Better get to know a ballpark---Rosenblatt Stadium (update)

Hey all. Aaron here. I wanted to give the community a little update on the first of our 756 part series "Better get to know a Ballpark" feature. We're one post in, and there's already some contraversy. Nice...

I mentioned in my previous post that the city of Omaha was working on tearing down old Rosenblatt and building a brand new stadium. And that is, in fact, the case...But, I'll also mention that they are not only going to build one new stadium, but two new stadiums within the metropolitan area. This is amazing stuff.

Here's how the story goes...The NCAA told the city of Omaha that they'd better get to building a new stadium, or else the College World Series would pursue other options in other cities. So this scared the city into ponying up an $126 million dollar tax levy upon the citizens to build a brand new 24,000 seat baseball venue in the downtown "Old Market" area, adjacent to the Qwest Center, which is their brand spanking new arena. What a great idea right? Build a new ballpark downtown, to generate interest in revitilization efforts inside the city itself. It's been done before, and it will be done in again and again. It's all the rage among sports venue construction, and it seems like a solid plan...But wait! There's more....

Considering the new project, one would think that the AAA Omaha Royals baseball team would move right into the new CWS venue, and take advantage of the developing situation downtown. Nope. What do they decide to do? The O-Royals decide to build their own 6,000 seat venue 10 miles south of the city of Omaha on a 300 acre piece of land in the middle of nowhere, miles and miles from civilization. The city of Papillion, Nebraska has granted $26 million in tax dollars to fund the project. The location of Pallion, Nebraska is the equivalent of BFE. I've learned that the Pacific Coast League was not a huge fan of the Omaha Royals yearly 17 game roadtrip in the middle of June, just to accomodate the CWS. So they decided to go about it their own way. An honorable decision, if it wasn't so ridiculously planned.

From what I can tell, the citizens of the entire metropolitan area are PISSED at these developments, and its no wonder why. Rosenblatt, albeit old, is intimate, and some consider it the Fenway Park of the Pacific Coast League. The old stadium is scheduled to be demolished in the summer of 2011, and in its place the Omaha Zoo will create more parking, and probably a couple more monkey exhibits. If you're monkey lover, this is you're kinda deal. Good on ya, monkey lover! Can't wait to visit Omaha real soon.