Omaha, Nebraska, Johnny Rosenblatt Stadium, and the College World Series have been synonomous with each other for over fifty years, but now there may be a hitch in the tradition. The College World Series wants a new stadium. There’s two ways of going about this and the city of Omaha is looking to both of them for some answers that will satisfy everybody. On one hand you have the people who think a brand new stadium site downtown would be the perfect answer and would help bring in new businesses to the area. On the other hand you have the people who are avidly against getting rid of the historical Johnny Rosenblatt Stadium, which was built in Omaha in 1948. The city has a solution that would please these folks also. They would keep Rosenblatt in the same spot but they would make major renevations to the stadium. The only problem is neither side can agree or compromise on a solution. This is where the problem really comes in. If they can’t make a decision in a timely fashion the College World Series may look for a new city to host them. This would hurt Omaha in a major way.
It would, for one, hurt the city financially because many of the businesses that sponsor the CWS, and also receive a lot of business when it comes to that time of the year, would lose that business. It’s only here for one week but in that time they probably at least triple their profits from any other time of the year. If they aren’t bringing in those extra profits they may not make enough money to survive during the rest of the year. When businesses start moving out the city starts losing jobs and the unemployment rates go up and the city treasury starts to drop.
Another problem this would cause would be in the tourism income for the city. Sure Omaha has one of the largest zoo’s in the world but during the CWS many, many people come to town from all over the place and go to the zoo when they’re not attending a game. If the CWS isn’t in Omaha a lot of those people that toured the zoo wouldn’t ever come and the zoo would be hurt by the loss of the CWS in Omaha, too.
All-in-all they need to make a decision that will still honor the tradition of Johnny Rosenblatt and the CWS while still listening to the citizens of Omaha who have supported this stadium for the fifty-eight years it has been around. If this decision isn’t pushed along a little bit though Omaha may be in world of hurt because the CWS might not stand by and wait for them to make a decision. Hopefully they will let this indecisiveness cease and make the right decision.