TD Ameritrade Park Omaha

TD Ameritrade Park Omaha

TD Ameritrade Park Omaha
Location 1200 Mike Fahey Street
Omaha, Nebraska 68102
Coordinates 41°16′01″N 95°55′55″W / 41.267°N 95.932°W / 41.267; -95.932Coordinates: 41°16′01″N 95°55′55″W / 41.267°N 95.932°W / 41.267; -95.932
Owner City of Omaha
Operator Metropolitan Entertainment and Convention Authority
Capacity 24,505 (expandable to 35,000)
Record attendance 28,846   (June 18, 2015)
(LSU vs. TCU) [1]
Field size Left Field Line – 335 ft (102 m)
Left Center – 375 ft (114 m)
Center Field – 408 ft (124 m)
Right Center – 375 ft (114 m)
Right Field Line -335 ft (102 m)[1]
Surface Kentucky Bluegrass
Construction
Broke ground January 21, 2009[2]
Opened April 18, 2011 (Open House)
Construction cost $131 million
($138 million in 2016 dollars[3])
Architect HDR Inc.
DLR Group
Populous
General contractor Kiewit Corporation
Tenants
College World Series (NCAA) (2011−present)
Creighton Bluejays (NCAA) (2011−present)
Omaha Mammoths (FXFL) (2014)
Omaha Nighthawks (UFL) (2011−2012)
Red Sky Music Festival (2011−2012)
TD Ameritrade Park Omaha
Location in the United States

TD Ameritrade Park Omaha[4] is a baseball park in Omaha, Nebraska, the home field of the College World Series since 2011. Opened earlier that year, the venue was constructed after the NCAA signed an agreement to keep the CWS in Omaha until at least 2035 if the ballpark was built. The event has been held in the city since 1950, previously at Johnny Rosenblatt Stadium.

In the spring, TD Ameritrade Park hosts college baseball as the home field for Creighton University Bluejays.

TD Ameritrade Park has a seating capacity of 24,000, with the ability to expand to 35,000 spectators.[5] The ballpark was expected to cost $128 million[6] to construct and is located near the CenturyLink Center Omaha. The park turned a profit of $5.6 million in its first year of operation, easily covering its debt payments.[7]

Attempts were made to bring a professional baseball team to TD Ameritrade Park, but legal troubles prevented this.[8] The local Pacific Coast League franchise, the Omaha Storm Chasers (formerly Royals), opted for a smaller capacity venue at the new Werner Park, west of Papillion. In 2014, the Big Ten held its conference tournament at TD Ameritrade Park.

History

Groundbreaking for TD Ameritrade Park occurred January 21, 2009.[6] It was announced on June 8, 2009 that TD Ameritrade, a company based in Omaha, will carry the naming rights for the new stadium.[9] The official announcement came from TD Ameritrade's Chief Executive Officer Fred Tomczyk on June 10, 2009.[10]

On April 15, 2010, it was announced that the Omaha Nighthawks, the local franchise in the United Football League, would play their first season in Johnny Rosenblatt Stadium and then move to TD Ameritrade for 2011 and beyond. The football gridiron is laid along a line extending from home plate down the first base line into right field.[11]

In December 2010, it was announced that Omaha would host a six-day multi-genre music festival in July called Red Sky Music Festival. Concerts were to be held all day in the parking lots of CenturyLink Center and TD Ameritrade Park. Each night there was to be a main concert held inside TD Ameritrade Park and CenturyLink Center. The festival lasted just two years, 2011 and 2012.[12]

The original Hammond organ from Rosenblatt Stadium has been restored and will be used during games at TD Ameritrade, although musician Lambert Bartak (since retired) will not be the organist.[13]

On February 9, 2013, the ballpark hosted outdoor ice hockey at the "Mutual of Omaha Battles on Ice." The first game featured the junior Omaha Lancers and the Lincoln Stars of the USHL. The second game was a collegiate matchup between the Nebraska–Omaha Mavericks and the University of North Dakota of the WCHA.

In May of 2014, it was announced that a franchise in the new Fall Experimental Football League, called the Omaha Mammoths, would play their home games at TD Ameritrade Park beginning in October.[14] The Mammoths would only play one shortened season in Omaha.

Despite the cancellation of the Red Sky Music Festival, concerts continue on an occasional basis.

First game

The first regular season college baseball game was played on April 19, between the Nebraska Cornhuskers and host Creighton Bluejays. The ceremonial first pitch was thrown out by TD Ameritrade CEO Fred Tomczyk. It was a game of many firsts for the park including first balk and first hamster races. The Cornhuskers won 2–1 in front of a paid attendance of just over 22,000 (a sellout) and a scanned attendance of just over 18,000, making it the most attended game of the collegiate regular season.[15]

During its first season, the Missouri Valley Conference baseball tournament was held at the ballpark in late May, the third time Creighton had hosted the event.[16]

First College World Series

TD Ameritrade Park hosted its first College World Series in June 2011. Participants were the defending national champion South Carolina Gamecocks, Florida Gators, Vanderbilt Commodores, Virginia Cavaliers, North Carolina Tar Heels, California Golden Bears, Texas A&M Aggies, and Texas Longhorns.

Before the opening game of the CWS between Vanderbilt and North Carolina on Saturday, June 18, the ceremonial first pitch was delivered by former President George W. Bush. Omaha Little Leaguer Henry Slagle had the honor of handing the ball to President Bush as his Memorial Park Little League team greeted the former President on the field. Before the pitch, his father, former President George H. W. Bush, who played for Yale in the first CWS in 1947, delivered a video message christening the new facility. Omaha's own Geno Klobner sang the stadium's first CWS national anthem prior to the game. Attendance for the first game was set at 22,745, standing room only, fans. The first CWS Pitch at the new TD Ameritrade Park was thrown by UNC's Patrick Johnson to Vanderbilt's Tony Kemp at exactly 1:11 PM Central Daylight Time.

