Category: Omaha interview

Omaha Interview with Amy Hornocker, Executive Director, College World Series of Omaha, Inc.

Amy Hornocker, Executive Director of CWS Omaha, Inc. at her office

What are the family activities that will be going on?

We have Thursday, June 13 as our open practice day. All eight teams will be here at some point during the day, starting at nine o’clock and they will have some time on the field and be around. Fan Fest will be open and there’s some new exciting stuff that will be in Fan Fest.

That’ll be good, and then we have team days.

Obviously, Sunday is Father’s Day, so that’s usually a big day at the park.

Monday, game eight, is Kid’s Day, a lot of kids’ activities, mascots. The kids will hit or run the bases at the end, 12 and under because it gets a little crazy with the big kids get involved.

And then Tuesday, June 18 is our Hero’s Night that we do usually annually. There will be different recognitions for police, fire military, you know, medical folks. That’s one that’s pretty popular.

Wednesday, June 19th is Teacher Appreciation. We do gift cards for the first 250 teachers. We had an honorary captain submission where you could submit you or someone else could submit a teacher and say “why”. We randomly picked from those submissions, so four of them will be captains and they’ll get to be in the dugout and just those kinds of things.

Wednesday, June 19 is Country Night. It’s just really, there’s not a concert or anything, but it’s just wear your cowboy hat, country music, just something to just kind of change it up a little bit.

I think I came to that one year, and I had my cowboy boots on.

Yeah, that’s what we want.

…but I always have my cowboy boots on. I got lucky.

(laughter) Then we have two planned fly overs planes, so that the first one will be actually Game Three which is Saturday. It’s kind of weird. Usually, we do Game One and Finals One. But we had some aircraft availability issues and, of course, when you’re doing the military and million-trillion dollar aircraft, it’s, “We’ll take whenever you can do it …

Game Three will be two EA-18 Growlers from US Navy’s attack squadron from Whidbey Island Washington. Finals One will be F-16s from the Colorado Air National Guard out of Buckley Space Force Base in Denver. Our staff member that does all of our military stuff, she puts paperwork in through the Pentagon and then people volunteer. Anyway, that’s what’s going on that’s a little different [or] special: otherwise, just games as usual. And yeah, like I said, some potentially different teams for people to set their eyes on. It’s kind of fun.

Are there any changes to things like one year we had the clear bag policy and then we had no cash …?

No, those all remain, but there should not be any new security things.

We’ll still have the walk-through metal detectors at the gates which have increased the availability of getting people in you do not need to take things out of your pockets. Their technology allows people to just pass through.

Those are nothing nLLSU and their fan base, setting attendance records. We continue just to have a demand for this. It’s a good problem to have.

We increased season ticket prices a little bit this year and still saw 98% renewal. That’s pretty unheard of. The traditions, people wanting to come to this, is still there, if not greater and definitely rebounded from COVID and I think we see you know, it took off. It took us a couple of years to get the corporate base back. People still weren’t gathering or doing employee-client outings and now they’re back.

It was a hard time for a lot of companies and a lot of other organizations not knowing how things were going to go and what to do.

Yeah, and we have two fairly large youth tournaments that pop up around this. The kids play during the day and come at night to a CWS game. Without the GA (general admission) ticket, it became a little more challenging to fulfill some of those needs, but we did that. We increased our group ticket allotment last year. We wanted to make it a really concentrated effort to get priority to those kids to get them in here. Because that’s, I mean, those are our future fans. So, the outfield will be full of little league teams most likely.

It’s great when you’re around town and you see them and you’re seeing them have fun and the love for the sport.

Yes, I think there’s over 700 teams that are enrolled. They come in different waves, so that’s a lot of room nights and a lot of people in restaurants, so it’s pretty exciting.

We did work with Visit Omaha on a new economic impact number. They have a calculator that we worked with them on and inputted numbers. The last time we had done an official study was 2019. We were at $88.3 million in economic impact then and then this year, the 2023 Study yielded $115 million. So again, jobs, taxes, all that stuff.

That’s the next question I was going to ask. Thank you.

Yeah, yeah.

… because it’s a huge impact to the area.

It is. It definitely is, and I think what we have to be thankful for is all the support that we get from the city to support all of these folks visiting.

So yeah, we’ve had three really great years with the teams that we’ve had here. It’s not like people’s disposable income was unlimited, so we’ll see what happens with some of these different teams here.

How many people came last year?

I’d have to [check the] official number. It’s at my desk, but I think it’s uh, it was upwards of 390, some 1000 which was a record. We sold out most sessions and then a lot of them, once we sell out, we do offer about 1000 standing room only tickets, and we’ll do the same. Those are usually determined that day though. And we figured out that we can get about 1000 more in without it just being too much. I think it was an average of 22,000/game. Again, if you average it out, but the other numbers are on my desk.

What’s capacity?

We’re 24,500, just depends on who you talk to.

…And whether they’re standing or not standing.

Yeah.

How many seats are there?

Technically  24,500.

So, any new technology? I remember some time ago there was a change in the bats.

Nothing new that I can think of… ESPN continues to change how they cover this. In fact, the NCAA entered into a new agreement with them starting next year, but what actually was really exciting for us is game two of the finals, which could potentially be the championship game will be on ABC. Being able to be off the cable network and probably get into more homes is pretty cool for us. [It’s the] first time that we’ve been able to do that. ESPN continues to expand our coverage of baseball.

They used a drone the last few years and then so looking at the at the game from different lenses. That’s been kind of cool for the audience.

The technology with the drones…

Yes. The funniest story of all is we have this resident hawk over here. It lives on the light standard over here in right field. She not a big fan of drones. You’ll see her kind of causing some problems sometimes out there.

So..she feels the drone is threatening.

Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So she’s pretty harmless, but she does show herself well.

..You know, your babies and your home. A drone must be a pretty strange animal [to her] and it flies.

Yes. It’s been pretty funny. Some people have names for her, but . . .

I was going to ask what do they call her

They call her “Falconia” or something. I don’t know. But there’s some funny stories that come around throughout the two weeks while they’re here.

I remember one of the years, there were  this couple of birds that just kept flying around, a pair.

When you have an outside venue, you’re going to get some of that stuff.

