud to be the host once again of this of the Men’s College World Series. And just thank goodness you don’t ask me to do the first pitch. I did that once at a Storm Chaser game, and I’ll never do that again. That was quite embarrassing. But again, thank you to all of our partners, the NCAA College World Series, Omaha and Creighton University, and of course… back up, the College World Series again brings great athletic competition to Omaha and thousands and thousands of visitors. It also brings Omaha together to make the next two weeks a great success that grows even bigger and better every single year, and we are ready for another record-breaking series.
This year, fans, families, and teams can visit the Heartland of America Park at Lewis and Clark Landing for the first time. It just opened last year, August 18th, and they will have a real treat walking through our new parks. The riverfront parks have exceeded all of our expectations. More than two million people have visited the parks for family movie nights, concerts, live theater, fireworks festival, walking their dogs, and special events. And so it will be a real treat for our fans this year too.
And next year. our fans can use the Baby Bob pedestrian bridge to walk from 10th Street to the Bob Kerrey Bridge and then cross over to Iowa. So those people in Council Bluffs can walk from Council Bluffs all the way to the ballpark, and that should be done later this year, this fall, and it’s another way that we are improving connections to all of our downtown events and venues, and it’s great to be downtown right now.
I would also like to thank the Men’s College World Series for supporting our community. One example of this is their continued support of the Readers Become Leaders program, which I love. Each year the College World Series of Omaha, Inc, and the NCAA partner with our schools to encourage enthusiasm for academics. This year, they partnered with 65 Omaha public schools, 3,700 third-graders, to help increase their reading proficiency. Students received incentives to read and complete reports on books. They earned prizes for their participation, including the opportunity to attend, of course, a College World Series game. Young readers completed more than 30,000 book reports, and that’s really great. Next Monday night, we will recognize Saddlebrook Elementary as the winning school. Thank you for supporting programs that teach young people about leadership and the importance of academics. I look forward to welcoming the student athletes tomorrow night at the opening ceremony and the opening games then on Friday. It’s going to be a good week. I wish I could guarantee good weather, but I can’t. But hopefully we’ll have good enough weather during the whole season this year. So now I am very, very pleased to introduce Creighton University Athletic Director Marcus Blossom. Marcus.
Marcus Blossom: Anthony talked about expansion. You get 88 in there… I think we earn that in there this year. We could talk about that a little bit later, but I do want to start by thanking Anthony and Randy and the rest of the NCAA staff. They do a great job. I happened to work with these two guys when I was at the national office, and it is a lot of work. They work tirelessly throughout the year to make sure we put on a very, very special event. Like the great game of baseball, Creighton University is full of cherished traditions and one of our most favorite traditions is having the honor and privilege of being the host institution for this special event, the Men’s College World Series. I speak for all Bluejays when I say how proud Creighton is to be partners with CWS of Omaha and the NCAA. On behalf of our vibrant community, I want to extend a heartfelt thank you to our President, the Reverend Daniel S. Hendrickson of the Society of Jesus; the entire Creighton Community; baseball head coach Ed Servais; and our dedicated athletic department, who spends tireless amounts of hours helping CWS Omaha and the NCAA put on this great event. Their efforts behind the scenes for the Men’s College World Series are definitely immeasurable. I do want to also acknowledge…I know she’s on the board of MECA, but she’s also our new chair of the board at Creighton, Miss Diane Duran. She helps a lot to bring this event to Omaha and she’s a big partner of Creighton University as well.
And now I have the pleasure of introducing one of the real big partners of Creighton and the one and only President of the Metropolitan Entertainment and Convention Authority, Roger Dixon.
Roger Dixon: Well, Diane, he introduced you, so welcome and thank you for your support. And on behalf of MECA, our extensive team of events staff, baseball management, we are proud to welcome everyone back to Charles Schwab Field. We are thrilled to be entering our 13th year as the home of the Men’s College World Series. Above all else, we are focused on creating an atmosphere here that gives fan baseball fans from far and wide a seamless experience, and that starts with hard-working staff months before the first pitch is even thrown. We are also dedicated to making the guest experience feel new and exciting every year. With the help of our talented and creative concessionaire at Levy, we are once again featuring a menu that caters and customs to the Men’s College World Series. These signature creations will be available to taste following today’s news conference, so make sure you stick around for a preview of this year’s menu.
Aside from the fun food, we want to make sure all our guests are prepared for what our venue has to offer. As a reminder, Charles Schwab Field is a cash-free environment. Only digital or card payments will be accepted throughout the building, including in our concession stands. We have multiple cash machines on site that function as a reverse ATM which will disburse a VISA gift card equal to the amount of cash deposited. Also, the stadium is digital enter only, meaning tickets must be downloaded in advance and then scanned right from the phone. Our box office staff is standing by to help anyone who needs assistance with this process.
Like every year, safety is a top priority for MECA during the Men’s College World Series. Our clear bag policy remains in place. Additionally, each visitor who walks through our doors must undergo a screening process, which will again include walk-through metal detectors at each of our gates to both enhance and expedite the entry.
