The 2026 College World Series is underway in Omaha, bringing together fans, teams, traditions, and unique experiences from across the city. To help visitors, fans, and local residents make the most of the tournament, we’ve published interviews, event coverage, food features, and a visitor guide.
Whether you’re attending games, visiting Omaha for the first time, or following the tournament from home, we hope this collection of articles helps you learn more about the 2026 College World Series and the people, places, and experiences that surround it.
The CWS 2026 Media Tasting showcased many new offerings and some updated classics.
The Banh Mi Smash Burger is one of the newest burgers on the menu. For the smash burger portion, it features two beef patties topped with white American cheese. For the banh mi portion, there is fried pork belly tossed in gochujang sauce, along with pickled vegetables, cilantro, and Kewpie mayo. The flavors blended together well and complemented the burger. It was very good.
The Bavarian Dog is a beef hotdog covered with crisp bacon and honey mustard pretzel pieces nestled in a pretzel bun. Dripping in beer cheese sauce, it was a big hit and crowd-pleaser.
The Elote Nacho boat was my personal favorite. A gentle river of queso blanco and lime crema, topped with cotija cheese, cilantro, and fire-roasted corn, flows over a bed of tortilla chips. The combination of flavors was an outstanding winning combination for me. I’ve never had a sauce pair so perfectly with chips before.
The Grand Slam Nacho is a returning and updated fan favorite. Its corn tortilla chip base is loaded with queso blanco, beef, and green onions. Bringing it all together for a home run of flavor are fire-roasted salsa and cilantro lime crema.
The Nashville Hot Tenders are large breaded chicken tenders covered in a spicy Nashville hot sauce that is sure to bring the heat. The lightly seasoned tater tots provide balance to the cayenne-heavy sauce with the tangy pickle slices as the perfect complement.
The Out of the Parm Burger was a surprise favorite for me. It is really two sandwiches in one. On the bottom is a traditional hamburger. Above it roosts the best chicken Parmesan I have ever had. It was tender and flavorful, with the right amount of cheese and a thin layer of sauce. A layer of banana peppers, along with the bun and a necessary skewer, helps tie everything together.
The Steakhouse Mac N Cheese is a three-cheese version with a surprise cheese-blue cheese. The steak bites go well with the blue cheese crumbles and fried onion. Green onions dot the creation.
The Tag Up Tortellini is one of Chef Katie Cochran’s and my favorites. The base is fried cheese tortellini, and its teammates are Italian sausage bites, mozzarella, cupped pepperoni, and Parmesan cheese, all served with marinara sauce.
The Texas Leaguer Sausage is sure to become a new favorite. Tasty smoked barbecue brisket, barbecue sauce, and caramelized onions cover a Black Forest bacon sausage for an out-of-the-park flavor experience.
The Comeback Smash Burger is one of the newest smash burger offerings. It comes on a branded “College World Series Omaha” bun and features two beef patties, American cheese, lettuce, red onion, a thick slice of heirloom tomato, and comeback sauce. It’s a smash hit for sure and will make you want to come back for another.
The Curve Ball is another burger served on one of the branded buns. The brioche bun is shaped and stamped to resemble a baseball. Enclosed inside are a grilled beef patty, two slices of American cheese, dill pickles, and house-made burger sauce. The closed bun keeps the burger and toppings safely tucked away until the first bite.
And now for dessert….
The Midwest Monster Twinkie is so massive you’ll need some friends to help you vanquish it. While it looks and is huge, the doughy part is incredibly light and airy. Dripped copiously with chocolate and heaping helpings of delicious strawberry compote, the toppings are the heaviest part of the confectionery creature. Oh yes, let’s not forget a light white fluffy expected surprise inside.
The Churro Bites were one of my favorites. Crispy-doughy ridges covered with cinnamon and sugar, these are sure to please. Don’t forget the dipping sauce. It goes perfectly with the mini churros.
OmahaNebraska.com’s Interview with Katie Cochran, Executive Chef for Levy Restaurants
Katie Cochran with background of scoreboards and stadium seating at Charles Schwab Field Park
OmahaNebraska.com here with…
Katie Cochran
That’s quite an amazing number and a variety of ideas you have.
Yeah.
I know your team starts on it [CWS menu offerings] right away because we’ve talked about it before, but what is a brainstorming session like?
It takes all of us. It’s great because we have seven chefs, so all of us kind of come up with little things. We look for trends. I think the tortellini was just kind of a toss in the hat. To be very honest, we started with tortilla chips and we’re like, “I don’t like that.” I didn’t like the marinara on the tortilla chips, and I sat there and I was like, “What if we fry cheese tortellinis?” and everyone was like, “Oh my God, let’s try it.” So we kind of feed off of each other too. We try out a lot of things and alter a lot of these recipes as we’re trying it. Everybody helps. It’s not just culinary too, because all of our front of the house and concessions people come to the tastings. They give us feedback, they let us know what they think, too. So we’re not just getting chefs’ opinions; we’re getting our whole team’s opinions.
In order, how much notice did you get on Omaha Steaks?
None, to be very honest. Ironically, I was at the ballpark and we were in the middle of a tasting with Adam. My Omaha Steaks rep was calling me, but I was in the middle of a conversation, so I did not pick up the phone. After that tasting was done, I talked with my director of operations and he asked me if I had talked with my rep, and I said, “Oh, I missed her call.” He then told me that she was let go on that day, and we received our last order the day prior. So we got zero notice, when we’d used them for… I’m pretty sure since the building was open.
So having to pivot suddenly and all of that, what was your thought process, and how did that work? Because this kind of thing happens to everybody in every kind of business.
Oh, 100%. I grew up in this industry, so the first thing I did was call my brother, who is a center-of-the-plate buyer for Cisco in the East Coast. And I was like, “What do I do? Who can I call?” And he kind of just walked some things through with me, and he kind of calmed me down a little bit. And then we just really started talking to US Foods, who our current rep is. I had a lot of brokers come and talk to me, which obviously are Smash Burgers, that’s how we got that in. Different brokers come and try to sell me their product. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t, right? But this was amazing, like they had that Smash Burger patty, and we had just lost Omaha Steaks, and it was just perfect timing at that point, and I was like “This is meant to be.” We were supposed to move on, I feel like, and we were supposed to find something new, and that can help us move forward, and I think that’s what we did.
There are new vendors that are going to be throughout all the other products, the hot dogs and everything else.
Yes, so before Omaha Steaks did hot dogs, we had Nathan’s. So we’re back to selling Nathan’s hot dogs.
Oh, that’s nice.
Yes, it’s a great hot dog. Personally, I feel like I like Nathan’s better than I liked the Omaha Steaks’. So we’re using that now, and we’re just finding different products.
What are one of your most favorite or couple of things this time around?
This time around… I love the Curve Ball. I was telling the other reporter that it was here last year. So that’s kind of the crazy thing: nobody knew about it. I didn’t want to put it out for media. I didn’t want to tell anybody unless I knew we could execute it as a team. And they did. They sold over 1,000 last year. Surprisingly, we really didn’t feel like we were going to sell that. But bringing that burger into the stands , it was a huge thing. There has never been a cheeseburger upstairs in the seats, so that was huge: bringing something that they’ve never been able to order in those seats. I think that’s why it sold really well last year. But it’s like a juicy lucy. It’s a beautiful patty in there. It’s got two pieces of American cheese, and it just oozes out. I think I had one every year last year. So I think that’s my favorite for this year, but that ties up with tortellini. They’re so good.
But as soon as you said that, was it cheese fried? Yeah, I was like, oh, that’s got to be amazing.
Oh God, it is. And with the marinara and the crispy pepperoni and the Italian sausage, it just really brings it all together.
Is there something you want to showcase or say?
Just make sure that everybody looks at the MECA website before they come out. They have all of the new items listed in all of their locations.
Are they listed now or soon?
I think that they’re going to be listed soon. Before tomorrow they’ll be listed. They have all of their stuff today and then they’re going to input all of that.
OmahaNebraska.com’s Interview with Adam Straight, President and CEO of the Metropolitan Entertainment & Convention Authority (MECA)
Adam Straight with CWS Media Food Tasting Offerings in background at Charles Schwab Field Park
OmahaNebraska.com here with…
Adam Straight, President and CEO of MECA.
Please tell me a little bit about yourself and what brought you here. I loved hearing all the wonderful things you said about Omaha earlier.