Anything else you can think of? We want to get the fans all ready and know what are they supposed to be doing.

This year is pretty similar to most, so nothing new that we need a lot of people know about other than just some of those special days and we do still have Monday, Tuesday afternoon game tickets for sale, pretty reasonably in the outfield.

We have the ticket exchange where people will go out if they can’t make it. They’ll resell their tickets. We’ll just be a normal year, but were interested in to see how the Super Regionals shake out, and see who’s coming here. And hopefully we’ll know everybody by Monday night.

There’s just a lot of surprises [which teams are coming] this year.

Yes, definitely, which isn’t all bad.

Our opening event, we used to do the parade and everything. Last year we did it at the Steel House. It’s just a more private for the teams because they are here with one goal, and so we’re doing that again where they get to see a different part. So it’s a shorter than kind of per their request, but so…

So no big parade …

No big parade, fireworks or anything. Not this year.

We just we kind of struck out a lot. We had half the time ended up with weather that ruined all of our plans. We’re like, maybe we need to look at this differen

Once those are wired, they do have to go off. It’s sad to put those off for no one really.

They’ve oftentimes gone up just for us. That’s why we need to look at this differently. You know, continue to make sure that we have the student athletes’ best interest in their time.

You don’t want to wear them out either.

Right. That’s a really long day with their media obligations and practices and stuff. We’re trying to be cognizant of that while still giving them something special here.

Something that’s interesting, and something I learned this year that I didn’t know, is Saving Grace Food [Rescue]. They work with Levy, so any food that does not come out of the kitchens here that’s made, goes directly to them so that they can provide it to different parts of the community. And we’ve been working with them to try and also get that out to some of our private people that have hospitality, so that this food isn’t just being thrown away.

Some of the other events like . . .

Baseball Village, the Hilton does a lot of catering for hospitality. That’s a really cool community piece that I did not know about until this year.

Oh, that’s great.

I’ve been wanting to do a story on them. But they had different troubles different years when I was trying to do it. So this would be really great lead in to that story, too….

Yeah.

…Because we try to promote the nonprofits and people doing good in Omaha. I told you before we don’t do bad news,

If we find, bad news, we might connect people behind the scenes. But we want OmahaNebraska.com to be that place to go to find out cool good things.

Just another…We have a renewed partnership with the zoo. We’ve had our national championship trophy out there and got a win with the penguins, and interacted with some of the animals because it’s obviously our number one tourism destination. It makes sense for us. We have obviously a lot of our visitors will also visit there. It makes sense that we collaborate, so it’s been fun. They do nights at the zoo, adult nights at the zoo, so we’re going to have the trophy there  Thursday. It’s going to be a baseball themed night.

There are probably some really good puns for social media.

We’re just trying to still get out [the word], still talk about it with our community partners and all that.

Thank you.

More on Fan Fest:
https://www.ncaa.com/fan-fest-present

2024

Please check out our posts on the College World Series and share!

Omaha Interview: Alec Woockman, the Executive Sous Chef at Levy Restaurants
https://www.omahanebraska.com/blog/omaha-interview-alec-woockman/

Omaha Event: College World Series Food Tasting, 12 June
https://www.omahanebraska.com/blog/omaha-event-college-world-series-food-tasting-12-june/

Omaha Event: College World Series- Food Tasting-The Fan Food
https://www.omahanebraska.com/blog/omaha-event-college-world-series-food-tasting/

Omaha Event: College World Series Pre-Game Press Conference, 12 June
https://www.omahanebraska.com/blog/omaha-event-college-world-series-pre-game-press-conference-12-june/

Omaha Interview with Amy Hornocker, Executive Director, College World Series of Omaha, Inc.
https://www.omahanebraska.com/blog/omaha-interview-with-amy-hornocker-executive-director-college-world-series-of-omaha-inc/

Omaha Interview: Ryan Barry of Willie Dogs and Willie’s Ice Cream

OmahaNebraska.com’s Interview with Ryan Barry of Willie Dogs and Willie’s Ice Cream

How did you come up with the idea of Willie Dogs?

A few years ago, I originally thought I would just kind of get a hotdog cart to make some extra money and have a lot of fun. But soon, I realized there was a gap in the market as far as a nice local made hot dog.

Of course, New York’s got theirs. Chicago’s got theirs. So, my intent at that point was to create Omaha’s hot dog while doing everything as locally as possible. So, we do it from scratch by hand. These are all natural casing cold smoked hot dogs.

What were the ideas or flavors running around your head that were inspired Omaha?

Omaha to me is always kind of been the home of beef and baseball, right? You know, we’re the home of you know, stockyards and a lot of a lot of baseball, Men’s College World Series and other things. And it kind of always frustrated me that like we didn’t have something that kind of represented Omaha during those times or that took those things into consideration. So, for me a lot of those flavors were of course a natural casing that was the must have there’s something about that snap that is just like, it just it just hearkens back to that old-fashioned-Old World style of of making sausages and things of that nature.

I grew up obviously with the Stoysich families around and other butcher shops. My wife’s family was a butcher shop family as well, the Bickels family. So, we have this idea of this flavor. We’ve had these sausages, these hot dogs, we’ve made it home. It was really about taking that that flavor profile and kind of sharing it with the rest of the city.

You have a lot of different flavors from time to time. What are your favorites? The different specials that you have…

Yeah, so I think my favorite is always goes back to the Willie Dog itself like that’s, you know, it’s like your firstborn.

That’s my favorite. I haven’t tried all of them yet…There’s just something about the Willie Dog that I just have to have.

Same. Same. Yeah, I think you know, the Willie Dog. I really do think the scope for the sausage is probably the greatest sausage you have ever had. It’s just really good. It’s a quarter pound sausage. It’s natural casing. It goes to a hickory snow process. So, it’s a little bit more smoky flavor. A little bit more cured. A little bit coarser grind. A little bit more fat to it. So, it’s just a tasty sausage.

Man, I think. I think if I had to pick a favorite, it would be less a different sausage. It would be more about some of the toppings we’ve done. I think the opening weekend topping was really awesome. That was a roasted garlic goat cheese with the bacon that went over really, really well. Anytime we do anything with goat cheese, I’m usually a fan of it.

