Ben Flickinger wrote:
 
> Even though it's not exactly a neutral site (though neither is Madison,
> Minneapolis, or Joe Louis), I still say Omaha could easily fill up the arena
> for a NCAA regional no matter who played in it. I mean, if we can fill up a
> 25,000 seat stadium for the College World Series despite only 1 hometown
> team ever making it that far (Creighton in 1991, though Nebraska has a shot
> this year), filling 8,300 seats for 4 hockey games should be no problem even
> if UNO doesn't make it. And if Omaha ever builds a new arena (fricken
> legislature is stalling this year's attempt again), I bet we could maybe
> fill that up too - it's expected to have 12-14k seats for hockey under
> current plans.
 
This comparison is meaningless.  There are two very big reasons that the College
World Series is a different proposition than a hockey regional, and the difference
in sport is not one of them.
 
1) The CWS is an Omaha tradition.  Trying to gauge how a new event, that would be
there at most on a rotating basis, would draw by looking at an established event
that people go to every year is silly.
 
2) The CWS is a championship; a hockey regional is not.  The finals draw better.
Two years ago in Milwaukee, with North Dakota, Colorado College, Boston U and
Michigan, the final four drew a very respectable crowd, if not a sell-out.  Call
it 17,000-18,000.  This past weekend, with two of the same teams, one from the
same city as a third and three that are admittedly smaller as a combined draw than
Michigan, in a city only an hour-and-a-half away, 2500 showed up for the regional.
 
Ask yourself this question: If the CWS is such a big draw, why hasn't the NCAA
held a baseball regional north of Wichita and east of the Sierra Nevadas in more
than a decade?
 
J. Michael Neal
 
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