Nebraska at Creighton: 1st game at new CWS home

[Turner]

Creighton begins play at TDAmeritrade Park on Tuesday against Nebraska. The game is a sell out already with 20,000 or more expected. I think the game will be available on CBS college sports channel if anyone wants to watch.

[iSASO]

I thought no one outside of Wichita cared about college baseball.

[JJ Clamdip]

Big deal, another rented stadium for a Valley team to play in.

[ictjay]

Big deal, another rented stadium for a Valley team to play in.

Renting is the way to go. Sign of the times. Great deal for the Jays.

[MoValley John]

[quote="iSASO"]I thought [u]no one[/u] outside of Wichita cared about college baseball.[/quote]

That is not exactly the right statement. The original statement was that nobody outside of teh south and people in Wichita care about college baseball. The quote was slightly changed to be limited to Nobody outside of Wichita. While untrue, there are pockets of people that follow college baseball, the numbers are very small. They might even be growing slightly.

That said, the event being held on Tuesday is exactly that, an event. The baseball game just happens to give reason for holding an event. Prior to holding this thing at Rosenblatt and now, the new ballpark, my guess would be that the annual games drew a few hundred. In fact, when they moved the thing to Rosenblatt it was a big deal and they marketed it as such. I have attended this game three times. I even posted pictures from it on Valley Talk. That being said, I, like 95% of everyone else there, couldn't have given a crap who won, or paid too much attention to the game. It simply is an event, one to see people and be seen. An excuse to tailgate and drink some beer in the stands. Yes, the beer will flow.

I am not attending the game this year, partially because I don't care enough and also because I think there was a whole lot of money thrown at a new stadium that was unneeded and simply built based on the demands of the NCAA and their veiled threats to pull the CWS from Omaha if the city didn't pony up. Likewise, I will not attend CWS games this year and did not renew my tickets. Yes, I said on VT, I have, or in the case now, had CWS tix. I had them because "it is the thing to do in Omaha" and a place to see and be seen. I actually used my parking pass a lot and often scalped my tickets, chosing instead to stay outside where the parties were. The parties were much more fun than actually going into the ball park.

As for those parties, they are a big reason the new stadium was built. During the CWS, along 13th Street was one big carnival! Beer tents, music, dancing, food courts, tee shirt vendors, people giving out free samples of crap and oodles and oodles of braless hot chicks! The place is a blast and has little to do with college baseball. At the same time, the NCAA hated it! They couldn't tap into that money, they couldn't control what was marketed and they believed that huge amounts of money were being left outside. The greed of the NCAA forced them into demanding a new stadium. The problem is that now they will have control over the entire area surrounding the new park, but that is where it ends. There are still private parking lots and other areas around the new stadium that are opening up beer gardens and the like. The beer won't be right across the street. The guys selling the pirated tee shirts will be two blocks away, not right across the street. The NCAA will control exactly whgat they controlled before, that money they hoped to capture will simply move a few blocks away.

The Matt will replace Starskys as the drinking hole and they will open up their back lot for all the vendors. The carnival will live on, it will just take a few years to see exactly where the best rides are. And the stadium will still be full of a majority of Omahan's who want to see and be seen, and take part in an event. Just like the Cox Classic golf tourney here. Hot chicks abound at the 19th hole, guys showing up to hopefully hook up with said hot chicks, drinking partying and fun. Most of the people there knowing very little, or even caring about golf! Omaha is an event town.

[iSASO]

Now convince us that the attitude was the same in 1991 or that it would be the same if Creighton or the beloved home-town team was playing in the CWS.

[MoValley John]

[quote="iSASO"]Now convince us that the attitude was the same in 1991 or that it would be the same if Creighton or the beloved home-town team was playing in the CWS.[/quote]


I have no idea what the attitude was here, then. I didn't live here. My guess is that there would have been droves of bandwagoners. The CWS was the biggest thing in town and to see a local team there would have raised a ton of excitement. The same could be said almost anywhere. Was it really 1991 when Creighton was in the CWS? I knew they went, but never knew the year.

It's kind of like the swimming and diving championships. They sell out. Other than Michael Phelps, naming a swimmer for just about impossible. I don't know any. Mark Spitz is it. Even though few Omahan's follow competitive swimming, they still go to the event in droves and if a local swimmer was in the olympic trials, many more would jump on the bandwagon.

[ihsi]

Cold night for a game last night and the Jays bats never got started, losing 2-1. Good crowd considering the 30ish degree weather.