I like goat cheese too.

Yeah, most recently we did a whipped goat cheese with a balsamic onion jam and that was pretty darn tasty.

Of course, Willie Way, not just because it’s named after me but because it is my favorite.

Where does the name Willie come from?

It’s definitely one of the, you know, probably more prominent questions that we get. My middle name is William. My son’s middle name is William were named after William Barry that originally came from Ireland. And so that’s kind of where Willie started to come from. And then we also kind of like to joke in our family that Willie Nelson is our spirit animal. So that’s why we spelled it the way that we do.

I was suspecting it might be a middle name or something..

I’m Ryan William Barry. My son is Carter William Berry and our relative emigrated from Ireland, United States, William Barry.

We have always a couple of different types of sausages. There’s always the smoked sausage and then always the Willie Dog and we have some other ones that filter in how. We also do pretzels. We will look at the different ways so I do a kind of classic style which is just buttered with salt and cheese, which we have a new cheese we’re using now that we are making like little ale and beer cheese ale which I really dig and so hopefully everybody else is. You can also do cinnamon roll pretzels, so we’ll coat it with butter tossing cinnamon and sugar and then it gets topped with our house made cream cheese frosting. Or a salted caramel pretzel where it starts out the same way as the originals with the new gets a twist with our new caramel sauce.

One of the surprises I had when I was trying to different things at your restaurant was your baked beans. Those were so good and I was not expecting that.

Yeah, so the baked beans was normally something that on the hotdog carts or food trucks that we would only view during the College World Series because we were in one spot for a longer period of time as opposed to a couple of hours like like a normal food truck event. And so, we did it every year at the College World Series. There’s people that come from other states, other cities that will come just to get the beans and the dog from us during the CWS and when came to Inner Rail, obviously we wanted to offer some other side options and some other things that weren’t always you know, hotdog related, and so that we decided to bring those smoked peach baked beans here. So, take peach pie filling and smoke that. Take our big beans and they smoke those and then we marry it all together and then smoke it again.

Those were just so good.

Yeah, they’re pretty, pretty darn tasty. Some people look and they see smoke peach baked beans and I go “peach”? I am like, just don’t knock it till you try it. I’ll give you a free sample, if it’ll help change your mind.

How did you come to Inner Rail? Please tell us a little bit about it?

Yeah, absolutely. That’s a great question. So, Inner Rail kind of came after us. There is an individual that works for Inner Rail. His name is Wes. We were both part of Culinary Team Nebraska which is a competition culinary team. It’s very high level like fine dining, very highly scrutinized competition and working for Inner Rail, someone in Inner Rail had said that they wanted to bring a hot dog in a new concept. And Wes says,” Hey, I you know I’m on a competition team with the guy that makes his own hot dogs. You should reach out to him,” which they did. We had a nice meeting here at Inner Rail and within about five minutes, it became pretty clear to everybody sitting at the table that maybe this would just be a good fit for Willie Dogs. Already we had the branding. We already kind of had the messaging. We already have the dog and the sausage and some of the other things that we already go into the toppings. And so yeah, they came after us and gave us an offer to come in here. And it’s been pretty awesome so far to the point where we’re expanding into another stall here with another company.

Please tell us about that.

So yeah, absolutely. So, one of the things that I’ve always kind of prided myself on with Willie Dogs is that it really kind of pulls on some of those nostalgia strings. Those nostalgia heartstrings.

There’s something about that old world style that natural casing, that snap. That just is not around anymore. A lot of our older clientele go again now that that’s the hot dog I remember from when I was younger.

Taking some of the that same marketing and that same kind of brand identity and applying it to a different option, like a dessert option is how we’ve landed on Willie’s Ice Cream is to really hearken back to some of our kind of good old fashioned ice cream shops. The soda fountain type shop, you know that scooped ice cream, malts, shakes, sundaes, and banana splits. Really not trying to reinvent the wheel but what we’re doing and what’s on the menu, we’re just trying to do very, very well.

And then it’s also going to be a fudge shop so we’re going to be making homemade fudge here at the Inner Rail.

Will you be having an Omaha spin?

An Omaha spin within the ice cream shop? Yes. So, there’s a lot of desserts a lot of things that are very famous around here, but butter brickle ice cream was actually invented here in Nebraska in Omaha. And so taking some of the notes from some of the more classic dishes, you know, and some of the famous splits, trying to kind of recreate an era.

We are trying to get as local as we can with all of our ingredients. So, the milk that we use is local. The ice cream that we’re using comes as local we can get it. It’s only a couple hours away. And so, we’re trying to tie it in as close as we can.

In some of the menu ideas that we have down the road for some of the specialty sundaes and stuff, we’re really trying to tie into the to the old Aksarben area and hearken back to some of those horse racing times.

When will Willie’s Ice Cream be open?

Shooting for February 2.

Check out Willie’s Ice Cream at Inner Rail and visit back here for more stories.

For up to date news on the opening or any date change, visit:

https://www.instagram.com/williedogsomaha
https://twitter.com/WillieDogsOmaha
https://www.facebook.com/williedogsomaha
https://www.williedogs.com

Inner Rail Food Hall
1911 S. 67th St
Omaha, NE 68106

Omaha Interview: Tania Castro from the Planters Nutmobile

OmahaNebraska.com Interview with Tania Castro from the Planters Nutmobile at Hy-Vee

Tanya Castro in front of the Planters Nutmobile at Hy-Vee

How long have you been with the Nutmobile?

So, I started with Katie and Mason on June 1st. We met May 31st. June 1st was our first day on the job. We trained for about nine days in Austin, Minnesota. We like to call it “Peanut Prep” and after the nine days we hit the road.

Now I understand the meaning of ”class”. So you are Class 10 (Tenth group to graduate from “Peanut Prep”)...

Yes, Class 10.

What did you do before this? How did you get this job?

