Move The CWS? That's News To Indianapolis
The city that Omaha Mayor Mike Fahey has mentioned most as a possibility to steal the College World Series away wasn't on base with the pick-off attempt until the Omaha World-Herald published a story this week.
Indianapolis media learned from the World-Herald's story that the National Collegiate Athletic Association had not specified an accompanying site in its list of championship events for 2011. This led to several news stories, including one in the Indianapolis Business Journal that read, in part:
Despite Indianapolis leaders' interest in hosting the lucrative event, Dedman said Indiana Sports Corp. has not had contact with NCAA officials about bidding for the event. "Our understanding is the bid is not open at this time," he said.
But Omaha officials appear leery of Indianapolis.
The city's daily newspaper, the Omaha World-Herald reported today that, "Indianapolis has the reputation of a shark striking when other cities sleep."
One Indianapolis TV station, NBC affiliate WTHR, interviewed World-Herald reporter C. David Kotok, who wrote the article in Tuesday's editions.
"When people speculate, I think Indy comes to mind because you have a modern stadium right downtown, things the NCAA likes. The NCAA likes events in Indy," Kotok said in a phone interview.
The NCAA let cities know this month the College World Series may be up for bid.
In an email to Eyewitness News, a spokesperson said, "It is true the contract expires in 2010, but the NCAA is in current discussions with the city of Omaha about future options with the College World Series. There has not been any discussion about moving the CWS to Indianapolis or any other city."
Yet to be made public (by the mayor's office or any other Omaha media outlet) is the original newspaper article Fahey has mentioned repeatedly in his attempt to win support for a new ballpark in Omaha. One that he distributed to City Council members earlier this month was generated from recent discussion of a new stadium.
10 comments:
we have lost the Huskers... now we will lose the CWS.. next they will take our homes and our first born.
.......runnnnnnn!!!!
Let's make a mountain out of a mole hill. It's just more posturing by our "esteemed" mayor to get what he wants. Namely a stadium named for him. The CWS will not leave Omaha. You heard it here first.
If this mole hill changes shape in anyway you should get it checked..It could be cancer..I check my mole hill all the time
I say go ahead and let the College World Series go away. I couldn't care less.
If Omaha goes belly-up and become a ghost town as a result, then I will come pleading to the mayor saying, "Sorry, sir. You were right all along"
Let's see the mayor and a select few think we need a new stadium to keep the CWS. If they want to pay for it let them, but try to get taxpers to pay and se how soon they can pay for it.
on a different topic....has anyone here "called up" Harold Andersen's website?
Fahey would have done a much better job if he just said "hey...the NCAA has us over a barrel...we build it, or they're gone"
Instead, he did a mediocre impression of the snake who preceeded him in office. He zigged, he zagged, and we all know it's a done deal. We'll be paying out for years. We will also see the voter cynicism level go up significantly.
Fahey's actions killed a lot of support for a Senate race, but given reports of his reluctance to enter the race, maybe his actions were a bit of intentional self-destruction
Fahey probably didn't want to alienate the NCAA in any way, shape or form after getting that initial memo from them. However, unless you are completely naive as to how the NC2A operates, you HAD to know they were the ones pulling the puppet's strings.
I'll bet the new stadium that they "have to have" is entirely for the student-athletes benefit that participate in the CWS, right? Right????
I think that Rosenblatt stadium is cool. The only thing bad about Rosenblatt is it is in a bad end of town. So moving Rosenblatt from one bad end of town to another bad end of town isnt going to fix the real problem. If they absolutely have to build a new stadium why dont they build it in an area of town where we dont have to be worried about getting shot or mugged? The majority of the people of Omaha have spoken and we dont like downtown. We dont feel safe downtown. It isnt safe downtown. So please stop trying to shove downtown down our throats.
I think they should put out around Elkhorn. That would give them the space they need to plan for parking and the opporunity for growth in the area is explosive.
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