The first CWS finals in the new ballpark began on Monday, June 27, at 7 PM between the defending national champion South Carolina Gamecocks and their SEC Eastern Division Rivals, the Florida Gators, in front of 25,851 fans. South Carolina won the game in an exciting 11 inning pitchers' duel, beating the Gators, 2–1. South Carolina took game two on Tuesday night, 5–2, before a record crowd of 26,721. The win secured consecutive national championships for the Gamecocks; the last held at Johnny Rosenblatt Stadium in 2010.

Other worthy notes about the park's first CWS were the Southeastern Conference's Eastern Division South Carolina, Florida and Vanderbilt completing a podium clean sweep, and the 2011 CWS All-Tournament Team being comprised completely of players from the SEC East. Additionally, South Carolina set records for the longest post season winning streak and the longest CWS winning streak in the first year in the new TD Ameritrade Park.

This was also the first year in which the new BBCOR Composite baseball bat (Batted Ball Coefficient of Restitution) standard was ushered-in. Meant to reduce the speed of the ball off the bat while lessening the potential for injury to players, particularly pitchers. The new bat also proved to negate the long ball which has caused critics to claim that the new park is too large for the toned-down bats and makes the exciting home run ball a thing of the past in the CWS. Also, pitchers were held to a strict 25 second clock between pitches for the first time in the history of the College World Series. The pitch clock was instituted in an effort to shorten the games. In 2011 the average total session (game) time was 3:10 with the longest game at 4:25, the shortest at 2:38, the Championship game at 3:21 and only one of the 14 sessions took over 4 hours to complete.


Attendance

College World Series

The 2011 CWS, the first played at TD Ameritrade Park, consisted of 14 sessions with a total attendance of 321,684 for an average session attendance of 22,977. The 2011 total was both the highest since 2005 and 2,294 spectators more than the 2010 per-game average of 20,683.[17][18]

The 2013 CWS, also consisted of 14 sessions with a total attendance of 341,483 for an average session attendance of 24,392 (both all-time highs for the CWS).

TD Ameritrade Park is becoming well known for its lack of home runs leading to the idea that teams must play small ball to win.[19]

Creighton

In 2013, Creighton ranked 10th among Division I baseball programs in attendance, averaging 4,041 per game.[20]

Omaha Nighthawks

The highest attendance for a Nighthawks game at TD Ameritrade Park was 17,697, for the October 15, 2011 game against the Las Vegas Locomotives. The lowest attendance, almost exactly a year later on October 17, 2012, was 2,234, with the Locomotives also the opponent.[21]

Gallery

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "Omaha Stadium Proposal – Stadium FAQs". Retrieved 2009-06-08.
  2. ↑ "Project Report" (PDF). MECA. 2009-03-24. Retrieved 2009-06-08.
  3. ↑ "Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–". Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. Retrieved November 10, 2015.
  4. ↑ Stage set for stadium prep work
  5. ↑ "Creighton to play at new ballpark". Omaha World-Herald. 2009-10-27. Retrieved 2009-10-27.
  6. 1 2 Ground Breaking For New Stadium
  7. ↑ "TD Ameritrade Park profitable in first year". Omaha World-Herald. 2012-01-06. Retrieved 2012-01-06.
  8. ↑ "Pro ball downtown? Unlikely in '12". Omaha World-Herald. 2011-09-14. Retrieved 2011-09-18.
  9. ↑ http://www.omaha.com/article/20090609/NEWS01/306099997/0/FRONTPAGE
  10. ↑ "Stadium gets its name". Omaha World Herald. 2009-06-10. Retrieved 2009-06-10.
  11. ↑ "Some Omaha fans will be on top of the action with tight configuration". Omaha World Herald. 2010-04-21. Retrieved 2010-04-21.
  12. ↑ Coffey, Kevin (October 20, 2012). "Red Sky Music Festival finished, but MECA promises stadium concerts". Omaha World Herald. Retrieved June 20, 2013.
  13. ↑ "Organ transplant for new ballpark". Omaha World Herald. 2011-03-05. Retrieved 2011-03-05.
  14. ↑ FXFL unveils its Omaha franchise -- the Mammoths, Josh Planos, KETV-TV Website, July 31, 2014
  15. ↑ "Ballparks Dry Run Goes Well". Omaha World Herald. 2011-04-19. Retrieved 2011-04-20.
  16. ↑ "2011 State Farm MVC Baseball Championship Central". Missouri Valley Conference. May 28, 2011. Retrieved June 20, 2013.
  17. ↑ "General CWS Records". NCAA.org. p. 36. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-06-14. Retrieved 14 June 2012.
  18. ↑ "Men’s College World Series Notes – MCWS Championship Finals #2 - June 28, 2011". Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-06-14. Retrieved 14 June 2012.
  19. ↑ "At College World Series, go small or go home". Retrieved 18 June 2013.
  20. ↑ Cutler, Tami (June 11, 2013). "2013 Division I Baseball Attendance - Final Report". Sportswriters.net. NCBWA. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 20, 2013. Retrieved July 20, 2013.
  21. ↑ Pivovar, Steven (October 18, 2012). Nighthawks again grounded by Locos. Omaha World-Herald. Retrieved October 18, 2012.

External links

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