Omaha Forums

iamjacobm wrote:The largest attendance EVER was last year. Lets not go all chicken little after one down year with a number of things going against it like small poor traveling teams and Swim Trial competition.

And most of the games have had really hot weather.

Omababe wrote:

daveoma wrote:Any pictures you all can share that show the empty seats?

Just watch ESPN. Acres of land available when they zoom in on a fly ball catch. What's more impressionable is when they show a batter with vacant prime seats behind him!

That was also a Saturday "IF Needed" game. Nobody knew until Friday evening if there would even be games on Saturday. Little hard for some people to plan with only 24 hours notice.

I was down there all day Friday until the night game ended tremendous crowd enjoying the party atmosphere all around the park. I don't know if there were butts in the seats inside the stadium but the area was packed. I had no desire to sit in the blazing sun for a couple hours to watch College Baseball between teams I couldn't care less about. Not when I had passes to three tents with food and an open bar. It was a very good time.

I don't know what can be done about the weather or getting more fans from the teams to travel to keep the seats in the stadium full all week but the atmosphere around the park has improved and will only get better as North Downtown fills in.

9,300 in attendance on Saturday was shocking. Even though it was an "if necessary" game, I don't remember a single game with that few in attendance....ever. At least in the last 20+ years, anyway.

There have been alot of excuses for the attendance this year between heat, The Euro, newbie fanbases, price, etc.

But still, this has to be considered a huge red flag especially when attendance was already down this year.

iamjacobm wrote:The largest attendance EVER was last year. Lets not go all chicken little after one down year with a number of things going against it like small poor traveling teams and Swim Trial competition.

I completely agree ...

Ciao..LiO...Peace

omaha79 wrote:9,300 in attendance on Saturday was shocking. Even though it was an "if necessary" game, I don't remember a single game with that few in attendance....ever. At least in the last 20+ years, anyway.

There have been alot of excuses for the attendance this year between heat, The Euro, newbie fanbases, price, etc.

But still, this has to be considered a huge red flag especially when attendance was already down this year.

Attendance is fine...sure it is down a little, but its not as if every game has only 9,000. Like many on here have mentioned. This stadium is much different than Rosenblatt. At the blatt, there was nowhere to walk around, so everyone was always sitting in their seats. I can't think of a game that I have gone to at TD Ameritrade where I have sat in my seat most of the game. It is so nice to get up and walk around, especially since you can do that without missing the game action.

Also the environment outside the stadium is still spectacular. It has been full and people are everywhere near the stadium. Its almost as if some of you are in the same goup of people with the belief that there is not enough parking downtown. If you take a step back and look at the grand scheme of things, you will see everything is alright and heading in the right direction.

Now if tonight or tomorrow's games only have 9,000 in attendance, that would be a reason to worry.

skinzfan23 wrote:

omaha79 wrote:9,300 in attendance on Saturday was shocking. Even though it was an "if necessary" game, I don't remember a single game with that few in attendance....ever. At least in the last 20+ years, anyway.

There have been alot of excuses for the attendance this year between heat, The Euro, newbie fanbases, price, etc.

But still, this has to be considered a huge red flag especially when attendance was already down this year.

Attendance is fine...sure it is down a little, but its not as if every game has only 9,000. Like many on here have mentioned. This stadium is much different than Rosenblatt. At the blatt, there was nowhere to walk around, so everyone was always sitting in their seats. I can't think of a game that I have gone to at TD Ameritrade where I have sat in my seat most of the game. It is so nice to get up and walk around, especially since you can do that without missing the game action.

Also the environment outside the stadium is still spectacular. It has been full and people are everywhere near the stadium. Its almost as if some of you are in the same goup of people with the belief that there is not enough parking downtown. If you take a step back and look at the grand scheme of things, you will see everything is alright and heading in the right direction.

Now if tonight or tomorrow's games only have 9,000 in attendance, that would be a reason to worry.

I'm sorry but you are spinning it like one of those media talking heads trying to tell us that Hillary will be great for the country. At the end of the day spin don't pay the bills or cut it. It is what it is.

Brad wrote:
That was also a Saturday "IF Needed" game. Nobody knew until Friday evening if there would even be games on Saturday. Little hard for some people to plan with only 24 hours notice.

The "if needed game" point is valid, but there have been plenty of "if needed" games over the years. I can't remember a single one prior to this that had an announced attendance at 40% of the ballparks capacity.

Yes, the all time best attendance was last year, but I can't put this all on the heat, Euro, or poor travelling teams. Everyone knows most of the ticket holders are Omaha residents anyway.

I'd just like to see a comparable game from the Rosenblatt days where the announced attendance for an "if necessary" game was as low as 9k. I can't remember one, at least in the last 25 years. If there was a game that poorly attended, I'm guessing it might have been in the 1980's or earlier.

skinzfan23 wrote:

omaha79 wrote:9,300 in attendance on Saturday was shocking. Even though it was an "if necessary" game, I don't remember a single game with that few in attendance....ever. At least in the last 20+ years, anyway.

There have been alot of excuses for the attendance this year between heat, The Euro, newbie fanbases, price, etc.

