Big Red Business: Omaha counting on Big Red baseball money

When Nebraska shows up for the Big Ten baseball tournament in Omaha, fans do too, and in big numbers.

Conference officials and Omaha’s hospitality industry are hoping that formula holds true this week as the tournament begins its five-day run starting Wednesday at TD Ameritrade Park.

The 24,000-seat ballpark will be home to the tournament for the second consecutive year and the fourth in six seasons. That measures out to an estimated economic impact of about $3.1 million per year on Omaha’s economy, according to tourism officials.

Those aren’t College World Series dollars, or even the money that spirals through Omaha’s economy thanks to the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting every May, but significant in its own right.

Make no mistake, having Nebraska among the eight teams qualifying for the championship run after failing to make the cut in 2018 can only have a positive effect on the bottom line of restaurants and bars, hotels, rental car companies, cabs and other forms of transportation. Don’t forget local and state tax dollars.

Iowa will also be playing here and Hawkeye baseball fans travel well. In addition, Minnesota and Illinois qualified for the tourney, putting more fans within driving distance of Omaha. Indeed, most fans who attend the tournament are either from the Omaha area or can get there with relatively short road trips. Most conference teams don’t draw much fan support, Nebraska being an exception.

Now, if the weather will cooperate.

“There are three key factors for business,” said Mark Wortman, manager of Blatt Beer & Table near TD Ameritrade. “It’s all about whether NU gets in, what teams within the Big Ten will be in it that travel well, and the weather.”

Tournament officials are expecting bigger crowds this week compared with a year ago because Nebraska is in the hunt. There’s also a strictly non-partisan desire to see the Cornhuskers (and Iowa, too) survive the early double-elimination knockout round and make a deep run. That would bode well for large walk-up sales at the stadium ticket office.

As of May 9, about 2,800 tickets for the entire package of tournament games had been sold for $60 for club level and $55 for regular reserve seating, according to Kristyna Engdahl, a spokeswoman for the Metropolitan Entertainment & Convention Authority.

“This is pretty consistent with previous years,” Engdahl said.

Single-day ticket sales began May 15, meaning one ticket gains you entrance for the entire day. The ticket office encourages fans to buy tickets ahead of time to avoid the possibility of long lines, which was the case in 2014 and 2016, but not so much last year.

Historically, the tournament has done well at TD Ameritrade since the conference went to an eight-team format in 2014.

When the tournament was held at Target Field in Minneapolis in 2015, attendance wasn’t even close to the crowds in Omaha.

That’s a key reason why the conference opted in 2016 to keep the tournament at TD Ameritrade from 2019 ithrough 2022. The ballpark was already set to host the tournament in 2018.

When the tournament was first held at TD Ameritrade in 2014, attendance at the then three-year-old ballpark over the five days reached 62,044. That was a Big Ten tournament record, surpassing the previous high for a full tournament of 12,219 set in 2009.

For the championship matchup between top-seeded Indiana and second-seeded Nebraska, the stands were packed with 19,965 fans, an NCAA record for a baseball conference tournament. It broke the previous record -- between Florida State and North Carolina -- by more than 2,000 fans.

Four days of the tournament that year featured attendance of more than 10,000.

When the conference tournament returned to TD Ameritrade in 2016, Nebraska was in the field, but was ousted early. However, attendance was boosted by Iowa’s strong run to the championship game, where the Hawkeyes lost to Ohio State. The overall attendance for the tournament was 33,728.

Last year, when Nebraska was not in the tournament, attendance at TD Ameritrade was even lower, at 12,404. The championship game, featuring Minnesota and Purdue, drew 1,931, according to the conference.

When the tournament was held at Target Field in Minneapolis in 2015, attendance was awful. Total attendance for the tournament was 7,384, with 658 in the stands for the final game.

Looked at another way, attendance for one session in Omaha in 2014 was greater than the combined attendance for the entire tournament in Minneapolis.