Oh yeah, great. Well, first and foremost, I love it. My last five and a half months have been some of the best of my career. And that’s from the genuine nature of the community and their welcoming of me, an outsider of sorts, into the community. So it’s been great.
I’ve been in the business for 25 years. I started actually as an electrician at the University of Maryland, working in the shop and providing support around campus. I was asked a couple of questions one evening, and one of those was “Do you like sports?” And I said “Yes.” And the next one was “Do you like overtime?” And I said “Absolutely. I’m your guy.” So that kind of really spawned into just me supporting the athletic department throughout all of their events and all of their sports… 27 sports. I got to be able to do a number of different things to learn the business, not just being a commercial electrician, but understanding audiovisual and scoreboard maintenance and scoreboard controls and electronics and everything it takes to put on an event just like this one. So that got me into the business, and I quickly moved up the ladder.
I spent 11 years at the University of Maryland. I started as an electrician and left as the director of all their athletic facilities. That took me to an opportunity in Georgia to run the Georgia Dome, the day-to-day operations. I did that for a few years. We realized that we wanted to decommission that building and build a new stadium, so my president at the time put me in charge of that project. I was the executive in charge of Mercedes-Benz Stadium literally from day one to day zero when we opened it in three and a half years. Again, I learned so much about the business: the different sides of the business that I wasn’t familiar with, like the project management side and the financial side, the stewardship to the community side—to engage them and to understand how it affects all the stakeholders. I spent eight years in Atlanta in various other roles.
After the stadium opened, I declined the offer to run that. I knew what it took, and I wanted to start a family, and it just wasn’t the right time. So my president then put me in another broader role in charge of the entire campus. I still had oversight of the stadium but not direct day-to-day operation oversight. I did that for eight years.
I got a call one day from a recruiter about a job in New Orleans, and it kind of checked all the boxes. It was a big risk. We had just started a family, had a one-year-old, so there was another opinion in the room. Maybe they couldn’t voice their opinion yet, but still, they were another opinion. So we respectfully declined that position several times, and then one day they flew my wife and I down, and I don’t know, it must have been something in the air, and we said, “Let’s go ahead and do this.” It turned out to be one of the best decisions of my life. The best decision of my life was to join the military right out of high school, and that’s what kind of put all this together and got me to Maryland. But this was probably the next best decision because it put me in a position of leadership to really prepare for what none of us knew was going to happen, and that was COVID.
I had reported to the COO in Atlanta, but then I was the COO in New Orleans. So I was able to take our organization and lead us through that pandemic effort and all of the things and all the nuances that changed daily, hourly, however you want to remember it, but it gave us a really good opportunity. And then on the development side, we had a lot of work to do in New Orleans to get back up to par level with our competitors. We saved a lot of money. The previous administration had saved a lot of money, but it was time for us to start spending that and start doing projects that made sense. So it allowed me to do that.
I oversaw basically a $2 billion capital strategy through my time in New Orleans, and that included $760 million renovations inside and some development outside. But again, at every stop, I just got to learn more and more and more. And when I got the call for this job last summer, I was literally sitting on a beach and I looked at it and said, “Omaha, Nebraska… I don’t know anything about Omaha, Nebraska.” I kind of put it down and picked it up later that night. And as I read through the job description, I knew it was fate. I gave it to my wife and said, “You got to tell me this job wasn’t written for me,” because it was college athletics again with our partnership with Creighton. It was stadium management, it was arena management, it was development, it was park management. It was all of these things that I’ve done in the last 25 years. The culmination of all, that to be able to lead such an effort, was just a no-brainer for me.
It must be so hard overseeing all of this. Are there things that were different maybe than other places? I’m sure with your background you were really ready to adapt and pivot.
Sure, yeah. I mean, as an operator, we don’t like to use the word hard. It may be a challenge sometimes, but that’s what we prepare for, right? It’s your separations and preparations is what I always like to say. It’s how you prepare for events like this. You know, this just doesn’t happen. We don’t start preparing for this yesterday. It’s an annual preparation to put on a show like this, but it’s chunks of everything that I’ve ever done that’s kind of set me up to be successful, and the team here is amazing. It’s not just me; it’s about all of us. We have a bunch of amazing people that are really dedicated to their job and dedicated to the brand and the reputation of MECA. And I’m just here to up that standard a little bit, maybe a lot bit. But again, it’s helping people understand what MECA does for not only our campus, but for the extended community.
What are you looking forward to for your first game?
Just the excitement around the event. Again, I’ve been part of multiple Super Bowls, Final Fours, college football, national championship, WrestleMania. It’s like all of these different events. Sitting back and capturing and just embracing the moment is what makes it all worth it. It’s the fan experience and the fan engagement. It’s seeing the little kids. play with their dads or their moms or whatever the case may be, but everyone really enjoying themselves. That’s what I’m built for. That’s what brought me to this hospitality profession and community. It’s just creating those compelling experiences and knowing that they’re going to last for decades.
MECA is more than a College World Series. Tell me a little bit about what you see going forward with MECA and Omaha in the area.
Yeah, absolutely. You hit it right on the head. It’s more than just two weeks in June. It’s an organization that encompasses so many things throughout the year, and it’s multiple layers of things, right? We have the arena asset, we have the convention center, we have the park, we have this facility.
And your staff at the park is amazing.
Oh, thank you. Yeah, it’s a great park. I couldn’t get my kids away from the park when we visited when they first got here, but it’s understanding how we need to program those assets to benefit the larger community, right? It’s not just about what MECA does to help MECA. It’s what MECA does to help Omaha. And that’s the importance of everything that we do: to bring people here, to have them sleep in our hotels and eat at our restaurants and drink at our pubs and just patronize everywhere they can around the city so they can go back to their communities where they’re from and tell them what a great experience Omaha was. Because nine out of 10 times, anyone I ask, have they been to Omaha, the response is, “It’s phenomenal, the best experience of my life.” You ask those that haven’t been, they just don’t know anything about it. I wouldn’t say it’s a negative reaction; it’s just not really a reaction at all. So the goal is to get more people, more eyes on it, so then that can organically grow a subset of fans, right? Raving fans that’ll come to our city just to visit. Not necessarily for an event or a convention, just to come visit for leisure.
One more question. Is there something you would have liked me to ask that I didn’t ask, or something you want to tell people?
I want people to know what MECA is and to understand our mission and our vision. It’s a newly created mission and vision. It’s not necessarily an adaptation of a mission and vision. We never really had one moving forward in written words, so my leadership team created that mission from a bunch of responses that we got from the entire team. And a lot of those adjectives that you see used in the mission and vision and the strategic goals and values, those all came from the staff by just having conversations. And you’ll see that those are very meaningful not only for what we do as an organization, but how we enhance everyone in the community. A rising tide floats all boats, right? What we’re doing here has a genuine impact and an elevated impact on what the city can be in total. If we have decided to expand the facility, that’s going to generate more business, which is going to, again, float all boats. If we decide to build a headquarter hotel in the future, that’s going to generate more opportunities to get more events of a higher scale, and again, float all boats. It’s what’s happening with the Union Omaha Stadium. It’s what’s happening with the growth of Creighton. It’s everything. This is going to turn into a thriving district. And one of the things I’ve said in the past is we have the Old Market, and everyone loves the Old Market. Why don’t we create a New Market and have this over here in northeast Omaha?
Executive Chef Katie Cochran giving the CWS food presentation to media
For the 76th College World Series here in Omaha, we are introducing 31 new food items to the list this year. We updated four of our items that we have sold over the years. We have 36 specialty items on our concourse. We have 15 specialty items on our premium level, which is the level we’re currently on.
One of my biggest things that this year I am so very proud of is that we brought Smash Burgers to the ballpark. It is something that we do over at the CHI Center, and it was a big feat for me to try to get this over here. We have a lot of different things working, but we were able to get Smash Burgers in two different locations.
The first location is on the concourse, and that’s Burger Burger. So Burger Burger with four different smash burgers. They’ll have a Plain Jane, which is just our two seared beef patties with American cheese. And then we will have our Deluxe Burger, which is two seared beef patties, American cheese, our burger sauce, lettuce, and tomatoes. And then we have our Bacon Barbecue Smash Burger as well. That’s got white American cheese, barbecue sauce, caramelized onions, and bacon. And then our specialty burger this year for Burger Burger is our Banh Mi Burger. This will also be a branded bun again this year with our CWS logo. So we have the two seared patties. We have white American cheese. We have fried pork belly tossed in the gochujang sauce and topped with pickled banh mi vegetables and Kewpie mayo.