So I’m a little different than Mason and Katie. They just graduated from college in May. I actually graduated college in December of 2021. After that, I started working for the government. I worked for a government agency in southern Nevada that did all public transportation, roadway planning… Funny story, one day I was picking up lunch from that job in Las Vegas and the Nutmobile passed me. And I was like, “This is probably the coolest thing I’ve ever seen.” So, I snapped a picture of it. I posted it on my Instagram. My friend responded that it’s the Nutmobile, so I started doing research on it. And I came across their TikTok and Class 9 was doing really well with it. This seems like fun. Luckily, they were accepting applications at the time, so I decided to apply and here I am.

What’s it made of?

The outside is made out of fiberglass and pool noodles. If anybody ever comes across the Nutmobile, you’ll see the ridges. Those are actually pool noodles covered in fiberglass.

Yes, it’s definitely conversation starter.

What’s the engine or the rest of it?

So it’s built on a 2017 Isuzu chassis. That’s the base of it. And then they built the nut on top of it.

And then 2017 … and Class 10…[Five year old Nutmobile vs ten years of Peanutters-What’s missing?]

Yes.

What happened?

Planters used to be owned by Kraft Heinz before this.

When it was owned by Kraft Heinz there were three Nutmobiles on the road. So, there were more Peanutters than three when Hormel adopted the program and we stuck with this one. So, if you ever come across the Nutmobile, this is the only one.

What did you study at school?

I did journalism with a concentration in Marketing, a minor in Business Marketing and the second degree in Spanish.

Wow.

If anybody’s interested in driving the Nutmobile and applications open back up, I say go for it. Honestly, it’s an experience of a lifetime. You’ll get to save this for the rest of your life. You get to drive a giant peanut across the United States and you get to visit so many places in so many communities. There’s definitely a great opportunity.

So all the 48 continental states?

We’re trying to get to 48.

Do you collect anything from all these states?

I do! I collect magnets. So, growing up, my grandma always had her magnets on her fridge. My uncle traveled a lot when he was younger, so he would bring her magnets back. Everywhere that I go, I buy a magnet.

That’s really cool.

Thank you.

Yeah, so I do magnets. Katie does stickers and Mason is trying to do hats. So, we’re trying to see how many hats he can collect on the road.

We were talking about it earlier today and he has about 20 so far. We’ll see how many he ends up with.

I think about a couple times a week, how crazy it is that if I didn’t leave work that day to get lunch…so I am very grateful.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Omaha Interview: Katie Chesebro from the Planters Nutmobile.

OmahaNebraska.com Interview with Katie Chesebro from the Planters Nutmobile at Hollywood Candy in the Old Market

Katie Chesebro in front of the Planters Nutmobile at Hy-Vee

They call me Cashew Katie.

That’s a good one.

Yeah, love it.

What’s your favorite nut?

I love the honey roasted peanuts. They’re probably my favorite, but if you have not tried [them] our dill pickle cashews are delicious. They’re so yummy. So, I like it a lot. We have some trail mixes out there. We have new cashew flavor coming out. So, lots of delicious exciting things, for sure.

What brings you to Omaha?

So I guess a little background of the automobile… Me, Tanya and Mason, we travel the United States from June to June. We’re class 10 of the Planters Peanutters. We hopefully will travel 48 out of 50 states. And so, Nebraska, we were looking at where to stop in Nebraska and Omaha seems pretty attractive to us. We stopped here and Hormel (owns Planters) has a plant here too. We were at Papillion Foods a couple days ago. Check out there, and yeah, now we’re just hanging out in Omaha. So, I guess the people [and the] big city life brought us here.

We really enjoy Omaha and glad we are here too. How did you come to work at the Nutmobile and what did you do before?

Good question! So, I actually went to school at the University of Wisconsin, Madison before this, and I was kind of hitting a point senior year where everyone was asking me what I’m doing next year, and I honestly had no idea. And so, an ad came across my Facebook. My mom was friends with someone who works at Hormel in promoting this job opportunity. And I just got so excited. So that became my Plan A and my dream job that I really wanted to strive for. So, applications opened in January. From there I submit a cover letter, resume, a minute long video of why I would be better, which was my favorite part of the application, and a basic application. And from there I went through an interview process and here we are.

What did you say that made you the perfect Peanutter?

So in college, I had the opportunity to put on a couple of bigger campus events as well as I worked at a radio station and was on the road with them quite a bit, talking to people going to various events, connecting with people getting people to smile, which is exactly what the job is, as well. I actually worked at a car dealership for five years throughout college. And so, I think the driving experience really helped me to handle such a big vehicle. 26 feet long and 11 and a half tall. It’s a pretty big vehicle which I think oddly enough of my experience lined up and I was excited about it, which I think made me the perfect candidate to be the next Peanutter.

That’s pretty cool.

It’s nutty for sure…

Gotta have a lot of puns.

Oh, yeah. My favorite I think is every time people leave, I always say ,“Cashew you later.” Oh, yeah, you know, and so it takes a minute for people to get it sometimes, but when they do I get lots of smiles.

We go we try to go to sporting events, minor league baseball games and stuff like that because what more of perfect a combo is peanuts in sports, you know? They’re a good snack. They’re healthy. So I love that kind of stuff.

Maybe gaming and programming competitions, because snacks are really big… What is in your Nutmobile?

Inside the Nutmobile we have six seats. The seats are embroidered with Mr. Peanut on them and a lot of people describe them as like they’re plane seats, but pretty comfy, so we have six of those on the inside. We also have a timeline of Mr. Peanut on the ceiling, so that’s pretty cool. Starts at 1919 when Mr. Peanut first arrived on packaging today with all the different Mr. Peanuts which is pretty fun. I think there’s like 20 on the ceiling.

Wow.

Obviously, cupholders. We have a TV. We call it our peanut bar with what’s underneath the TV as well as we have a cashew closet in the back and that’s where Mr. Peanut sleeps. He stays back there. Yeah, we get to travel with the one and only Mr. P. But that’s about a third of the vehicle. His bedroom.

Why did you pick here? Did you talk to Hollywood [Candy] ahead?

It’s, I mean when we’re in new cities, we just kind of asked people for recommendations. Honesty, the last class came here and they were like you have to check out candy store. It’s pretty cool…We love seeing cool things. And also, if you stop, you’re going  [to] stop and eat candy too. I think we’re trying to help out the local businesses as well.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Omaha Interview: Mayor Jean Stothert

OmahaNebraska.com Interview with Mayor Jean Stothert

Thank you to the Mayor for the interview for this Omaha event.