We also want to remind the public that our guest service desk is available via text message for any issues or concerns that arise during the game. Simply text Omaha space your issue and location to 69050, and we will dispatch the appropriate assistance. However, it is important if you see something that requires immediate attention, never hesitate to alert a nearby MECA staff member or on-site law enforcement. We are thankful to have a productive partnership with Omaha police to ensure this event goes without a hitch. We are looking forward to another fun, exciting, and safe Men’s College World Series and our confident everyone’s visit to Charles Schwab Field will be the best one. Thank you.
Jack Diesing: Well, thank you to Anthony. Thank you to the mayor. Thank you, Marcus, and thank you, Roger, and also thank all of you in the press and everyone else for being here to help lead off the start of the 74th College World Series here in Omaha, Nebraska. Feel free after this is over to ask questions of anybody that you want to, or if you prefer to just go have food, feel free to go do that. And as we said, Omaha is synonymous with the Men’s College World Series, so it’s about time to… let’s go play some baseball, okay? Thank you all for coming.
2024
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Amy Hornocker, Executive Director of CWS Omaha, Inc. at her office
What are the family activities that will be going on?
We have Thursday, June 13 as our open practice day. All eight teams will be here at some point during the day, starting at nine o’clock and they will have some time on the field and be around. Fan Fest will be open and there’s some new exciting stuff that will be in Fan Fest.
That’ll be good, and then we have team days.
Obviously, Sunday is Father’s Day, so that’s usually a big day at the park.
Monday, game eight, is Kid’s Day, a lot of kids’ activities, mascots. The kids will hit or run the bases at the end, 12 and under because it gets a little crazy with the big kids get involved.
And then Tuesday, June 18 is our Hero’s Night that we do usually annually. There will be different recognitions for police, fire military, you know, medical folks. That’s one that’s pretty popular.
Wednesday, June 19th is Teacher Appreciation. We do gift cards for the first 250 teachers. We had an honorary captain submission where you could submit you or someone else could submit a teacher and say “why”. We randomly picked from those submissions, so four of them will be captains and they’ll get to be in the dugout and just those kinds of things.
Wednesday, June 19 is Country Night. It’s just really, there’s not a concert or anything, but it’s just wear your cowboy hat, country music, just something to just kind of change it up a little bit.
I think I came to that one year, and I had my cowboy boots on.
Yeah, that’s what we want.
…but I always have my cowboy boots on. I got lucky.
(laughter) Then we have two planned fly overs planes, so that the first one will be actually Game Three which is Saturday. It’s kind of weird. Usually, we do Game One and Finals One. But we had some aircraft availability issues and, of course, when you’re doing the military and million-trillion dollar aircraft, it’s, “We’ll take whenever you can do it …
Game Three will be two EA-18 Growlers from US Navy’s attack squadron from Whidbey Island Washington. Finals One will be F-16s from the Colorado Air National Guard out of Buckley Space Force Base in Denver. Our staff member that does all of our military stuff, she puts paperwork in through the Pentagon and then people volunteer. Anyway, that’s what’s going on that’s a little different [or] special: otherwise, just games as usual. And yeah, like I said, some potentially different teams for people to set their eyes on. It’s kind of fun.
Are there any changes to things like one year we had the clear bag policy and then we had no cash …?
No, those all remain, but there should not be any new security things.
We’ll still have the walk-through metal detectors at the gates which have increased the availability of getting people in you do not need to take things out of your pockets. Their technology allows people to just pass through.
Those are nothing nLLSU and their fan base, setting attendance records. We continue just to have a demand for this. It’s a good problem to have.
We increased season ticket prices a little bit this year and still saw 98% renewal. That’s pretty unheard of. The traditions, people wanting to come to this, is still there, if not greater and definitely rebounded from COVID and I think we see you know, it took off. It took us a couple of years to get the corporate base back. People still weren’t gathering or doing employee-client outings and now they’re back.
It was a hard time for a lot of companies and a lot of other organizations not knowing how things were going to go and what to do.
Yeah, and we have two fairly large youth tournaments that pop up around this. The kids play during the day and come at night to a CWS game. Without the GA (general admission) ticket, it became a little more challenging to fulfill some of those needs, but we did that. We increased our group ticket allotment last year. We wanted to make it a really concentrated effort to get priority to those kids to get them in here. Because that’s, I mean, those are our future fans. So, the outfield will be full of little league teams most likely.
It’s great when you’re around town and you see them and you’re seeing them have fun and the love for the sport.
Yes, I think there’s over 700 teams that are enrolled. They come in different waves, so that’s a lot of room nights and a lot of people in restaurants, so it’s pretty exciting.
We did work with Visit Omaha on a new economic impact number. They have a calculator that we worked with them on and inputted numbers. The last time we had done an official study was 2019. We were at $88.3 million in economic impact then and then this year, the 2023 Study yielded $115 million. So again, jobs, taxes, all that stuff.