Our specialty smash burger for upstairs in our premium level is our Comeback Burger. It is our two seared patties, American cheese, Comeback Sauce, lettuce, shaved red onion, and a thick sliced heirloom tomato. Down in Slice, we also have a different burger this year. It’s kind of our crazy big Wow Burger. We have a grilled beef patty with provolone cheese. On top of that, we put a fried chicken fritter. So it’s basically a chicken Parmesan on top of a burger. It’s very delicious. It’s got mozzarella cheese and marinara and banana peppers on that.
Another burger that we’re going to feature this year in our outfield, in Big Hits, is our Curveball. It’s a sealed burger. So normally out in Big Hits, we wouldn’t be able to have cheeseburgers because it’s not a stand that produces that. So this is the availability to get that cheeseburger out in the outfield to get that going. So we branded the bun seeds on the burger and then we just press it together. So that is a burger patty, two slices of American cheese. We have burger sauce and pickles. These are our featured burgers this year.
We’ll move on down. We’ll start with our dogs next. We have a Texas Leaguer this year. That is in Great Plains Heat Zone and Diggity Dog. It is a Black Forest bacon smoked sausage topped with house-made brisket, caramelized onions, barbecue sauce, and crispy bacon. Next, we have our Bavarian dog.So that is our all-beef hot dog topped with beer cheese, crispy bacon pieces, and honey mustard pretzel pieces all in a Bavarian bun.
I’ll go down here. So next we’ve got our nachos. This year in Slice of Pizza, we have kind of a different one. We’re calling it our Tag Up Tortellini. It’s fried cheese tortellinis topped with marinara sauce, mozzarella cheese, parmesan cheese, and then crispy fried cups pepperoni and Italian sausage. Next is our Elote Nacho, and that is an in Diggity Dog. And that is corn tortilla chips topped with our queso blanco, fire roasted corn, and jalapenos. And then it is topped with queso fresco and cilantro, and it is drizzled with a little bit of chili lime vinegar or chili lime fruit. And then this is our iconic Home Plate Nacho. We gave it a little bit of a facelift this year. This is something that’s been at our ballpark forever. How we upgraded it this year is we put a piece of blanco on it, Volcanic Peppers, brand new fire roasted salsa. They started coming out with it in May. So we put that on top of it. It has such amazing flavor. And then topped with our cilantro and green onions. And that is our new take on our iconic home plate nacho.
Move over to our spicy and premium levels. We have our Nashville Hot Tenders this year, and you can find that in Clubhouse. That’s chicken tenders tossed in our Nashville hot sauce. It’s served with tater tots and spicy pickles, and it has dill ranch on the side. All of our ranch dressings on the concourse and on premium level this year are all house-made as well.
Next we have two premium items that are only featured on our club level. We have our Steakhouse Mac n Cheese. It is a creamy, house-made mac and cheese topped with tender steak bites, blue cheese crumbles, fried onion tanglers, and green onions. And then we have our Slugger Buffalo Chicken Sub. That is in Gasworks, and that is chicken tenders topped in buffalo sauce with buffalo ranch and then pepper jack cheese and then topped with ranch sauce.
And then to my absolute favorite thing, which is our desserts. It is something that we’re starting to get a little bit better at, I feel like. We keep coming up with some new great ones each year. The You’re Killing These S’mores will definitely make its return back to Batter’s Box. But this year, we came up with a Midwest Monster Fried Twinkie. So we make this Twinkie in-house. We dip it and we batter it and we fry it in the stands. It’s topped with a strawberry compote, chocolate sauce, and powdered sugar. It is definitely meant to be shared. And this is out of Burger Burger.
Our last dessert on the concourse this year is our Churro Bites. Just churro bites, golden fried, tossed in cinnamon sugar, and it comes with caramel on the side to dip in.
And kind of to reiterate a little bit of what Adam said earlier, here is an example of those Yeti cups. You can find these Yeti cups at any of our concession stands and at Club Bar. Reiterating, you can have refill drinks, so if you buy one, you get free refills the whole entire series. You just have to bring your cup back each game and then take it to the stand. You have to take your lids off, give the cup to them, and they can refill it for you.
And then we’re going to touch on one last thing. We have a brand-new package in our suites this year. This package is only available for pre-order, but it is available at our suite level. This is our grazing package. Our grazing package consists of Al Pastor pork skewers and that’s a fried pork belly with an Al Pastor sauce, and it’s like grilled pineapple. We have our Street Corn Deviled Eggs and then Grilled Peach and Heirloom Tomato Skewers. You get pretzel whites and queso cheese with it, a feta and watermelon salad, topped with serrano vinaigrette and mint. And then we have crab rangoon dip. All of this is absolutely fabulous for snacking and right in your suite, and it’s a great package to have.
Well, this concludes all of our new items this year. Once again, I said we have a lot of our favorites coming back.
The College Word Series Pre-Game Press Conference was held this morning at the Charles Schwab Field Omaha.
In attendance were:
Joey Gardner, Marketing & Creative Manager College World Series of Omaha, Inc.
Jim Pillen, Governor, State of Nebraska
John Ewing, Mayor, City of Omaha
John “Jack” Diesing Jr., Former Chairman and President of College World Series of Omaha, Inc.
Lisa Diesing, Board of Directors College World Series of Omaha, Inc.
Anthony Holman, NCAA Vice President of Championships
Adam Straight, President and CEO of MECA
JOEY GARDNER: Welcome, ladies and gentlemen. I’d like to welcome you all here today for pre-series media availability. We’re going to go ahead and get started here. First, I’m going to welcome the Honorable Jim Pillen, Governor of Nebraska.
GOVERNOR PILLEN: Good morning. I want to just take a minute to welcome everybody to the incredible city of Omaha in the state of Nebraska. When I talk with anybody who comes to Nebraska, moves here, or lives here for a short period of time, I always ask them, “What do you love the most about Nebraska?” and they can’t get their answer out fast enough: “It’s the people.” It’s the people. And you know what I wanted to share? It’s the 76th year.
This one’s really important. College World Series. Sports Illustrated did an article 10, 12 years ago, so at my age I might mean it was 20 years ago, but they did an article talking about all the extraordinary sporting events across America. Think of all the incredible sporting events. Guess where they ranked the College World Series sporting event. Number three. Let’s ask ourselves, why did that happen? 76th year, why? What makes the College World Series so special? To be the third most relevant sporting event.
Number one, every young man that starts throwing a baseball and catching it with a glove and starts in whatever league and doing games, they don’t dream about the majors. They dream about Omaha. So what makes Omaha so incredibly special? Why do we have governors coming from states and their team’s not even in the game? Why do we have fans coming, the LSU Tigers? I don’t know how many will be here, but why do they keep coming back? Because of the people. And everybody from Omaha and Nebraska that make an incredible impact. And that’s why, on behalf of the state of Nebraska, we were really, really proud to make a $30 million investment into the Creighton campus to sew that baseball. We’re really, really proud that Creighton and UNO are co-host sponsors that make this happen and make the event extraordinary for the young men that are coming to Omaha and really, really finding out where the greatest show on earth is. Welcome to Nebraska. God bless. Have great times while you’re here. Thanks for everything that everybody does.
JOEY GARDNER: Questions? We’ll start with the recent economic impact numbers that were released. What impact does this have on the state of Nebraska?
GOVERNOR PILLEN: Well, I think that what’s really, really important on the state of Nebraska is sales tax revenue. More activity, more people coming and spending money doing business with business. What’s important for everybody to understand is that in Nebraska, 95% of our businesses are family owned, generationally successful. We’re all stakeholders. We’re not going somewhere else. And so it’s another flurry of extraordinary economic activity. Helps the state with sales tax revenue, but the big one is what it does for all family-owned businesses.
JOEY GARDNER: Any other questions?
GOVERNOR PILLEN: Kindest group I’ve ever been in front of.
JOEY GARDNER: Mayor John Ewing.
MAYOR EWING: Good morning, everyone. Welcome to the amateur capital for youth baseball. For those of you who weren’t over at Creighton, I made that proclamation earlier today. And so this is the amateur capital of baseball.
First, I would like to thank Adam Straight and the folks at MECA for their hospitality, being exemplary hosts, and welcome to your, I believe, first College World Series. It is an amazing experience, and we’re glad you get to share it with us this year. Second, I would like to thank Mr. Holman and the NCAA for all the great work that they do, as well as CWS with Jack and Lisa, thank you for, and Amy, thank you for the great work that you do making this happen every year. Omaha has been the proud host for 76 years for this amazing opportunity. And we are thankful that you all are here. Welcome home.