In 2017, the tournament was held in Bloomington, Ind. It drew 6,712 fans, the conference said, including 923 for the championship game.

That notion of holding the tournament at campus sites has ended -- at least for the foreseeable future. The Big Ten Conference clearly liked the idea of holding its league championship at the home of the College World Series

“You’ve built a brand here, you’ve built a following,” Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany said three years ago in announcing TD Ameritrade as the host ballpark through 2022. “We’re glad to be able to participate in that future, and hopefully provide increased growth into the future.”

For many Omaha restaurants, bars and entertainment areas -- especially those close to the ballpark like Blatt Beer and The Mattress Factory -- the league tournament is somewhat of a shakedown cruise before the College World Series in June.

Do we have our act together? Are the drink specials popular? What about signage? Is there enough staff and other boots on the ground to meet the crowds? What needs tweaking?

Last year, at least anecdotally, several restaurant and bar operators said business was down because Nebraska was not in the tournament. Some places were overstaffed and overstocked. The buzz wasn’t there.

This year, expectations are higher, especially for the first days of the tournament. “Nebraska baseball always brings in a big crowd,” Wortman said.

Also, the new Capitol entertainment district near the stadium should draw baseball fans since it is more built out than a year ago. Customers can walk around the outside plaza with alcohol and food purchased from any of the tenants and enjoy the giant outdoor screen TV.

Events that take place at TD Ameritrade Park, the CHI Health Center arena and other nearby venues do increase traffic at the Capitol District,” said Sarah McMahon, the district’s executive director. “When a home team like Nebraska is playing, we expect the traffic to be even higher.”

The district now has 15 bars and restaurants open, about twice the number open last year, and McMahon expects some will be offering specials for baseball fans.

Others in the hospitality and entertainment business are hopeful as well. The Omaha Marriott Downtown at the Capitol District has experienced increased demand for rooms on the dates of the Big Ten championship, said Megan Gilligan, the hotel’s director of sales and marketing.

“Omaha is definitely a baseball town and the state always rallies to support larger, regional and national sporting events even when we don’t have a local team participating,” Gilligan said. “All the better when we do have a team representing.”

She said the two-year-old hotel will be offering bar and restaurant specials during the tournament.

It is unfair to make an apples to apples comparison between the Big Ten tournament and the College World Series.

After all, the College World Series is 10 to 12 days long, and attracts not only the eight college teams, but their fans and media. It also is expected to bring in more than 700 youth baseball teams from about 35 states that compete in their own tournament during the College World Series as well as attend games. They gobble up more than 16,500 hotel rooms.

Still, the numbers provide context.

Using a 2014 study by Creighton University economist Ernie Goss, the College World Series adds an estimated $63.7 million to Omaha’s economy annually. Excluding media money and television rights, the College World Series’ economic impact grew by 55.3 percent from 2003 to 2014.(The tournament moved from Rosenblatt Stadium and its loud foot-stomping metal grandstand after 2010 to TD Ameritrade.)

The NCAA championship event supports about 777 jobs --from the executive director’s position to beer vendors and groundskeepers.

From the tax perspective, the tournament generates $3.7 million in local taxes, and $2.5 million in state tax revenue annually, the Creighton study showed.

Clearly college baseball is an economic driver for the Omaha metropolitan area, but it goes beyond the dollars, said Kathryn Morrissey, executive director of CWS Inc., which oversees the tournament for the NCAA.

“It’s part of Omaha’s image,” Morrissey said. “The hospitality that we provide to the student-athletes for each and every team is part of Omaha’s DNA.”

The Big Ten Conference also recognizes the importance of that economic value and support, said Engdahl of the entertainment and convention authority.

“Part of the appeal of the Big Ten tournament at TD Ameritrade has to do with the College World Series,” she said. “It’s an opportunity for the ballplayers to play on the same field” as the NCAA championship. “There’s an extra level of excitement.”

Steve Rosen covers the business of sports for HuskerOnline.com. Questions, comments, story ideas. Contact Steve at sbrosen1030@gmail.com.