That’s the next question I was going to ask. Thank you.
Yeah, yeah.
… because it’s a huge impact to the area.
It is. It definitely is, and I think what we have to be thankful for is all the support that we get from the city to support all of these folks visiting.
So yeah, we’ve had three really great years with the teams that we’ve had here. It’s not like people’s disposable income was unlimited, so we’ll see what happens with some of these different teams here.
How many people came last year?
I’d have to [check the] official number. It’s at my desk, but I think it’s uh, it was upwards of 390, some 1000 which was a record. We sold out most sessions and then a lot of them, once we sell out, we do offer about 1000 standing room only tickets, and we’ll do the same. Those are usually determined that day though. And we figured out that we can get about 1000 more in without it just being too much. I think it was an average of 22,000/game. Again, if you average it out, but the other numbers are on my desk.
What’s capacity?
We’re 24,500, just depends on who you talk to.
…And whether they’re standing or not standing.
Yeah.
How many seats are there?
Technically 24,500.
So, any new technology? I remember some time ago there was a change in the bats.
Nothing new that I can think of… ESPN continues to change how they cover this. In fact, the NCAA entered into a new agreement with them starting next year, but what actually was really exciting for us is game two of the finals, which could potentially be the championship game will be on ABC. Being able to be off the cable network and probably get into more homes is pretty cool for us. [It’s the] first time that we’ve been able to do that. ESPN continues to expand our coverage of baseball.
They used a drone the last few years and then so looking at the at the game from different lenses. That’s been kind of cool for the audience.
The technology with the drones…
Yes. The funniest story of all is we have this resident hawk over here. It lives on the light standard over here in right field. She not a big fan of drones. You’ll see her kind of causing some problems sometimes out there.
So..she feels the drone is threatening.
Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So she’s pretty harmless, but she does show herself well.
..You know, your babies and your home. A drone must be a pretty strange animal [to her] and it flies.
Yes. It’s been pretty funny. Some people have names for her, but . . .
I was going to ask what do they call her
They call her “Falconia” or something. I don’t know. But there’s some funny stories that come around throughout the two weeks while they’re here.
I remember one of the years, there were this couple of birds that just kept flying around, a pair.
When you have an outside venue, you’re going to get some of that stuff.
Anything else you can think of? We want to get the fans all ready and know what are they supposed to be doing.
This year is pretty similar to most, so nothing new that we need a lot of people know about other than just some of those special days and we do still have Monday, Tuesday afternoon game tickets for sale, pretty reasonably in the outfield.
We have the ticket exchange where people will go out if they can’t make it. They’ll resell their tickets. We’ll just be a normal year, but were interested in to see how the Super Regionals shake out, and see who’s coming here. And hopefully we’ll know everybody by Monday night.
There’s just a lot of surprises [which teams are coming] this year.
Yes, definitely, which isn’t all bad.
Our opening event, we used to do the parade and everything. Last year we did it at the Steel House. It’s just a more private for the teams because they are here with one goal, and so we’re doing that again where they get to see a different part. So it’s a shorter than kind of per their request, but so…
So no big parade …
No big parade, fireworks or anything. Not this year.
We just we kind of struck out a lot. We had half the time ended up with weather that ruined all of our plans. We’re like, maybe we need to look at this differen
Once those are wired, they do have to go off. It’s sad to put those off for no one really.
They’ve oftentimes gone up just for us. That’s why we need to look at this differently. You know, continue to make sure that we have the student athletes’ best interest in their time.
You don’t want to wear them out either.
Right. That’s a really long day with their media obligations and practices and stuff. We’re trying to be cognizant of that while still giving them something special here.
Something that’s interesting, and something I learned this year that I didn’t know, is Saving Grace Food [Rescue]. They work with Levy, so any food that does not come out of the kitchens here that’s made, goes directly to them so that they can provide it to different parts of the community. And we’ve been working with them to try and also get that out to some of our private people that have hospitality, so that this food isn’t just being thrown away.
Some of the other events like . . .
Baseball Village, the Hilton does a lot of catering for hospitality. That’s a really cool community piece that I did not know about until this year.
Oh, that’s great.
I’ve been wanting to do a story on them. But they had different troubles different years when I was trying to do it. So this would be really great lead in to that story, too….
Yeah.
…Because we try to promote the nonprofits and people doing good in Omaha. I told you before we don’t do bad news,
If we find, bad news, we might connect people behind the scenes. But we want OmahaNebraska.com to be that place to go to find out cool good things.
Just another…We have a renewed partnership with the zoo. We’ve had our national championship trophy out there and got a win with the penguins, and interacted with some of the animals because it’s obviously our number one tourism destination. It makes sense for us. We have obviously a lot of our visitors will also visit there. It makes sense that we collaborate, so it’s been fun. They do nights at the zoo, adult nights at the zoo, so we’re going to have the trophy there Thursday. It’s going to be a baseball themed night.
There are probably some really good puns for social media.
We’re just trying to still get out [the word], still talk about it with our community partners and all that.