When you see our police officers, medics, public works crews, know that this is us fluffing the pillows, putting on the coffee, laying out a big spread, and know that everyone is here to welcome you and make sure that you have a great time. Also, everyone is asking about the streetcar, which is under construction and now will be ready in the fall of 2028. We have worked diligently just like we did with Berkshire Hathaway to make sure people will have a great traffic route and be able to get anywhere in this city that they want to go. We made sure that Tenth and Capitol was open so that people can experience Omaha and be able to get around the city.
We also want to thank everyone in advance for supporting our businesses in Midtown, downtown, and Blackstone. We believe it is critically important that we support them and allow them to be able to continue to prosper so that when the streetcar is completed they can be the beneficiaries of that effort. So support those businesses.
There will be parking changes at this time of year, obviously. And we have a lot of information that will be shared at the hotels and other places so that people can find adequate parking. Also, we have transportation options so people don’t have to try to get as close to the stadium as they can. They can actually park a little bit away, drive the Metro bus to be able to get to the College World Series, or ride our e-bike. We have the best e-bike program in the United States of America as well as our scooter program. So we just ask if you have any questions about parking, Sarah is in the back there… if you could raise your hand to let people know so they can get that information. We also would ask people to look at Google, Apple, and Wave if they want to know routes to be able to take to get to their destinations. Use the tear-off maps at the hotel for any road closures. And then finally, know that we are standing at the door, awaiting the car in the drive, ready to welcome you all home to the best show on dirt, the College World Series, and thank you all for being here.
JOEY GARDNER: Can you talk about the economic impact that this has on the city and what it does?
MAYOR EWING: Absolutely. As the governor mentioned, with the state, there’s sales tax revenue. There’s also sales tax revenue for the city of Omaha. We also get hotel tax revenue, and we get the other revenue from when people spend money in this city and partner with our businesses. But the most important thing is we get the branding of being part of the greatest show on dirt, and that’s good for Omaha year-round.
JOEY GARDNER: Any questions for the mayor? Next up, we’ll have Lisa Diesing with the College World Series of Omaha.
LISA DIESING: Good morning, everyone. As Joey said, my name’s Lisa Diesing. I’m a long-time board member and executive committee member for the College World Series of Omaha, Inc. First of all, I want to thank both Governor Pillen and Mayor Ewing. Thank you for your kind words. Thank both of you for your ongoing support of this championship, because you help us do what we do best and host this championship for all of those that travel in and those that are dedicated to it locally. Along with that, I would also like to formally welcome on behalf of our board, our partners at the NCAA, welcome home. I’d also like to formally welcome the eight teams and their fans. We’re excited to help you understand what Omaha has to bring, and we hope you enjoy the experience.
JOEY GARDNER: Lisa, can you talk about the importance of this event to both the city and the state?
LISA DIESING: Absolutely. I want to add a couple of things regarding the economic impact, and I’ll talk bigger picture. When we talk about Omaha locally and economic impact, our organization ran an economic impact study last year. We hired an independent economist. And with the results of that, $147.6 million economic impact in the city of Omaha last year, just over the next two years. Along with a financial perspective, we also impact people. That includes over 1,500 jobs, full-time positions, over these 10 days.
And both the governor and the mayor alluded to this, but our name is mentioned so many times, not just within these 10 days, but in these three weeks, that the value of that publicity is over $2 billion. So we’ve got to take advantage of that and make sure that, again, we continue to do our best and be the hosts that we have been for 76 years, as you’ve heard.
Outside of the quantitative piece of this, though, there’s an important piece that we’re not yet focused on, which is all of you… all of our local fans, and those that travel in from across the country. Folks that are dedicated to showing what Omaha has to give with this event and how the impact of our culture affects those folks in returning and building their own traditions. For example. I have a very close friend whose family is from California. They have a 20-year history of coming here year after year. They’ve built their own traditions. They go to the same restaurants. They share the stories of how great Omaha is. That family, though, actually has a full 45-year history of being involved in the College World Series from a coaching perspective, from a player perspective, and their commitment to Omaha. So if we can continue to build the excitement of folks that don’t live here, who also help share our story, we can get those folks to come back and continue to reaffirm that Omaha is the place to host the greatest show on dirt in perpetuity.
JOEY GARDNER: Any questions for Lisa? Next, we’ll have Anthony Holman with the NCAA.
ANTHONY HOLMAN: Thanks, Joey. We are excited to be back home. I think everyone has said it before about how long the championship’s been here. And I think I mentioned during this press conference last year and years before, one of my other responsibilities at the association is managing our bid selection process. And you wouldn’t believe the number of times folks say to us, “Hey, we want to be the Omaha of … (insert sport).” So that’s a testimony to other people in other cities, other states recognizing the special thing that we have here. And that starts with, as the governor said, with the people that support this, and how that’s generational. We’ve got Lisa up here talking. Jack led the CWS for so many years, his dad before that, and that consistency has been really special for us. Adam has come in and hit the ground running with MECA, right? The progress that we saw around the stadium, the development, he’s walked into all those things, he’s embraced it, he’s challenged us to think even broader on those things. We had a change in leadership with the mayor. Same thing, right? Development continues. So for us, as an association, when there’s so much going on around college athletics, it’s really foundational to have that foundation in place around a championship that’s so important to what we do. And you won’t have the kids that are playing here this weekend talking about Transfer Corridor or NIL. They’ll be talking about The Road to Omaha and how exciting it is to be here and to play in front of the fans, and the energy and the excitement that goes along with this championship, and that’s special. We really appreciate that opportunity. And thanks to so many our host institutions both at Creighton and at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. We couldn’t do it without their support and their facilities and their staff that help us to make this special for our teams and student athletes. So thank you all for your continued support, and we are really excited to be here.
JOEY GARDNER: Anthony, can you talk about what maybe you’re looking forward to most this year?
ANTHONY HOLMAN: So we’ve got some new things here, right? If you look out in left field, you’re not just looking over to the bridge, which is great. We’ve got another video board. We’ve got ribbon boards. So some additions to the stadium have been really nice. Some upgrades to the space. We’re doing some additional things in FanFest. We’ve got some new teams that are going to be making their first appearance here. I think that’ll be exciting, providing a new opportunity for a different fan base and a different market to experience. So as much as the consistency that we have there, we’re excited about the newness and the new opportunities that come in each year as well.
JORY GARDNER: And finally, Adam Straight, President and CEO of MECA
ADAM STRAIGHT: Good morning, everyone. Thank you, Governor Pillen. Mayor Ewing, I will confirm your thought on the people. It’s what got me here. And in my short five to six months here, the one part I go back to was genuine. The people were really genuine, not only in Omaha, but Nebraska State. So thank you all for your hospitality towards me and my family.
I understand that I’m the last stop between y’all and the food, so I’ll be somewhat brief. I hope y’all did skip breakfast. As mentioned, this is not only my first year as the president and CEO of MECA, it’s my first year as an attendee. It was always on my bucket list, and I like to say that, well, now I’m in the bucket. So I’m very much looking forward to the competition on the field and just the genuine atmosphere. I’ve been around a lot of large-scale events in my career. But I’ll tell you, even before it started, it’s the the second to none. I’m glad you’re happy, Anthony, and I’m here to make you happy for years to come…decades to come.
So over the last six months, again, I gave noticed just the genuine nature of not only the Omaha community, but my team. And I want to take a little privilege here just to give them a shout out for all of the work that they put into this event, into this campus, and the greater community is just so outstanding. So just a round of applause for all of them.
It’s no small feat, but the memories that the players, coaches, and fans walk away with of Omaha and the CWS make those long days and months of planning absolutely worth it. We’re in it, and we’ll get above water here in several days, but we can’t wait to host everyone. We’re just very much looking forward to that.
One new little thing that we have this year that I’ll show off a little bit. I don’t know if we have a sample of it, but you might see it. We’re introducing a commemorative Yeti tumbler that has the College World Series logo of the year. We spoke a lot about our city being synonymous with an event, much like Augusta and much like Louisville has with the Churchill Downs. Anyone that goes to Augusta collects as many Masters cups as you can with the year, and you show them off and you are at home. So that was the thought here is to grab a cup. If you purchase the cup, you get free refills of non-alcoholic beverage at any concession standard throughout the series. So we hope you take advantage of that for $75 apiece, but well worth the memory. So I think that’s all I have. I’ll open up to questions.