Mayor Jean Stothert

There’s been so much amazing development in the area.

Right.

It has to feel great to have so much done.

Yes, it does.

I know there’s too many lists of favorites but what are some things you are hoping people will check out when they come to the College World Series?

You know, since the teams and their families stay in hotels around downtown. First of all, it was devastating a couple of years ago because of COVID when it was canceled, and people didn’t get to come to the College World Series. Last year, we had record breaking crowds, because people were so happy it started up again. Last year, the Gene Leahy Mall looked pretty, but you couldn’t go in it. It wasn’t open yet.

This year, it’s open. Kids can go in there and run around and play and play in the great play structure there. There’s events that are going on in the Gene Leahy Mall every day if they want to go and do some yoga or whatever. They could see what the other parks are going to look like because they’re getting done. They’ll open up in August. We have the new Steelhouse downtown, the music venue where the players are going to be tomorrow night. We have the Luminarium Now it’s open, the new museum that’s down on the riverfront. Just so much has happened in this downtown area within walking distance of the stadium. So, I think people are going to really be – those that are coming back. They’ve been here before are going to see a big change. And I think those that are here for the first time in many years are pretty much going to be astounded at what downtown Omaha looks like.

I can’t even fathom how many things have happened in so short a period of time.

Yes, especially because of COVID. You know, because a lot of cities everything shut down which we shut down a lot. But development shutdown to, but it really didn’t here. And you know, the Gene Leahy Mall just kept on right on track, right on schedule, all during COVID because the money has already been raised you know, and so they were on top of it. So, it was, it’s really good that downtown has progressed so much, so quickly. A lot more housing downtown now than there was before. You know, the first phase of the Mercantile which is down, which is on the old Con Agra campus that’s open now there’s a nice lap out there. People can walk around. So that’s going to be a real fun experience for people to see what’s going on.

What’s next on the horizon for development?

Well, I would say the one that I have been working with for a long time and I’m glad to see that construction will start is number one, that Civic Auditorium site which we own that site, and we had the old Civic Auditorium and you know, it was beyond its usefulness anymore. We had it demoed several years ago.

We do have a development that will start developing this summer, and then Crossroads, which is 72nd Dodge. And that is something we’ve been working on for years and years and years and that is underway too.

So, and then, we have all the way out west on 144th and Dodge. We have Heartwood Preserve. That is a big development that Applied Underwriters is doing, but that’s just like going like gangbusters too. So, we have them all over Omaha. We have a Downtown, Midtown, all the way. And then of course, I can’t wait. We can see it started coming out of the ground, but the new Mutual of Omaha tower downtown, and that’s underway too. So all of that is going on right now.

It’s really amazing.

Yeah, yeah.

Thank you for all your hard work.

Absolutely. It’s a thrill to see it become a reality.

Thank you for the interview.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Places mentioned:

Gene Leahy Mall
1001 Douglas St.
Omaha, NE 68102
402.599.6565
https://theriverfrontomaha.com

Mercantile
901 Farnam St.
Omaha, NE 68102
https://www.hines.com/properties/the-mercantile-omaha

Crossroads
72nd & Dodge Street
https://www.lockwooddev.com/development-portfolio/the-crossroads

Kiewit Luminarium
345 Riverfront Drive
Omaha, NE 68102
402.502.3366
https://kiewitluminarium.org

Steelhouse Omaha
1100 Dodge St,
Omaha, NE 68102
402.345.0606
https://steelhouseomaha.com

Omaha Interview: Amy Hornocker, Executive Director at College World Series of Omaha, Inc.

OmahaNebraska.com Interview with Amy Hornocker at the College World Series of Omaha, Inc.

Thank you to Amy for the interview for this Omaha event.

Amy Hornocker, CWS Inc, Executive Director

Please tell me how you came to be here.

I grew up over in Des Moines. I went to school at Iowa State in Ames. I played sports in high school. I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I had an advisor that was kind of like we have a sports management program. So I worked in the football office there, and then, I actually came over here in 2005 and did my internship under Katherine and Carol here and then, stayed in touch when I graduated. And then, Katherine’s husband, Dan, started the Omaha Sports Commission. So, I came over and worked for him and was with the Sports Commission for 10 years. Had the chance to do three Swim Trials and about 30 other really cool sporting events, so and then, in 2017, they had a staff vacancy here, and they called me and I was just like at a point where I was ready to try basically what we always say “coming back home.” I came you back here and did the Marketing Committee outreach and then, had the opportunity to interview for this, the executive director position when Kathryn announced she was retiring.

What are some of your favorite things about the College World Series and about Omaha?

Okay, so basically, Omaha feels like home to me now, even though it was you know, it’s not where I’m from. It’s so similar, but everybody’s just .. the amount of support that we get for this event and the amount of people that come out and it’s kind of like what it means to the city and what the city aims to. It’s like it’s so cool to see and so some of my favorite parts about what I get to do here is like less about baseball and more about our what we do in the community with our grant program. We’ve given over $5 million to local baseball and softball fields and projects in the Greater Omaha community.

And then we have this Readers Become Leaders initiative with the NCAA that we work with Omaha Public Schools for third grade reading, once you can’t read a third grade, by the time you’re in fourth grade, you’re behind.

Is that a pivotal age group then?

Yeah, so that’s what the studies show is that if they are lacking by fourth grade, then they never catch up again. And so we do kick offs in the schools. We contribute a bunch of books to each kid and then incentives to read … and then they submit book reports. We had one girl I think she I think I’d have to the look 55 reports she did. She’s the winner. She’s the winner. So 15 of them with their parents will come to the one of the games. We have like five teachers that are from the winning classrooms. So that one’s fun. It’s so fun to go to the kickoffs and see them get excited about like their books and reading and it’s just a little way we can help there.

That’s something with a really great ripple effect.

Yeah, because you know, this one, we want to leave a legacy here. It’s great because the community pours their heart into it.

We put a donation program together this year for the first time with tickets that we’re we’re kind of testing this year. So when you go in to your mobile ticket account, you can transfer, sell, or donate. Like, if you can’t use your tickets or if you just want to donate, and we’re working with three organizations this year to see how it goes.

