For more than 60 years, college baseball’s annual champion was decided in a folksy stadium in the south part of town. It’s a proudly blue-collar neighborhood, a place where residents charge 20 bucks to park in their yards and the owner of the baseball-card shop hands out free cans of beer.
At the center of it all was Johnny Rosenblatt Stadium, which opened in 1948 and was named for a 1950s mayor who dearly loved the game. Although Rosenblatt's cramped seats lacked any sort of luxury — even cup holders — thousands of fans journeyed there each June, even when their favorite teams didn't get to make the trip.
The College World Series returns to Omaha once again this weekend — but not to Rosenblatt. Its new home is TD Ameritrade Park, a sleek glass-and-brick stadium downtown named for an online brokerage firm that paid $20 million for the right to slap its brand on the park.
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"It's big, and it's shiny, and it's new. It's all of the things you lacked at Rosenblatt," said Kyle Peterson, a nearly lifelong Omahan who pitched for Stanford in the mid-1990s, played in two College World Series and is now an ESPN commentator. "But I think for anyone who grew up in Omaha, there's a bit of nostalgia."
‘Building for the future’
To keep the series coming back year after year, Omaha leaders signed short-term contracts with the NCAA and spent millions adding seats to Rosenblatt. More than a decade ago, the series started making money for the NCAA, and in 2007 it reportedly netted $3.6 million before television revenue.
But the NCAA knew it could make even more money with a new stadium — especially one with more seats, club seating, expanded luxury boxes and tighter control over vendors near the stadium.
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Cities such as Indianapolis waited in the wings, just in case Omaha didn’t agree with the need for the new stadium. Losing the series would mean losing tens of millions of dollars fans and teams spend, jobs centered around the series and weeks of national publicity.
"We felt a new stadium was the answer," said Jack Diesing Jr., the volunteer president of College World Series of Omaha Inc., the local organizing group. "The whole idea was we were building for the future."
The new TD Ameritrade Park, which holds 24,000 spectators and cost $131 million in public and private funds to build, has all of the fan-centric perks of a major league stadium. Legroom is plentiful, as are the bathrooms. The seats are more spacious and have cup holders, and the general-admission benches have backs. The corporate skyboxes are luxurious, the press box is sprawling. There's even a gluten-free concession stand.
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The facility has subtle elegance: sweeping staircases, an airy concourse and gentle architecture lacking any eye-catching features.
"I call it McStadium, because it's probably the most politically correct stadium that you could build," said Steven Pivovar, an Omaha World-Herald sports writer who grew up near Rosenblatt and has covered the series for 30 years. "There's nothing that grabs you and says, 'This is Omaha's stadium.'"
But the lack of distraction makes it easier to enjoy the game. You rarely have to take your eyes off the game even when standing in line for a hot dog, thanks to an open concourse and dozens of flat-screen televisions. Even the net behind home plate that protects fans from foul balls is carefully designed not to be seen.
"You can actually see the game going on," said Jonas Dufek, 22, a Creighton University pitcher who grew up in Omaha and has played in both stadiums, including the new stadium's inaugural game between Creighton and the University of Nebraska in April. "It's amazing."
A tough choice for Omaha
Supporters of the new stadium say that once the games start Saturday, the series will feel just like it always did. But something will be missing: the neighborhood.
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Fans got to know South Omaha well, because it was one of the only places to park for the games at Rosenblatt Stadium. Some houses charged a premium for the promise of not blocking you in, others collected keys and rotated cars throughout the day.
Once parked, fans needed something to do. They befriended locals, hosted tailgates and hung out in beer tents. There were Mardi Gras beads, lawn chairs and wading pools used as oversize coolers. One group of tailgaters always brought along a flock of plastic flamingos decorated with team logos — and then hooded them one-by-one as teams were eliminated.
The carnival atmosphere grew, and people could “attend” the series without ever stepping foot in Rosenblatt. The party usually started hours before the first game and keep going until the bars closed.
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"We were proud of our little baseball tournament. ... Then all of a sudden, because of television, it became a national thing," said Pivovar, the World-Herald writer who has also written a book about the history of Rosenblatt.
Yet city leaders continued to worry it might lose the tournament. They poured millions into renovating Rosenblatt, which held about 23,000 fans for College World Series games, and officials cracked down on vendors whose merchandise might take away from NCAA sales.
Then came the idea of giving up on Rosenblatt and building a new stadium — as long as the NCAA would agree to give Omaha a long-term contract to host the event.
Immediately, neighbors and dedicated fans launched a "Save Rosenblatt" campaign. They argued the College World Series would lose its personality if it moved from its hilltop home on 13th Street to a downtown entertainment district about three miles north. They recruited Kevin Costner, an occasional series attendee, to film a commercial supporting their cause.
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“It’s a tradition as strong as baseball itself,” Costner said in the 30-second spot. “To thousands of coaches, players and loyal fans, Omaha’s Rosenblatt Stadium is their field of dreams.”
The neighbors lost. Once plans for a new stadium went forward, the NCAA agreed to hold the series in Omaha through 2035.
‘It’s a new chapter’
As the new stadium was readied for the series this month, Rosenblatt was being dismantled piece-by-piece. Once torn down, it will become a parking lot for the nearby zoo, although there are plans to build a park area memorializing the old stadium.
The new ballpark is located amid a sea of parking lots, chain hotels and a convention center whose name was also sold to the highest corporate bidder. The area is also home to Omaha's trendiest hangouts: A fair-trade coffeehouse, an artsy nonprofit movie theater, an Urban Outfitters store and an indie-rock club that was recently the centerpiece of a National Public Radio segment.
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“Those who live downtown, those who work downtown: You are in for a rude awakening,”said Garry Gernandt, a lifelong South Omahan and former police sergeant who has been on the City Council for a decade. “You give us a call. We have 55 years of experience.”
Gernandt was one of the leaders of the Save Rosenblatt campaign, but he admits he doesn’t hate the new park. Many Omahans — even the real doubters — have been won over. They feel guilty saying it, but they kind of like those cup holders. And the great views. And the thousands of parking spots.
“It’s a new chapter for beginning new memories in Omaha,” Gernandt said. “But it won’t be on a hill. It will be in a concrete jungle.”
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