JOEY GARDNER: Adam, can you talk about the new technology upgrades and kind of what that means to the facility?
ADAM STRAIGHT: Yes, I think they mentioned it a little bit. We have a new video board in left field and a new video board in right field. So the upgrade we did in left, brand new, we took the old board down to right and matched it with the technology in left, along with ribbon boards. Anyone that doesn’t know those are the electronic advertising panels on the fascia of the Stadium Bowl. What that does is it gives us a tremendous opportunity to roll through sponsorships and roll through any kind of ads and whatever the series, however they want to appropriate that. So it very greatly adds to not only the facility but the fan experience. And we’re not stopping there. Small potatoes, but great in the operational world, and you’ll love this, Anthony, I know you do, but we added speakers to the gates so we can communicate more effectively during those times of need and any kind of weather situation.So again, small pieces. The one that I just didn’t really point out, but brand-new stadium lights, and anyone that’s a stadium geek like me will notice those immediately when you go out, the slimmer, sleeker version of those lights, they’re LED, they’re interactive. We can program a lighting show after any kind of home run. So that’s just again, it speaks to the fan experience and it speaks to not only our commitment, but our obligation to keep up with those that want to take our title. So again, we’re not stopping there; we have many more plans to come in the future to not only reshape what the stadium looks like and how it operates, but reshape the campus.
Now to the main event, right? Our fantastic partners at Levy have created another incredible baseball team specialty menu for this year’s CWS. Chef Katie will talk about those new menu items once she’s set up over there. Thank you.
OmahaNebraska.com’s Interview with Jenny Peters, Marketing Director for the Omaha Baseball Village
Jenny Peters,
OmahaNebraska.com, here with…
Jenny Peters, Marketing Director for the Omaha Baseball Village.
I have seen the Omaha Baseball Village for many years now, but I didn’t explore it until recently. I was impressed, so I would love to tell everybody about it.
Thank you for sharing the goodness that we have here at OBV. We are a fan event during the College World Series. We’re located directly across the street from Charles Schwab Field, and we host over 100 vendors. We have a shopping village. We have a beer garden area that’s family friendly all day and for age 21 and over after 9 p.m. We have a food court. We have a corporate tent where our anchor is the Old Mattress Factory, and we have a VIP experience there. Pretty much anything that anyone wants to do during the summer, that’s what we do. Our client base is from age 2 to 92. It’s open to the public. It’s free, other than at night when there’s a cover charge to get in for the music and everything. But it’s games and food and fun and video walls, and we cover the College World Series games on a video wall. A lot of shopping, a lot of competitions and interactive-type things to keep people busy, and that includes kids of all ages. It’s not just little kids. We see the adults playing a lot of our games. We’ve got golf, we’ve got soccer here, we’ve got a lot of baseball, and then we have a lot of spinning wheels with amazing prizes.
How long have you been doing this?
This is our 16th year. We initiated Omaha Baseball Village in 2011, the year the stadium was open downtown for the first CWS game to be played at this one, and it has been just a whirlwind. It started as an idea—a collaboration of the owners at the Old Mattress Factory—and became the new 13th Street. We really wanted to bring the fun that was happening down by Rosenblatt here to the downtown neighborhood and just welcome fans from all over the nation for some great baseball in Omaha.
What are some of the fun things for this year that you’d like people to not miss out on?
Well, we’ve got so much happening on our stage this year, even during the day. We welcome people to come down and enjoy. First of all, opening night, Thursday the 11th before the games even begin, we do our Flying Flags for Charity night, which is opening ceremonies. We’ve got First Responders Foundation coming with all kinds of their vehicles and mounted police and the dogs, the canine unit that do all the amazing things. That’s when we hoist the flags on the original eight flag poles from Rosenblatt. And we recognize eight local groups here in Omaha that are doing nonprofit work, so we’ve got some fabulous ones. This is our 15th year of doing Flying Flags for Charity. Outside of that, during the Village, everywhere you turn, there’s going to be obviously College World Series merchandise. There’s mini golf. We’ve got glow ball, which is a kind of glow-in-the-dark baseball this year that is going to be amazing. We have backyard baseball, which has made a comeback, and they are putting in a gaming studio and bringing their mascot, the infamous Pablo Sanchez. And we have of course the best food—all kinds of festival food and things like that. On opening Saturday we’ll have two very special guests. Jordan Larson will be here, and any volleyball player knows exactly who she is. We are hosting the College Baseball Foundation winners of the Buster Posey Award, the Skip Burton Coaching Award—all of those top NCAA award winners will be with us on our main stage. Every day there’s something exciting happening, but the shopping’s great, and the fun. We have a surprise happening in the center of our property that kids will come and see and be blown away by what’s happening there. I can’t give away the secret, but there’s going to be a treat.
What day will the surprise be revealed?
It will be revealed probably on opening day if it’s up and running, if not, on Friday the 12th for sure.
What nonprofits are being recognized? Is it too soon to say that?
No, we’re happy to promote them. The goal of Flying Flags for Charity really is to create and generate awareness for these nonprofit groups, large or small. We’ve worked with over 80 nonprofit groups over the years here in Omaha. We have one coming this year that’s not from Omaha, but their mission is so beautiful and aligns so well with baseball that we have them. We have the First Responders Foundation. We have League of Angels, which is out of Knoxville, Tennessee, and they take adults and children with developmental disabilities so that they can play baseball in major stadiums across the country. We’re hoping that they will bring a team here someday just to play and have a great experience. We’ve got Foster Heart and Hope. We have the Christopher Bremer Foundation. On Monday, we have Mosaic, which has been around since 1919. Who knew that?
I did not.
It’s amazing, and they’re a great organization. We have Season Heavenly Peace, we have Masons’ Day, and we have Bags of Fun, who create backpacks of all kinds of toys and things to keep kids busy when they’re in long-term hospital care. The best part about all of it is that our vendors are the contributors to this. So the fans come, and the goal is to help donate and raise funding for the organizations and create awareness, but our vendors are sponsoring them as our corporate sponsors, and they are also providing lots of prizes. So when we do these presentations on stage each day between games, we are allowing them to talk about their mission. They usually invite a family or someone that’s been affected in a good way to share just a couple-minute story about… it’s just goodness. It’s like you watch that happen. There’s tears, and you know, not a dry eye. And then we give away Oakley sunglasses and sliding mitts from Evo Shield and bats and you name it. We’re giving away prizes every single day, and it’s because of the generosity of these vendors, these over 100 vendors, that are here with us. It’s perfect.
How did you end up having this role, and what prepared you for it before?
That’s a great question, actually. I love that. I have been with the Old Mattress Factory since its opening in 2007 as the marketing person. And again, we are one of Omaha’s best event sites because we respond to large things happening at all times, whether it’s regional basketball happening at the CHI Center or big volleyball weekends. I can’t say enough about the staff at the Old Mattress Factory. They’re fantastic. And what they put on with Corporate Tent and the VIP experience and how they run a restaurant and run a beer garden the size of it all day and all night to the people that come to hear the DJs, it’s every single night. It’s insane.
So I have to give a shout out to The Mat. When we found out the stadium was being built, it was just a vision. We tried to learn a lot about Rosenblatt and what the crowds were like, and we did a two-year stint as a beer garden down there where we rented a little spot, set up shop, and learned about the fans and what they were. Not really how to sell beer, but how to sell beer and how to engage with everybody. And we just kind of created our own version of this, created our own mindset of what we thought people would want here in Omaha.
So we bought a lot of the Rosenblatt seats. You’ll see them around the property. We bought the flag poles and put them up. We do a lot of commemorative things along the way that kind of give the love back to the baseball tradition here that started so long ago back on South 13th Street. And then basically we decided we wanted to take care of corporate guests. We wanted to be able to host a team, alumni group, if they come.
We also want people to come here with their grandparents. We want the team members to come over when they’re not playing. We love the Little Leaguers that are in town. Everybody is welcome, and we try to cater. We’ve taken feedback from them, and we’ve learned what the people like best. And we’ve learned that once you’ve paid to park downtown, you might as well just stick around for a while, right? So you’re here, you’re going to a game, or you’re not going to a game. We really just want the experience.