Vet Tix [https://www.vettix.org], which is a nationwide organization, so you can sign up. I think it’s first responders and military members and then you can sign up for access to these tickets. Then they go into the communities these events and find these people and it’s really turnkey. So we don’t really have to do much with that. And then we’re working with Boys Town and Boys and Girls Club of the Midlands. So because I feel like everybody from every corner of the city should get to enjoy it. So we’re going to try and build on that donation as we move forward. So that is really cool.

I think we already have seen some come through for Vet Tix and with Boys Town. It’s hard to find groups that can take a large quantity that like the last minute and be able to provide transportation, that kind of stuff. Those are some things we’ve got to kind of figure out but those are like some of my favorite things about the events and event and then obviously this time here when I look at the teams here.

We have our intern starting there’s some of my favorites because they change the dynamic of the office and we will have eight more getting here Monday. That will just work the two weeks and they come from all over the country. And so they apply and go through interviews and they they all become friends kind of it’s kind of fun to see them and help navigate this career path.

Did you ever think you’d be executive director..

No. [laughter] No, I’ve always been a behind the scenes person, like operations, and so I never thought that I would be here back here. Because I, you know, my first series, it was 1998 when I came with my high school baseball team. I was a manager.

I did not know that.

I was the manager of my high school team. In Iowa, we play summer baseball. So we were playing in a tournament in Sioux City. We came down here, well to Rosenblatt and did that the GA [General Admission] sat in the grass waiting to get in, and then, it just stuck with me. So, then, I did the internship so I never thought.. no…[laughter] .. I would be here.

Our leadership was and is phenomenal that the our board of directors that had the vision to bring this where it is today. There’s not another national championship that … They have some semi-permanent sites Women’s College World Series in Oklahoma, FCS football in Frisco, but nobody has an organization like this. The NCAA still runs those. They just have like kind of a semi-permanent city.

So they’ve really been smart and how they put this forward and then and how they’ve… during the COVID year, were able to keep us on staff, and then to see the vision of you know of moving it forward and letting me run with a creative and marketing person that we badly needed. There’s a hole that we didn’t have here. So, he’s got two social media interns that are doing cool things.

Is that something different or new you’ve been working on?

Yes, so we did not. So I was in a marketing role. And then we had another staff member and that wasn’t really our background and so we really were intentional about when Kathryn left to kind of restructured that that’s really the hole that was missing-was to promote this event year round and do it in these cool ways. I’m amazed all like, watch over these guys shoulders, because watching them put videos together and the hard work. They are crawling all over. They had the [National Champion] trophy at the zoo. So it’s really fun to watch it.
They took it to the zoo and it got to go in with the penguins and giraffes. Then they took it to the Gene Leahy Mall. And like Ryan was crawling around and so yeah, they took that roll. They’ve been taking around the city. Taking pictures everywhere. I think they went to Blackstone yesterday.

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

You can find the schedule here for #CWS2023 :
2023 Baseball Schedule – College World Series (cwsomaha.com)

Omaha Interview: College World Series Media Tasting, Alec Woockman

OmahaNebraska.com interviewed Alec Woockman,Executive Chef at Levy Restaurants.

What are the inspirations for this year’s offerings for the College World Series?

I try to stay updated on the trends as much as I can.

Also, these are flavors I personally like, and I think they fit well in the ballpark.

I take inspiration from a lot of things and Chris Myer. Everything from a sandwich with a lot of pickles on it to a vegetarian fried cauliflower curry aioli and sriracha. I think there is a broad spectrum of things that I like that I think also work well in a ballpark.

What are some of the items that you are most excited about?

Right, so some of the things I am most excited about are first the fried chicken sandwich.

I really wanted to overwhelm it with pickle ingredients.

I think you either love pickles or love pickles and I am the latter so . . . I took bread and butter pickles, aioli, a sweet and creamy aioli. Then we have fried pickles. We also have these really nice long crinkle-cut dill pickles that just hang over the bun.

I think one of the most fun items that we have is a shared item called The Slugger, an Italian beef sandwich.

So, it’s pretty classic Italian beef. We braise it in house with beef stock, Italian seasonings, and pepperoncini.

We braise that, shred it, and save that braising liquid to make an au jus which we serve along with the sandwich.

A 14-inch, full loaf of bread that we cut open ourselves, put a pound of Italian beef in, and top with cheese and we toast it in our pizza oven.

Then we top that with giardiniera and grated Parmesan cheese and add a cup of au jus.

We cut the sandwich in three pieces. It comes in a nice box with a handle on it that you can carry.

I say it easily feeds three really hungry people, but I think probably you can feed four.

What is your inspiration for the shrimp po’ boy? I’ve never seen that at a ballpark.

So, a shrimp po’ boy . . . it’s a very traditional shrimp po’ boy. We didn’t do anything too crazy. It’s fried shrimp on a hoagie with shredded lettuce and tomato and a remoulade.

It’s just a flavor that I think should be at a ballpark. I think it will appeal to the masses. I think it is missing from this environment. You don’t see shrimp po boys. Why not shrimp po’ boys?

Another very classic flavor this year is our Chicken Parm Sandwich . . . mozzarella, marina . . .I think it fills a slot that a lot of people will enjoy.

How did you become a chef?

I’ve loved cooking from a very young age. I’ve been cooking since I was 16 years old.

…

A few years went by and I went to culinary school and started cooking in restaurants.

I started with CHI, as well as the ballpark here. I’ve been here with this company for about seven years now.

And so, I have been just climbing the ladder.

This week I’ve been very excited. I’ve been wanting to be here for a long time.

I can’t imagine how hard this was, but amazing it is.

Yes. It’s absolutely amazing. Obviously, I love to cook, so getting to do this every day is dream come true.

I would say you are coming up with ideas and creating recipes.

I would say that it gets easier the more time you are doing it.

Starting at the beginning, it is a little harder to put this together, but I think we did a really good job this year in what we are offering. Yeah, it’s a blast!

Thank you.

Absolutely.

