Thursday, March 12, 2009

Call 9-1-1, Omaha Is Being Assaulted By Aluminum Bat Yielding Thugs!

Once upon a time, there was a nice little event in a nice little city in a nice little baseball stadium that took place each June and attracted thousands of locals. It was the College World Series in Omaha. You got a free pass for being on Safety Patrol. You got free tickets on the back of hot dog packages. You could get a general admission pass for $10. The place was full of kids in the daytime and full of families at night. Then came television. Then came the NCAA. Then came more TV. Then came corporate america. Then came LSU fans. Then came aluminum bats and the whole damn thing was ruined.

But, like they love their Friday fish frys, Omaha loves their CWS. The NCAA puts out the slightest hint of moving it to another city and the town goes ape shiite. The NCAA demands a stadium expansion, they boot the vendors off the grounds, they demand more expansion, they demand the LSU fans get their RV's off grounds, they demand expansion again and the Omaha city "leaders" fall into line. It's like Omaha is a Republican congressman and the NCAA is Rush Limbaugh.

Now, the nice little baseball stadium is gonzo in 2 years. A brand new $250 million dollar (at least)stadium is being built downtown for the NCAA's pleasure. Yet, nobody bothered to ask the main tenants of that soon to be demolished stadium, the Omaha Royals, if they'd play in the new stadium. Oh they asked, half assed, and then set conditions no reasonable ballclub would agree to so the Omaha Royals asked the next door neighbor, Sarpy County, what they were doing for the next 25 years? Sarpy said why we are building you a $20 million dollar stadium and you can play there. The Omaha Royals said yes.

So now, the city of Omaha will soon have a new stadium for the NCAA masters and their corporate hacks to schmooze in. The taxpayers of Omaha will foot the bill, and the goddamned place will stand empty for 50 weeks a year. Brilliant move.

See you in Sarpy County.

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