We’re seeing our large check, so we donate. This is an example of what we do on stage each day is we will present. So this is from last year, but yeah. Last year, one of ours was Partnership for Kids. My job is to create an experience, and that isn’t just for the fans, it’s for the vendors who are here, it’s for our corporate sponsors, it’s for our staff. We have an amazing, very busy staff, as you can tell. And you see the energy and the electric—just overall, like, happiness. I think people just bring happiness to the College World Series. You just see it in the fans and in the people, and everyone’s so happy to be here. And it’s really a fun environment to be a part of. That’s why I welcome all of Omaha. I know a lot of Omaha, Nebraska, residents try to avoid this part of town this time of year because it’s congested and a lot going on. But in general, it is something you have to see. It’s a “seeing is believing” event for sure.
I’ve definitely enjoyed being here and catching games and covering the stories. And there’s just something special about the College World Series. There’s something special in everything, but I can’t really describe how special the experience is of just being here, even if you’re not seeing a game.
I agree. I agree, and we tell people all the time that if you can’t get a ticket, there are a number of places where you can catch a game. We obviously have huge video walls in our beer garden, and lots of people just, you’re there with your friends, you’re having a good time, you’re playing cornhole, trying your golf swing out at a simulator. I mean, what’s not to love? The beer is cold, the food’s good. But again, there’s nothing quite like what they do in the stadium. I can’t say enough again either about College World Series Inc and the NCAA, what a fine show they put on. The games are beautiful. The field is immaculate, and the teams are so happy. When you’re anywhere in this neighborhood, when something good happens, you hear it before it hits the TV anyway. So you know something big happened, and you’re like, what, what, what? Get me to a TV. So I think fans come down here just to enjoy the atmosphere that Omaha has created. We are a very welcoming community. And when you take a look, when you look outside this office building, a 360-degree view, it’s just beautiful, from the pedestrian bridge, and riverfront area to what’s happening with Creighton’s new stadium. You look downtown. The signage will go on the Mutual of Omaha building this weekend. It’s a little busy in the beginning, but after opening weekend I do get to visit with fans a little bit and it’s my favorite part. And they really do ask me every year, “Is Omaha really this nice?” And I’ve said, “Yes, yes it is. Omaha is this nice, and the people here are really good-natured.” So we’re a welcoming host site for this event, and I hope we get to keep it.
We moved here some years ago and it just was instantly home.
I agree. My husband and I came here for him to go to Creighton Law School. We had absolutely no intention of staying here because we’re from Illinois and we had a mindset to go back closer to family after three years, and we’ve been here over 30 years. And we say it, “We got Omaha.” I think it’s like a verb, you got Omaha. It’s a good place, and I think people are surprised. They’re not sure what to expect when they get here and when they do… as you know, the LSU fans come whether their team is here or not. When you see them, you know it’s their summer vacation. They come up because they love the series, they love the baseball, they love the city. They come back to say hello, and we’ve got a lot of favorites. And ours aren’t always favorite teams. It’s usually the fan bases. So we pick the ones that really want to be here.
What question would you like me to have asked that I didn’t, or what item would you like to promote or what activity?
I would love to promote for people to follow us on social media at Omaha Baseball Village and really just kind of engage in what’s going on. But don’t stop there. When you see something fun, come down. Probably that same kind of experience will happen to them. There are lots of people, and it is hot. Bring your water, and come on down and enjoy it, because what’s happening here, we don’t just put the best things on social media. Those are things that are just organically happening. And when we do something big, we don’t promote most of it. We like to let it just happen because the people are already here and so the ones who are here get to experience it. Oh my gosh, we’re giving away a full Cutco knife set because he’s one of our vendors and someone that’s in house that day is going to win it. I encourage people to just come and experience it and smile. Have fun.
What’s your website and social media where people should be following you?
You can follow the Old Mattress Factory, and you can also follow OmahaBaseballVillage.com. The nightly DJ schedule is on there. Our daily schedule for the most part is on there. And I should have probably also recommended that for people who maybe didn’t get a chance to come down and we’re almost to the end of it, we will be having a concert on the second Friday. So Friday the 19th we are having Pet Rock here. It’s a no-game day, kind of a day off. We change our stage out. Instead of being a DJ stage, we do a daytime concert with an opener and it becomes a music venue. And it’s so different because it’s not baseball, and tickets are inexpensive. It’s just a great time. So we really want to encourage people to come down. I think we’re calling it Friday Night Live. And Pet Rock is our entertainment. Should be great fun for everybody just to enjoy. Just come and do an outdoor concert. You don’t have to spend loads of money. Just come have fun.
OmahaNebraska.com’s Interview withAmy Hornocker, Executive Director at College World Series of Omaha, Inc.
Amy Hornocker with statue
Amy, you’ve been doing this for several years now. What changes have you seen?
Every year, we’re trying to make things better. When I first started here, we were transitioning from the paper to the mobile ticket, and now we have almost everybody on the mobile ticket. I think one of the things that we are really excited about this year is that we replaced our original video board. It was original to the building in 2011, and we added a second one and then a ribbon. So since the stadium opened, we’ve been hearing from people that they’d really like to see another one. So all that stuff went in, and we actually have new lights that have the capability of doing light shows. We did about an $8 million upgrade in technology over there. So for the game presentation and venue experience, there’s going to be a lot more fun stuff to do.
How has it grown and evolved since you’ve become an executive director?
Well, it continues to grow. I think there’s more interest in the event as a whole, and we actually did an economic impact study with Ernie Goss from Creighton for the 2025 series. The last time we had enlisted Ernie was in 2019. So pre-pandemic in 2019 it was $88.5 million economic impact and last year it was $147.6 million, so it’s showing more than just a rebound from the pandemic. It’s popular, and there’s a lot of things that go into that…the teams that are here and that kind of stuff. But yeah, it continues to grow in popularity. We’ve had a really exciting regional round. The Super Regionals start today, so by Monday we should know who will be here. There’s been a lot of upsets, and there’s a lot of Cinderellas coming through, so I think one thing that’s kind of fun about college baseball is it seems like anybody can win.
There’s certainly a lot of dedication from the players and the coaches and the fans, and I think that really makes this a special experience.
Yes, definitely.
What challenges go into preparing Omaha or here for an event of this scale? How many did you have last year?
How many, attendance-wise? I think it was, like, 340-some thousand that went through our gates. That doesn’t account for the people that are down here just enjoying the atmosphere. I think it’s really cool to see how it used to just be kind of us in Baseball Village, and now we have the Millwork area that’s really building up, and there’s a ton of new stuff over here. And now west, over here by Kiewit’s headquarters, we have a new sports bar and an outdoor venue that will be another fun place for people to gather. We’re always saying that even if you don’t like baseball, you should just come down here because there’s just so much fun to be had, and as you mentioned, it’s a huge lift. We have five people working on it on our staff year-round, but we also have all the stadium staff and then the resources that the city provides: police, fire, public works, parks, everybody. We just had a meeting in April with everybody, and it’s, like, a room full of people that have a role in making sure that this thing runs smoothly.
I’m impressed, from the games and things I’ve attended, just how smoothly it goes.
Yes. MECA, who runs our stadium, are wonderful and they have a lot of pride in this, and so they’re good partners for us.
What feedback from fans has helped shape things for this year?
Of course we did hear about the scoreboard since we’ve opened, so we finally were able to make that happen. We hear about Wi-Fi. Those are things that we’ll look at, and just keeping the team or the fans engaged. We also look at different experiences for our student athletes to make sure that they have everything they need and they have a good experience while they’re here. So every year we’re looking at something new, and we have a lot of things in mind as we look forward. Our contract is through 2036. Obviously, we’ll want to start talking about an extension sooner rather than later on it, so we have some ideas cooking.
Are there still local nonprofit organizations hosting the event?
Yeah. We still have our team hosts. Some of these guys have been doing it since before I was born, and they love it. They have a lot of pride, so they go to the airport and meet the teams and then they will be with them throughout—they’re assigned to them, and they host one special event opening weekend that the team will get to go through…anywhere from Offutt Air Force Base, which they get to go down and tour the base, which is pretty cool, and then, too, the American Legion does a lunch and karaoke. So there’s just a bunch of different things that they do with the guys.
What are some of the behind-the-scenes preparations that people don’t normally see?
We’ll have road closures starting next week where they bring down barricades, and this is all for pedestrian safety, public safety. One funny story I tell a lot is that there is somebody from Public Works whose job is for the sewer perfume, just to help our visitors a little down here in the low spots of the downtown area sometimes.
Wow.
There are so many stories like that. You see all the tent companies. We were talking about this the other day, the little things that go on that people have no idea about.
