The Bluejays move into Omaha’s new downtown stadium in 2011 (full-time in 2012). Really, the Bluejays don’t have other options. The on-campus field is bad. Bad seating. Bad turf. Bad lights. Wichita State strongly prefers not playing there.
The new stadium, built for the College World Series, will seat 24,000 fans. Which means around 23,000 seats will be vacant for most Creighton games. The Qwest Center move worked out well for CU basketball. I can’t blame the school for trying something similar for baseball. On paper, the move could have many benefits for scheduling and recruiting. If you can live with empty seats and little atmosphere (other than for the Nebraska game), go for it. If it helps Creighton, it helps MVC baseball. MVC baseball needs all the help it can get. Regardless of how this turns out, it’s nice to see an MVC school taking baseball seriously enough to give this a try.
As someone who went to the CWS in 1991 to see WSU and Creighton play, my first thought whenever the topic of a Creighton baseball facility comes up is – why did it take so long? Creighton missed a great opportunity to capitalize on the success of Jim Hendry’s team in the late 80s and early 90s.
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Did you also notice that TD Ameritrade purchased naming rights for $20 million over 20 years? Makes the $8.75 million paid out over 25 years by Intrust Bank for Sedgwick County Taxpayer Arena look rather puny.
Really, SMG? Really?
That’s the power of the College World Series. Lots of national exposure on ESPN every year. Intrust Bank Arena can’t match that.
I understand the CWS exposure. Probably worth it even if it is only for 2-3 weeks.
But with taxpayers providing $200+ million (with $20+ million more than originally projected), we should have retained the naming rights instead of selling out for a measly $350K.