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TD Ameritrade Park Omaha
File:TD Ameritrade Park Omaha1.jpg
TD Ameritrade Park Omaha
Location 1200 Mike Fahey Street
Omaha, Nebraska 68102
Coordinates 41°16′00″N 95°55′52″W / 41.26667°N 95.93111°W / 41.26667; -95.93111
Broke ground January 21, 2009[1]
Opened April 18, 2011 (Open House)
Owner City of Omaha
Operator Metropolitan Entertainment and Convention Authority
Surface Kentucky Blue Grass
Construction cost $131 Million
($131 million in 2024 dollars[2])
Architect HDR Inc.
DLR Group
Populous
General Contractor Kiewit Corporation
Tenants College World Series
Creighton Bluejays
Omaha Nighthawks
Red Sky Music Festival
Capacity 24,505 (expandable to 35,000)
Field dimensions Left Field Line335 feet (102 m)
Left-Center Power Alley375 feet (114 m)
Center Field408 feet (124 m)
Right-Center Power Alley375 feet (114 m)
Right Field Line -335 feet (102 m)[3]

TD Ameritrade Park Omaha[4] is a baseball park in Omaha, Nebraska. It became the home field of the College World Series after the NCAA signed an agreement to keep the CWS in Omaha until at least 2035 if the ballpark was built. "The Trade," as the park is sometimes called, is also the home of the Omaha Nighthawks of the UFL. In the spring, TD Ameritrade Park is used as the home field for Creighton University Bluejays Baseball and hosts the Missouri Valley Conference baseball tournament.

TD Ameritrade Park has a capacity of 24,000 people, 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 have recently been made to bring a professional baseball team to TD Ameritrade Park, but legal troubles have prevented this from occurring any earlier than 2013.[8] In February 2012, the Big Ten Conference expressed interest in holding the Big Ten Conference Baseball Tournament at TD Ameritrade Park.[9]

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.[10] The official announcement came from TD Ameritrade's Chief Executive Officer Fred Tomczyk on June 10, 2009.[11]

On April 15, 2010, it was announced that the Omaha Nighthawks, Omaha's team 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.[12] On December 15, 2010 it was announced that TD Ameritrade Park Omaha would host a 6-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 Omaha and TD Ameritrade Park. Each night there was to be a main concert held inside TD Ameritrade Park Omaha and Qwest Center Omaha.

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]

First Game[]

The first game was played on April 19 between the Nebraska Cornhuskers and the 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 defeated the Bluejays by a score of 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.[14]

First College World Series[]

In 2011, TD Ameritrade Park played host to the College World Series for the first time. Participants for the Park's inaugural 2011 NCAA Division I Baseball Tournament were the defending National Champion South Carolina Gamecocks, the Florida Gators, the Vanderbilt Commodores, the Virginia Cavaliers, the North Carolina Tar Heels, the California Golden Bears, the Texas A&M Aggies and the Texas Longhorns.

On Saturday 18 June 2011, before the opening game of the CWS between Vanderbilt and North Carolina, 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 Gene Klosner 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 Finals began on Monday 27 June 2011 at 7:PM between the defending national hampion South Carolina Gamecocks and their SEC Eastern Division Rivals, the Florida Gators, in front of 25,851 fans who had packed The Trade to witness the first ever CWS Finals match-up at the new park. South Carolina won the game in an exciting eleven inning pitchers' duel, beating the Gators 2-1. South Carolina took game two of the Finals, one night later on Tuesday the 28th of June 2011, by a final score of 5-2 and in front of a record crowd of 26,721 fans. The win secured back-to-back national championships for the Gamecocks which included the last Finals game won at the old nearby Johnny Rosenblatt Stadium in 2010 and the first Finals won at the new TD Ameritrade Park.

Other worthy notes about the The Trade's first CWS were the Southeastern Conferernce's Eastern Division South Carolina, Florida and Vanderbilt finishing 1, 2, 3 in the final rankings, 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. 2011 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, the 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 homerun 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 fourteen sessions took over 4 hours to complete.

Omaha, Nebraska, thanks to building their TD Ameritrade Park, has secured a contract with the NCAA that assures the city will continue to host the NCAA D1 College World Series through the year 2035.

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.[15][16]

Creighton[]

In 2012, Creighton ranked 10th among Division I baseball programs in attendance, averaging 4,268 per game.[17]

Gallery[]

See also[]

  • Sports in Omaha
  • Downtown Omaha
  • TD Garden (Boston, Massachusetts)
  • TD Bank Sports Center (Hamden, Connecticut)
  • TD Bank Ballpark (Bridgewater, New Jersey)
  • TD Ameritrade
  • TD Bank

References[]

  1. "Project Report". MECA. 2009-03-24. http://www.omahastadium.com/reports/3-24-09%20Number%201%20FINAL.pdf. Retrieved 2009-06-08.
  2. Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–2008. Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. Retrieved December 7, 2010.
  3. Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named FAQs
  4. Stage set for stadium prep work
  5. "Creighton to play at new ballpark". Omaha World-Herald. 2009-10-27. http://www.omaha.com/article/20091027/NEWS01/910279979. Retrieved 2009-10-27.
  6. 6.0 6.1 Ground Breaking For New Stadium
  7. "TD Ameritrade Park profitable in first year". Omaha World-Herald. 2012-01-06. http://www.omaha.com/article/20120106/NEWS01/701069882#td-ameritrade-park-profitable-in-first-year. Retrieved 2012-01-06.
  8. "Pro ball downtown? Unlikely in '12". Omaha World-Herald. 2011-09-14. http://www.omaha.com/article/20110914/NEWS01/709149932. Retrieved 2011-09-18.
  9. "Big Ten considering CWS site". ESPN.com. The Associated Press. 23 February 2012. Archived from the original on 2012-03-04. http://www.webcitation.org/65uls3FEb. Retrieved 4 March 2012.
  10. http://www.omaha.com/article/20090609/NEWS01/306099997/0/FRONTPAGE
  11. "Stadium gets its name". Omaha World Herald. 2009-06-10. http://omaha.com/article/20090610/NEWS01/906109986. Retrieved 2009-06-10.
  12. "Some Omaha fans will be on top of the action with tight configuration". Omaha World Herald. 2010-04-21. http://www.omaha.com/article/20100420/SPORTS/704209819. Retrieved 2010-04-21.
  13. "Organ transplant for new ballpark". Omaha World Herald. 2011-03-05. http://www.omaha.com/article/20110305/NEWS01/703059893#organ-transplant-for-new-ballpark. Retrieved 2011-03-05.
  14. "Ballparks Dry Run Goes Well". Omaha World Herald. 2011-04-19. http://omaha.com/article/20110419/NEWS01/704209891/0#ballpark-s-dry-run-goes-well. Retrieved 2011-04-20.
  15. "General CWS Records". NCAA.org. p. 36. Archived from the original on 2012-06-14. http://www.webcitation.org/68QQ7PUF0. Retrieved 14 June 2012.
  16. "Men’s College World Series Notes – MCWS Championship Finals #2 - June 28, 2011". Archived from the original on 2012-06-14. http://www.webcitation.org/68QQDF380. Retrieved 14 June 2012.
  17. Foley, Brian (13 June 2012). "2012 NCAA Baseball Attendance Report". CollegeBaseballDaily.com. Archived from the original on 2012-06-14. http://www.webcitation.org/68QP2cfcO. Retrieved 14 June 2012.

External links[]

Template:Missouri Valley Conference baseball venue navbox


This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at TD Ameritrade Park Omaha.
The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with American Football Database, the text of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.

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