It’s a new thing to learn about, sewer perfume.
Yes, always. Yeah, one thing we’re excited about is we had a local foundation that was generous enough to provide our first-ever drone show. After game two, so Friday night postgame, it’s actually an America 250 celebration, but it has baseball flair. We’re going to have 400 drones, and it has been interesting to learn about all the rules and regulations around putting drones in the air. Anyway, that’ll be exciting for people to see. There will be an end game component, like a video of the show, but if you are outside the stadium, you’ll be able to see the drones.
Where’s a good place for spectators inside and outside the stadium?
Inside, pretty much everywhere it’ll be visible because they came in and flew and then they sat in different seats outside. It will be over the convention center, so anywhere around there it should be visible.
What are you most excited about for this year?
I would say the drone show. We also are going back to the zoo. We have a closed team event on Thursday night to welcome the teams to Omaha, and they get to bring their families. We were trying to think of ways that they could see other parts of the city, and last year we went to the zoo for the first time, and it was fun. It was just like a bunch of very large guys, like children, running around the zoo. I think that’s another thing we take for granted, being an Omaha person, is how wonderful our zoo is and how cool it is. They get to do animal encounters, so they’ll get to feed the alligators, and there’s a cheetah that they’ll get to see, so it’s pretty cool. They’ll eat there. And then the other thing we wanted to make sure of is that they could see their families, because they’ve been in a really long season, and they go from Regional to Super to here. To give them a chance to reunite with their families without people around was important to us.
We’ve already touched upon what’s new for fans this year. On the games itself, for special events and family activities, what do you have on the different days?
Obviously these are always subject to what’s going on in the world, but for Game 1 we will have a flyover of F-16s—I believe that’s South Dakota Air National Guard. There’s the drone show. Kids’ Day is Monday, Game 8, so after the game, kids run the bases, and that’s always a popular event. Game 10, Tuesday night, is Heroes in the Heartland, so it’s a salute to first responders and military in our community. Teacher Appreciation Day is Game 11, Wednesday, at 1, so we’ll have some teachers that were nominated to be honored, and we’ll have some concession gift cards for teachers who come to the games so they can have some free food on us. Then we’ll have another flyover on Saturday, Finals 1. Those are F-16s from Colorado, I think. Another special thing that’s going on where there’s some involvement with the College World Series is that the United States Navy does what they call Navy Week where they go into markets where they don’t have a huge presence. All over the city a ton of Navy people will be coming in. So we’ll have an anthem and color guard. Their brass band will be here at one point, but they have some stuff sprinkled across the city that they’re doing. So that’s kind of interesting.
What week is that one?
I think they start on the 12th, and then they’re here until the 21st. On Friday night, our off night, on June 19th they are planning a show at the Gene Leahy Mall with a bunch of different Navy bands, like woodwinds and brass, so that’s something for people to do on our off day.
Okay. I don’t remember that previously.
Yeah, they go around the country, and this is the first time they’ve done this event here in Omaha.
Thank you. What are some of the well-known and lesser-known College World Series traditions?
Yeah, so Zesto’s, obviously the ice cream place, when it opened for Big Tens, we were always excited because, like, “Oh, the College World Series is coming.” Rocco’s has the Jello Shot Challenge that they do every year, and they donate proceeds to the food banks of the teams that had the most. LSU won by a lot, so a big check went to the Baton Rouge Food Bank. So that’s kind of become a fun tradition. And I’m sure there are other things I don’t know about yet.
What trends are you seeing in attendance or visitor behavior compared to previous years?
We continue to see it remain steady or in a little bit of a climb. Like I mentioned, it does depend on who’s here as far as a team fan base. We have some teams that have not ever been here before, like I mentioned, so it will be interesting to see what this year’s turnout looks like. We also have the youth tournaments in town. Almost a thousand teams come in and out for different sessions, so they buy a lot of our outfield seats, and they’re consistent. I think we’re staying about the same or climbing, just kind of depending on who’s here.
And how far in advance do visitors typically prepare or plan for their Omaha trip?
Some people will book their hotel for next year when they leave here if they can. And then some people will be trying to find tickets on Monday when they know that their teams are getting here. So it just depends. It’s hard to get a hotel at this point, I know, so people get pretty creative. We also have the World Cup going on in Kansas City and there’s, like, games, but they say that there’s a lot of time in between, so they feel like there may be some visitors even just for a day, because they’re looking for something to do, and we’re not far up the road. So we’ll see.
What surprises do you think first-time visitors might notice when they come to Omaha?
I think that they’ll be surprised by how vibrant the community is and how there are so many things to do and just the ease of getting from the airport to the stadium. People are surprised at how close that is, and I think they’ll be surprised by the food and entertainment options that they’ll have.
We have some really great options nearby and a little further away. too.
One of the major questions we get is brunch locations, so we’ve got a list of those.
Oh, that’s good to know. I’ve been having a hard time finding a brunch place.
Yes. Lola’s is the one downtown. But some of these folks, when they have time, they like to explore.
What neighborhoods have people been exploring?
I think Blackstone has become part of that, because it’s not terribly far from here. So that’s one neighborhood that we point people to, and Benson, Midtown area, Dundee. It’s not terribly far, but it’s kind of a different vibe from down here.
What advice would you give someone who is attending for the first time?
I would say our website is a really good resource: CWSOmaha.com. We have all the ticket information, all the information on the ways that you can get tickets, transfer them, and sell them now that they’re mobile. We also have city information. I think something interesting this year is that we’ve been working with the city on a GIS system. We’ll have a map on our site that will be kind of real time that we’ll be able to update, like with Park Omaha parking lots we’ll provide updates on which ones have spots available. What’s important is that while a lot of construction will stop, for the Series, some of the streetcar stuff has to remain, so just learning how to navigate around that, we have that information available on the website. We’ll communicate that through our social channels, and MECA will, and I know the police department will describe the best ways to get in and out of downtown. Obviously with large events you have to be bring your patience regardless of the street conditions, so plan way ahead. So that’s the resource for most questions you might have, and we also have a live chat feature on there that if you can’t find the answer to a question, then it uses some AI, and if that doesn’t help you, it will escalate to a live person.
For families who will be visiting Omaha for the first time, what types of places would you recommend or make sure they experience between games?
Omaha Baseball Village is a really good spot. Our Fan Fest is great. There’s a lot of fun, it’s interactive, and it’s free. You don’t even have to have a ticket. There are fun, interactive things in Fan Fest, like wiffle ball, the Ferris Wheel, the batting cages. Omaha Baseball Village has a ton of vendors. You can buy gloves, bats, sunglasses, all that stuff. But outside of downtown, obviously the zoo. The Kiewit Luminarium is right behind CHI. So if you’re looking for other things to do, there’s a ton of stuff that we’ll promote through Visit Omaha on our website. There’s even like Fontenelle Forest. There are just a ton of things to see if you want to explore.
We covered a little bit of this, but what’s new this year? Is there anything else to add?
There will be some new things in Fan Fest. The drone shows are new, and the video boards.
What do you think makes Omaha a successful host city?
Everybody who gets involved is helping us to be successful. There’s a lot of pride in it. And then, just the way that the community makes sure that everything’s fun and safe. People just keep coming back for that.
I know there’s such a love for the College World Series here.
Yeah.
I’ve lived other places, and I’ve just not noticed that kind of love anywhere else, so that’s really nice. What would you like visitors to remember when they’re leaving Omaha?
Hopefully that they had a good experience and that they can tell everyone back home about that we’re not just a cornfield.
We get that a lot.
Yeah, yeah.
Or people are like, “Nebraska, where’s that?”
Yes.
How important do you think it is for the College World Series to serve as sort of an introduction for others to Omaha and Nebraska?
Well, we take a lot of pride in that, and we hope that we can be a piece of what makes Omaha attractive. So even if it’s for a visitor or if it’s for someone that may want to come live or work here—there’s always the conversation about brain drain and young people leaving—and so we feel like we could be a really good selling point for making this a fun place to live and work and visit.
And I’ve noticed around the ballpark so much economic activity and new businesses over the years.
Yes! So when they moved from Rosenblatt, the thought of this downtown ballpark was obviously twofold. Like, we needed a really nice facility to host this, but also their vision was that it would help revitalize the north downtown, and it’s been so cool to see how this has transformed. And not even just the north downtown, but our park systems with the riverfront and Gene Leahy Mall opening within the last few years. So, from when this went in to now has been super fun to see.