But still, this has to be considered a huge red flag especially when attendance was already down this year.

Attendance is fine...sure it is down a little, but its not as if every game has only 9,000. Like many on here have mentioned. This stadium is much different than Rosenblatt. At the blatt, there was nowhere to walk around, so everyone was always sitting in their seats. I can't think of a game that I have gone to at TD Ameritrade where I have sat in my seat most of the game. It is so nice to get up and walk around, especially since you can do that without missing the game action.

Also the environment outside the stadium is still spectacular. It has been full and people are everywhere near the stadium. Its almost as if some of you are in the same goup of people with the belief that there is not enough parking downtown. If you take a step back and look at the grand scheme of things, you will see everything is alright and heading in the right direction.

Now if tonight or tomorrow's games only have 9,000 in attendance, that would be a reason to worry.

I'd just like to see a comparable game from the Rosenblatt days where the announced attendance for an "if necessary" game was as low as 9k. I can't remember one, at least in the last 25 years. If there was a game that poorly attended, I'm guessing it might have been in the 1980's or earlier.

I get the notion of people walking around more, or leaving early to hit the bars...but the announced attendance was 9k. There's no denying that. It wasn't announced at 20k where one could buy the "walking around" or "leaving early" arguments.

Maybe there is a comparable game from the Rosenblatt days, but I'd just like to know when the last time the announced attendance was 9k or less for a CWS game. My guess is you'd have to go back a while. Maybe I'm wrong.

Maybe those in charge should put more focus on baseball-related "butts-in-the-seats" activities, more than other things like cute little cottages in front of the CLINK or Ferris wheels and amusement rides outside the stadium. How about letting the fans bat some pitches from the mayor, council members, or some other celebrities before the games, .....just an idea.

I have always said that about the CWS games. I like baseball, but they are rather boring compared to AAA baseball or MLB. They have in game promotions and contests that make it a little more interesting. Sure they maybe can't do all the promotional things since it is an NCAA event, but it would be nice if there was a little something more on the field, especially since scoring and home runs are way down at the new stadium.

Yeah it didn't even look like 9k on TV. I'm sure some were there early, some came late to even hit that amount.

Someone asked why attendance is always brought up. They don't seem to do it now but I think every CWS game I attended at Rosenblatt from the 80's forward, they announced the attendance. If it was a session record they would announce that. Then they'd tell you if we were ahead or behind the record pace for the overall series. They almost made it seem like it was our duty to set records year after year. They definitely ingrained in me to associate attendance with the CWS.

Greg

Greg S wrote:Yeah it didn't even look like 9k on TV. I'm sure some were there early, some came late to even hit that amount.

Someone asked why attendance is always brought up. They don't seem to do it now but I think every CWS game I attended at Rosenblatt from the 80's forward, they announced the attendance. If it was a session record they would announce that. Then they'd tell you if we were ahead or behind the record pace for the overall series. They almost made it seem like it was our duty to set records year after year. They definitely ingrained in me to associate attendance with the CWS.

Greg

I absolutely remember them making a big deal about the attendance on the PA.

omaha79 wrote:

Brad wrote:
That was also a Saturday "IF Needed" game. Nobody knew until Friday evening if there would even be games on Saturday. Little hard for some people to plan with only 24 hours notice.

The "if needed game" point is valid, but there have been plenty of "if needed" games over the years. I can't remember a single one prior to this that had an announced attendance at 40% of the ballparks capacity.

Yes, the all time best attendance was last year, but I can't put this all on the heat, Euro, or poor travelling teams. Everyone knows most of the ticket holders are Omaha residents anyway.

I'd just like to see a comparable game from the Rosenblatt days where the announced attendance for an "if necessary" game was as low as 9k. I can't remember one, at least in the last 25 years. If there was a game that poorly attended, I'm guessing it might have been in the 1980's or earlier.

No. About half of the ticket holders are out of towners.

"No. About half of the ticket holders are out of towners."

I think you been drinking the koolaid a little too hard. 50% are from out of town

This kid went viral with his stare down the other day. Up past 20M views.

http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/look- ... oes-viral/

http://www.kmtv.com/omahasportsinsider/ ... goes-viral

I've purchased a book of 10 GA seats every year for the past 15 or so. But with the summer heatwave going full steam a few weeks ago, I opted not to buy this year. Sitting in 90 degree heat next to thousands of other sweaty people isn't my idea of fun. Plus I've never heard of many of the teams playing in this year's series.
Looks like I'm not alone in my thoughts.

Regarding attendance, I found a couple links that have relevant info:

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/sports/c ... ance_N.htm

The crowd Sunday for North Carolina-Fresno State was 15,125, the smallest since 2004.

http://dataomaha.com/media/cws/boxes/ar ... 8-2004.pdf

Attendance: 14697

Perhaps somebody with madd webb skillz can mine the dataomaha.com for older figures.

No one has mentioned this and sorry the picture is so bad, but they have had the Direct TV blimp circling the stadium. Last night there was also a second blimp as well:

I didn't get a picture of it, but they also had the stealth bomber fly over at the start of the championship game.