Omaha Media Event: College World Series Food Tasting 2022-Images and Description, 15 June

Here are some of our photographs and descriptions of the CWS food sampled at the College World Series Food Tasting 2022 at Charles Schwab Field Omaha:

So how can you have more than one favorite? Go the the College World Series this year and find out for yourself and sample these restaurant quality offerings.

Up next? More food and interviews! Please visit back later to view.

 

 

Omaha Interview: College World Series Pre-Game Press Conference, Omaha Mayor

OmahaNebraska.com interviewed Omaha mayor, Jean Stothert, after the College World Series Pre-Game Press Conference.

There have been many changes over the last many years from Rosenblatt to here. What are some of the more noticeable changes and what were your favorite changes?

Well, I mean we built a brand-new stadium, a brand-new state of the art stadium to keep the College World Series for 25 years. And so there’s been just a multitude of changes. But I think the most important thing is working with the CWS and the NCAA and MECA that we were able to create a state of the art stadium that will keep the College World Series here for years.

What my parts are my favorite? I would say I love this out here [motions to the entire stadium] that it gives people a lot more room to walk around. I love the big screen. I love how the seating is.  It’s just a beautiful stadium so it all works together.

Do you have any favorite baseball memories? I am sure that it’s hard to pick just one or two.

I can’t say that I have one favorite memory. I enjoyed coming in College World Series when it was at Rosenblatt.

I was here for the first game in the new stadium. I think from Omahan perspective, I think one of my favorite memories would have to be sitting in this stadium for the first time.

That’s wonderful. I know that it contributes quite a bit to the economic development of Omaha.

It’s estimated that the College World Series brings in between 75 and 80 million dollars.

And so you know, those years that we didn’t have it because of the pandemic . . . the trickle down was enormous because the hotels weren’t filled, the restaurants weren’t filled, bars weren’t filled. It made a big impact. I thought last year showed that because the first year was back in person we had record breaking crowds, and everybody just wanted to get out and be outside and enjoy some activity. And so, it really just encouraged people to be out again, and the College World Series is something that I think Omahans love and can’t wait for every year.

 It’s been wonderful to watch all these things grow and develop and now Gene Leahy Mall is getting its refresh. Can you tell us a little about what is coming up please?

Sure, there’s 90 acres of city owned property. It’s the Gene Leahy Mall. Go east Heartland of America Park and then you go north to Lewis and Clark Park Landing. That whole area. We are working in cooperation with the private sector. And when it’s all done, it’s going to be about a $400 million project and the city put in $50 million and the rest is private.  And so that just really shows that the good public private partnerships that we have in Omaha and the investment that is going on in Omaha right now.

The Gene Leahy Mall will open the first of July, and it’s fantastic. We’ve raised it up to the street level so it’s usable. It’s usable for events. The old mall was pretty, but you couldn’t use it for anything. I think when people get in it, they are going to love it.

I toured it the other day and it’s gorgeous. It has something for everybody. And then it will go on down to Heartland of America Park which will connect us right to the river. That’s our most important geographic feature we have. We live on the river, so that park will go all the way down to the river and then north to Lewis and Clark Landing where a beautiful new STEM museum will be down there that Kiewit is the major funder. That portion of it, Heartland and Lewis and Clark Landing, should be open by August of next year. So everything is moving along. They are right on schedule. They’re keeping it within budget. And it will be done. And it’s going to just spur development downtown and it already has. With Mutual of Omaha coming downtown now and there’s a new hotel in the Landmark. There’s a lot of other investors looking at downtown because of what we are building downtown. We are pretty much building a new downtown.

 It looks so different, but then a lot of the favorite features are still there.

Yes.

 Everyone is so happy that you kept the arch and the slides.

Oh, yeah. Yeah, we wanted to incorporate everything in there and it will remain the Gene Leahy Mall.

Thank you.

CWS Interview with Kathryn Morrissey, Executive Director, College World Series of Omaha, Inc.

Hurray! The College World Series is back and it’s time for another interview with the Executive Director for College World Series of Omaha, Inc. This is one of my favorite Omaha events and Omaha interviews.

Thank you to Kathryn Morrissey, Executive Director, College World Series of Omaha, Inc. for the interview for CWS 2021 update on 11 June 2021.

Please tell us a little about yourself.

Kathryn Morrissey, Executive Director of College World Series of Omaha. This is my 33rd year working on the College World Series and we are thrilled that we are actually playing baseball this year.

I am so looking forward to it as well.

What new changes have there been with either equipment or the facility?

You know in terms of the facility, one of the biggest changes is that we through the Metropolitan Entertainment and Convention Authority-They have gone campus-wide to digital tickets-in other words, anyone attending the Swim Trials or were attending the basketball Creighton games this last winter. All the tickets are digital as they are TD Ameritrade Park.

That is a change but it just reflects what is happening nationally. Everybody whether it is an airline ticket or a ticket to a play or something along those lines. It seem like everything is going digital. So, we are joining that group too.

How will that work?

You know at this point, all of our season tickets have been offered to season ticket holders in a digital format. We had our advanced sale that started this last Monday, June 7th, and those were also offered online on https://www.ncaatickets.com/championship/college-world-series . So far we’ve even had one event sold out that would be Saturday night. So, apparently people figured out how to make that work.

That’s good.

Yes.

College World Series TD AmeritradePark Entrance and Statue

Are there any new security or safety measures or changes that the fans might need to be aware of ahead of time?

Well, MECA is certainly the experts in terms of commenting on which changes have been made during the age of COVID. Certainly, one of the ones that I am aware of  that fans will want to know about is that the concessions are cashless now. That means that obviously you’ll want to bring your credit card to the ballpark but also and if you are a fan that likes to use cash, there will be a revers ATM available. So, you can bring in cash and convert it into a debit type card that can be used at the ballpark and used else where after the College World Series.

Wow. That’s the first time I have heard of that. How does the reverse ATM work?

Basically for example, you will take, for example, a $20 dollar bill and feed it into the machine and then out pops something that looks and functions like a credit card but it is obviously limited to the amount of money that you load it on.

Thank you.

Any other changes for the fans?

You know there will be some other changes. For the first time and only for this year, the general admission-the outfield spaces will not be sold in the traditional general admission format. There are a lot of good reasons for that relating to the health and safety of the fans attending still in the age of COVID; recommendations that have been put in place from the NCAA’s advisory team.