I’ve noticed these ripples economically.
Yes.
They’re really interesting, including, of course, Millwork Commons.
Yes, which is so great over there. It’s just very lively, and you go in near the Ashton and you’re just trying to get a coffee and they are always having some sort of activity.
People don’t even realize that we have all throughout, sprinkled through Omaha, in the different areas, award winners.
Oh, yeah, great coffee.
Are there any questions you would have liked me to ask that I didn’t ask?
No, I think we covered it. I think it’s gonna be a really fun year to see. There’s four teams that have never been to Omaha before, and they’re in the same side of the bracket, so they will come here and play each other. So for someone it’ll be their first time here and their first win here. So in the state of college athletics and NIL and all that stuff to see to get new people here. You know, schools that maybe don’t have the big brand. That’s pretty fun. And Omaha does a great job of embracing a Cinderella.
I know a lot of people here will be fans of any particular team.
Yeah, and then obviously we still have the schools from Mississippi. There’s three teams from Alabama. So the Southeast represents well, they travel well, so we’re excited with whoever we get.
Thank you.
CWS Omaha, Inc., Building Exterior with Signage
College World Series of Omaha, Inc.
808 N 13th St.
Omaha, NE 68102
(402) 554-4422 https://cwsomaha.com
The College World Series transforms Omaha into one of the most exciting sports destinations in the country each summer. Fans from across the United States and the world travel to Omaha for championship baseball, restaurants, nightlife, entertainment districts, arts venues, breweries, and local attractions throughout the city.
Whether you are visiting Omaha for the first time or returning for another year of the tournament, this guide will help you explore Omaha during the College World Series.
ABOUT THE COLLEGE WORLD SERIES IN OMAHA
The College World Series is one of the most recognized traditions in college baseball and one of the largest annual sporting events in Nebraska. Each summer, fans from across the country and the world travel to Omaha to watch the final teams compete for the national championship.
Omaha has hosted the College World Series since 1950 after local civic leaders worked to bring the tournament to the city. Over the decades, the event became deeply connected to Omaha’s identity and helped establish a national association between the city and college baseball.
Volunteer organizations, local businesses, civic leaders, and generations of fans helped shape the College World Series into one of Omaha’s most recognized annual traditions.
The tournament continues to draw visitors from across the country and world while helping shape Omaha’s national reputation as both a sports and tourism destination.
Midtown Omaha includes restaurants, coffee shops, international cuisine, and locally owned businesses located between downtown Omaha and west-central neighborhoods.
“There are no bad days in Omaha.”
— Anthony Holman
“The College World Series is just growing in national profile.”
— Amy Hornocker
“The College World Series is something that I think Omahans love and can’t wait for every year.”
— Mayor Jean Stothert
“You will fall in love with Omaha.”
— Mayor John Ewing Jr.
The College World Series offers visitors the opportunity to experience not only championship baseball, but also Omaha’s neighborhoods, restaurants, nightlife, attractions, arts venues, museums, breweries, and local culture.This guide will continue expanding with updated recommendations, interviews, local coverage, and Omaha visitor resources leading into the 2026 tournament.
Please visit back and learn more about Omaha and the fun things to do here!
Terry D. Sanders, CEO and publisher of The Omaha Star newspaper.
Please tell us a little bit about what you did before and how you came into the position with the paper.
I have been a serial entrepreneur, and I was previously the site manager for the Fair Deal Village Marketplace. I am on the board and currently the executive director of the Mildred D. Brown Memorial Study Center, which at the time owned the paper. In 2020, the board decided to change leadership of the paper, and because I had journalism experience, they recommended me. I accepted as an interim publisher, and In February of 2020 I became the interim publisher. At that time, I was working a full-time job elsewhere. I became publisher in October of 2020. Of course, that is when the pandemic took over, so it was a challenge. But I met the challenge, and we’ve never missed the publication date since the paper’s inception on July 9, 1938.
Wow, that’s impressive. How did you manage and do things differently or pivot during the pandemic?
Well, most of our advertising came from stage productions and the entertainment industry. I had to beef up our stories, get more content, and work from a remote office initially while getting more content. The former paper’s content was like “Family of the Week” and community news. I would do Family of the Week, but I would stand across the street and take their pictures on the front porch and do some things a little bit differently so that there was no physical contact.
It’s been a changing world in many respects, especially in the digital age here. How have you and the Star adapted to that?
Well, we still publish a physical newspaper weekly, every Friday, and we have a digital subscription that people can obtain so they have choices. And we are very present on social media: Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and LinkedIn. We have tried to keep up with the times while still maintaining our original format of newspaper.
What originally drew you towards journalism and community leadership?
I was a journalism student at Creighton University, and I graduated in 1978. While I did not pursue journalism immediately after graduating from Creighton, I still did things PR wise for my business as well as other entities I was involved in. So I’ve always been in it, just not the written end like I am now.
What has it been like leading such a historic and respected paper?
It’s been wonderful. I am originally from Omaha, so I was familiar with The Omaha Star, but I did not know the founder personally. I was aware of her in the community and the impact that she had, and I feel as though my job is to carry on that legacy.
What role do you feel The Omaha Star has played in preserving community history, culture, and strengthening and connecting the community?
The Omaha Star, as I said, has been around since 1938 and we have archives dating back to the 1940s. So we have been part of preserving the history of the community, and we continue to do that and to cover stories that are positive in concept because we are the “good news” newspaper and always have been since the inception of the paper. I feel that we contribute culturally to the good news, and we spotlight and feature people throughout the community, not just the North Omaha community but the Omaha community as a whole, and give people hope.
What are some of the things that people should check out that they may not know about and maybe some that they should already know about?
Well, they should certainly check out our paper. As I said, we publish weekly. Our subscription rates are $50 for a whole year. [https://www.omahastarnewspaper.com/subscribe] I always say you can’t take a carload of kids to McDonald’s for that amount of money. And just to see some of the articles that we feature, we are heavily into community. We have recently added a sports section, so that will attract male subscribers to our paper if they were not already reading it.
That is a really important thing to include for the area.
Yes.
What advice would you give young people interested in journalism or storytelling?
I think it’s very important to write—physically write—not just on the computer. While I write stories, I don’t rely on artificial intelligence, but I certainly use it for some of the things we have in the paper. We have a word search puzzle that is written in AI. I do the subject, ask for terminology to put in the puzzle, and then I put it in a scramble program so that it scrambles. I’m not writing a word search every week, but I certainly have a concept. I think it’s important for young people to be able to write and communicate.
What role do you feel that newspapers and digital publications should play, other than reporting the news?
I always tell people that newspapers are breadcrumbs to the past. You can put something on social media and 15 minutes later you probably can’t find it, but when it comes to newspapers, there is a definite paper trail. I think it’s important to remember that and keep it in mind.
Our culture is so fleeting and so engaged in seconds of edutainment, so to speak a few.
Yes.
You spoke earlier about the Fair Deal, which I’m interested in also covering, and then the foundation. Could you tell us a little bit more?
In 2023, I established the Omaha Star Institute [https://www.omahastarinstitute.org] , which is a 501 corporation, and that corporation acquired the newspaper from the Mildred D. Brown Memorial Study Center. Our status as a 501 corporation allows us to get funding as well as have a more public-facing entity. We are presently converting the offices of The Omaha Star to a museum featuring excellence in black journalism. And we are restoring the home of Mrs. Brown, which was right behind the apartment.
Wow.
Our offices are moving to the building that is right next door, and there is a wall opening between them. And then we’re establishing the Omaha Star Park and Walk of Fame, which is on the corner. The park has a bust of Mrs. Brown that was erected in 2007 done by Littleton Austin, who is a Fine Arts teacher and sculptor at Creighton University. There will be bricks that people can purchase to memorialize their names or their legacy, and stars also. So those are some of the things that we are doing at The Omaha Star.
I noticed quite a bit of construction there. When will the external project be finished?
The external project will be finished during the fourth quarter.
And then we received the monies from the Mellon Foundation to establish two permanent exhibits, and those will not open until next year.
Next, I would like to hear a little bit more about the Fair Deal, please.
The Fair Deal Café used to be known as Black City Hall in its heyday. The Omaha Economic Development Corporation purchased that property and established a shipping container village on that site. I was the site manager for that when it first came out of the ground, and it houses entrepreneurs within our city.
Thank you so much and thank you for all that you’re doing to preserve history and lead in all ofthat.