Quite a sight: Stealth bomber flies over downtown Omaha

I'm so mad I got there late and missed the stealth bomber. I was stuck in traffic about 20th and Cuming when I heard a roar and looked up and there it was! I couldn't figure out why the Direct TV blimp went so far up north until I saw the bomber.

Thursday night when I was shooting Aerials both blimps where there as well. I think the Direct TV blimp parked at Eppley last night. That's where it looked like it was going after the game last night. The PenFed blimp is apparently an experimental hot air balloon. Thursday night one of the helicopter pilots was talking to them. They setup up, took off, landed, and broke down in Tom Hanafan Rivers Edge Park. Apparently thursday when they landed they started to let the air out of the balloon and kids came over and started jumping on it like it was a frickin bounce house! The pilot quickly got them off...

The Direct TV Blimp has its own twitter @dtvblimp and according to a post they made, the giant TV On the side is 2100 Sq Ft!

@dtvblimp wrote:2100 sq. ft. Biggest of its kind in the world

Thought this was funny:

@mlananna = Tonight we've had a stealth bomber, two blimps and a plane fly by TD Ameritrade Park. It's like an Omaha air show.
Reply:
@_robanderson = The only thing that doesn't fly around TD Ameritrade Park Omaha is the ball.

GRANDPASMUCKER wrote:"No. About half of the ticket holders are out of towners."

I think you been drinking the koolaid a little too hard. 50% are from out of town

Expert use of the quote option.

Linkin5 wrote:

GRANDPASMUCKER wrote:"No. About half of the ticket holders are out of towners."

I think you been drinking the koolaid a little too hard. 50% are from out of town

Expert use of the quote option.

I'm confused here. Are you for or against the premise that around half the people attending the CWS are from out of town or are you just bored and thought it would be fun to kick old Grandpasmucker in the shins.

Brad wrote:I'm so mad I got there late and missed the stealth bomber. I was stuck in traffic about 20th and Cuming when I heard a roar and looked up and there it was! I couldn't figure out why the Direct TV blimp went so far up north until I saw the bomber.

I was standing right near the CLink and heard it but not until it was right on top of me. If I would have had my actual camera, I would have grabbed a pic.

I arrived at the stadium at 5:20 and the scalpers were still asking for face value on the reserved seats. We waited around until 5:55 and got tickets for $20 each in section 202. Sitting in the sunny general admission area would have been tough.

Attendance was announced at between 20 and 21 K. The place filled in more beginning with the 3rd inning.

GRANDPASMUCKER wrote:"No. About half of the ticket holders are out of towners."

I think you been drinking the koolaid a little too hard. 50% are from out of town

Yeah? Thanks for repeating exactly what I said. Unless you are trying to be a smart |expletive|, then I would suggest you do research first so you don't look like a bigger fool than you already do.

Marlins Man behind home plate.

First ever Game 17 tomorrow night!

Coyote wrote:First ever Game 17 tomorrow night!

I can't remember once at Rosenblatt that we had a game 17, not once in 20 plus years even. This is not natural and has me worried.

It wasn't until 2003 that the championship series was changed to three games, making a possible 17 games.

Coyote wrote:It wasn't until 2003 that the championship series was changed to three games, making a possible 17 games.

Your sarcasm detector might need to be sent into the shop Coyote!

MadMartin8 wrote:

Coyote wrote:First ever Game 17 tomorrow night!

I can't remember once at Rosenblatt that we had a game 17, not once in 20 plus years even. This is not natural and has me worried.

Fortunate for them that there's a 17th game this year. It'll help them pad the total attendance number a little. They need all the help they can get this year.

iamjacobm wrote:Marlins Man behind home plate.

We will be at Werner Park Thursday night.

Omaha1000 wrote:Attendance was announced at between 20 and 21 K. The place filled in more beginning with the 3rd inning.

Monday: 20,789
Tuesday: 24,716

Felt full both nights.

Watching the game on tv last night....I was surprised how full it was in the 8th and 9th innings even though it was nearing 11 pm on a weeknight.

Brad wrote:

Omaha1000 wrote:Attendance was announced at between 20 and 21 K. The place filled in more beginning with the 3rd inning.

Monday: 20,789
Tuesday: 24,716

Felt full both nights.

A bit different than 9,000.

I imagine tonight's attendance will be pretty good, considering the weather and the fact it is a game three, even though it is a weeknight and the Pound is tanking against the Dollar.

Game three is called off due to weather, game will be tomorrow time is TBD. Has this ever happened for the championship game three?

They decided on 12:08. What a joke.

iamjacobm wrote:They decided on 12:08. What a joke.

Really? Just really? That totally sucks. That is a huge blow to College Baseball.
I have to wonder who made this decision. ESPN? Do they think so much about ratings that they took it out of Thursday Prime Time? What does ESPN have on Thursday Prime that they couldn't move? Was it NCAA. WOW?
How do you place a National Championship in this time slot?

Noon, that sucks!

I can't imagine it was an ESPN decision as they have a rerun of 30 for 30 on Cleavland's lack of championship teams, and at 8:30 the all important BattleFrog College Championship. Maybe the teams had to be out of their hotel rooms (11:00 checkout)?