So this year, those will be our lowest price reserve seats and the prices will vary depending on popularity of the game. But for example, the first weekend and the finals are the most popular. Those are $30 dollars this year plus ticket master fees. During the week nights, they will be $25 and then during the weekday afternoons they will be $20. The advantage, of course, is to have a reserve seat that we will actually be assigning people to specific section, row and seat number and the bench-style seats do have seat numbers. We actually utilized those as recently as the Major League Baseball game in 2019.

[To read OmahaNebraska.com’s interview with MLB Tiger’s GM Al Avila’s 2019 visit for that game, go to www.omahanebraska.com/blog/omahanebraska-com-interview-with-al-avila-vp-and-gm-of-the-detroit-tigers]

Thank you. What changes are there for the players?

Student athletes will be in a COVID tested zone. They’ll try to restrict their movements so that they are protected as much as possible to protect them from any environment in which they might be exposed to COVID. So, their movements will be more restricted this year. So as a consequence, we won’t be hosting an opening ceremony-type celebration for them this year. That’s another thing that we expect to have coming back in 2022.

Field of College World Series

Tell me more what will be different for celebrations or events at the College World Series.

I think this year the focus is on, “Isn’t it great that we are just back playing baseball again!”

[Interrupts] Yes! Yes!

It’s a kind of back-to-basics year. There will be a handful of other activities that will be occurring to enhance the fan experience. Of course we will have the opportunity for fans to bring their kids on a particular day, that’s Monday afternoon and where some kid’s music and concessions will be featured. We’ll have a throw-back day on Thursday where we hope to have basically fans wearing their most vintage College World Series apparel. And then Friday is a country night. Probably boots and cowboy hats or whatever attire- if you want to participate in that.

What does the College World Series mean to you and to Omaha?

I think this will be a huge emotional boost for Omaha that we have the College World Series back. In a way, it was a little bit last year like trying to image a Christmas without Santa Claus to image summer without the College World Series. I think we were all a little bit let down by the fact that we could not gather together and celebrate college baseball and celebrate the beginning of our Summer. And this year with that coming back, I think it is going to be a huge morale boost for the community.

I am so excited to have it come back and to be able to go and or course to be able to visit with you for the interview.

The last question is why is this “The Greatest Show on Dirt”?

“The Greatest Show on Dirt” is one of those iconic phrases that is associated with the College World Series and I think just reflects not only the fan experience but just the way the student athletes feel when they enter that field and play what could be the last games of their baseball careers and certainly their college baseball careers. They give it their complete 100 percent effort. They play with a lot of heart and I can’t imagine anything better to watch in the summer.

The one other thing that I didn’t mention that I think might be really helpful for people this year is there is a College World Series app that is put out by the NCAA. So, “NCAA Men’s College World Series” is how I believe how it is listed in the app stores. [Here is the link http://on.ncaa.com/MCWSApp] It’s probably the easiest way for fans to follow their favorite team, check the weather, get bracket and scoring information. It’s going to be a real asset for fans who kind of want to be kept up to date to the minute.

Thank you very much.

Would you like to read more stories and interviews about the College World Series? Visit later for new posts and check out the CWS posts below.

College World Series TD Ameritrade Park Game in Progress

Our Omaha blog stories on the College World Series by Year

CWS 2020

No CWS.

CWS 2019

College World Series Fans-Have You Seen the Scooters? (13 June 2019)
https://www.omahanebraska.com/blog/college-world-series-fans-have-you-seen-the-scooters

Omaha Event: College World Series Interview with Chris Myers, Executive Sous Chef, Levy Restaurants (12 June 2019)
https://www.omahanebraska.com/blog/omaha-event-college-world-series-interview-with-chris-myers-executive-sous-chef-levy-restaurants

College World Series Food Tasting, 12 June 2019
https://www.omahanebraska.com/blog/college-world-series-food-tasting-12-june-2019

Omaha Event: College World Series Interview with Jack Diesing, President, College World Series of Omaha Inc.
https://www.omahanebraska.com/blog/omaha-event-college-world-series-interview-with-jack-diesing-president-college-world-series-of-omaha-inc

Omaha Event: College World Series Press Conference, 12 June
https://www.omahanebraska.com/blog/omaha-event-college-world-series-press-conference-12-june

CWS Interview with Kathryn Morrissey, Executive Director, College World Series of Omaha, Inc. (5 June 2019)
https://www.omahanebraska.com/blog/cws-interview-with-kathryn-morrissey-executive-director-college-world-series-of-omaha-inc

CWS 2018

2018 Interview with Kathryn Morrissey, Executive Director of CWS Omaha Inc.
https://www.omahanebraska.com/blog/cws-interview

What’s new in CWS food for 2018
https://www.omahanebraska.com/blog/cws-media-tasting-2018-great-food-meets-the-greatest-show-on-dirt

2018 Interview with Chef Chris Myers
https://www.omahanebraska.com/blog/omaha-interview-chris-myers-with-levy-restaurants-at-td-ameritrade-park-for-college-world-series

Tigers to Play Royals in Omaha! MLB Comes to Omaha!
https://www.omahanebraska.com/blog/tigers-to-play-royals-in-omaha-mlb-comes-to-omaha

OmahaNebraska.com Interview with Al Avila, VP and GM of the Detroit Tigers
https://www.omahanebraska.com/blog/omahanebraska-com-interview-with-al-avila-vp-and-gm-of-the-detroit-tigers

CWS 2017

Al Martinez Hits First Home Run for College World Series- Before the First Game is Played!
https://www.omahanebraska.com/blog/al-martinez-hits-first-home-run-for-college-world-series-before-the-first-game-is-played

Omaha Interview with Kristi Andersen, Director of Communications at MECA
https://www.omahanebraska.com/blog/omaha-interview-with-kristi-andersen-director-of-communications-at-meca

Omaha Interview with Marty Bilek at the College World Series Press Conference
https://www.omahanebraska.com/blog/omaha-interview-with-marty-bilek-at-the-college-world-series-press-conference

Omaha Interview: College World Series of Omaha, Inc. (9 June 2017)
http://omahanebraska.com/omahainterviewcollegeworldseries