Will Omaha Ever See Major League Sports?

Will Omaha Ever See Major League Sports?

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hydration versus liquidation. It just kind of depends on what
business you're in, but I prefer to do that. But
cheers to everybody out there. Hopefully you're having a good Thursday.
It's a beautiful day outside. I'm drinking a mountain zva.
What are you drinking?

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Lubricate those wind pipes, is what I say.

Speaker 1 (00:14):
I'm having some problems. I've been having problems today for
some reason. My cough is back. But what are you drinking?

Speaker 2 (00:19):
I'm drinking good old fashioned h two.

Speaker 1 (00:22):
Oh, you need to do better than that.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
Water cooler straight from the water cooler.

Speaker 1 (00:26):
You need to do better than that.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
It's got a hint of mildew.

Speaker 1 (00:30):
That's not great. I also have for the immune seest.
I have also water from that. So I guess we're
gonna die on the air today drinking mildew.

Speaker 2 (00:38):
It'd make ratings.

Speaker 1 (00:39):
It would make ratings until we actually died, and then
that'd be over them. Yeah. So anyway, cheers, cheers. Got
a haircut today. What do you think?

Speaker 3 (00:47):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (00:48):
Really, okay, I see it now a little a little
off the well. I was going to say off the top,
but it's not really kind off the shoulders, off the
bottom Yam.

Speaker 1 (00:56):
Anyway, there's there's plenty of stuff going out there. I
boasted this photo or story of the news. I'm doing this,
I'm doing this. I don't care. Everybody is just like Nashville, Nashville, Nashville.
Because Nashville already announced what their team would be named

(01:18):
and what it would look like. The Tampa bay Rays
owner has gone. And yeah, you might be saying, Emory,
can we talk about something a little bit hard hitting?
We will, all right, we will.

Speaker 2 (01:28):
You know what's hard hitting when that bat smacks the
ball and the crowd goes wild.

Speaker 1 (01:33):
We are a baseball town, aren't we. Doesn't Omaha have
a very unique place in baseball in this country? We do.
But it's only a couple of weeks. Yeah, but it's
still important. It's incredibly important. It is as important as
anything else that happens. And it is a very unique
tradition that only happens here every single year. Okay, okay.
We have eight schools to come in here and they celebrate,

(01:57):
and they play baseball at the highest level, at the
Khaleide level, and they do it in downtown Omaha, and
many thousands of people enjoy it. I would venture to
say that over a million people in some way between
being here and watching it on television, enjoy what Omaha
has to bring to the table. That makes sense. I'm
with you, you're following me, I'm following you. We have

(02:19):
major teams in the National Hockey League in places like Winnipeg, Alberta, Canada.
No that Winnipeg is in Manitoba, Manitoba. Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada,
and Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. All right, can you pop quiz
what's the Winnipeg population?

Speaker 2 (02:35):
It's probably like so, we're not counting we're not counting
Yetti because we can't really peg him yet.

Speaker 1 (02:41):
We don't really know how many guys that counts, right,
I would say it's about two hundred and twelfth thou
it's bigger, it's like seven hundred and fifty. Oh okay, okay,
seven to fifty. Edmonton, what do you think? What do
you think Edmonton?

Speaker 2 (02:54):
We'll say six hundred and twelve thous it's just over
a million, Okay, okay, So these but these are a
remote life locations, right.

Speaker 1 (03:02):
What about Memphis, Tennessee? How big is Memphis population?

Speaker 2 (03:05):
Walking in Memphis, I would say they got the Grizzlies.
So we're talking like metro, we're talking city limits. I'm
talking the city. I'll say nine hundred and twelve thou
six hundred, okay, nomeny are here, I'm like close to that,
if not more plus to five.

Speaker 1 (03:21):
Okay, And if you add the metropolitanary, if you had
council buffs, you add some of the suburbs. Now we're talking,
you know, six to seven.

Speaker 2 (03:26):
Why don't we just scoop up Lincoln and toss him in.

Speaker 1 (03:28):
You could, They're only you know, now, you're definitely over
seven probably. I mean you look over at this anything
within an hour people would come and watch Major League
Baseball here.

Speaker 2 (03:37):
I know about eight thousand people in York who would
love to just jump on top of that, top of
that heap.

Speaker 1 (03:42):
Kansas City has the Royals, they have the Chiefs, they
have two major league teams. What's their population in city
limits Kansasity, Missouri?

Speaker 2 (03:49):
Well, good question, because I think like overall it's like
a couple million, right.

Speaker 1 (03:53):
Yeah, And that's the thing. Kansas City, Kansas and Kansas City,
Missouri are technically different things.

Speaker 2 (03:57):
So like if you count the whole thing, but this
is just Kansas City, Kansas, I would say jury, okay,
oh right, right, right, because that's the bigger part. So
maybe like just a little over a million.

Speaker 1 (04:06):
Five hundred thousand. Really the Kansas City, Kansas side of things,
one hundred and fifty thousand. Okay, you had all the burbs,
and that's where it gets a little bit larger. But
you're telling me that a Maaha is out of the question.
As as a market that can support a Major League
Baseball team Portland, Oregon able to support the Blazers, Oklahoma
City able to support the Thunder. Let's think about every
single market that has a single team to support and

(04:28):
how well those teams do in terms of interest and
how people flock to those games. It is important San
Diego and the Padres. They are one of the top
attendance ratings. Ever, everybody else left town. Remember they have
one team, the Padres.

Speaker 2 (04:44):
Right, San Diago. It's tough out there, but at least
they got the Padres.

Speaker 1 (04:47):
And guess what, the Padres are really really well represented.
So the Ray's owner Stu Steinberg Stutenberg, Sorry, I you
want to know something.

Speaker 4 (04:59):
I I think.

Speaker 1 (05:01):
He's trying to set the stage for a move here.
He said, opening day is right around the corner, and
we are eager and prepared for what promises to be
an exciting and fun season of baseball. Thanks to our
dedicated staff and players, our fans will experience the game
in one of the most intimate settings in modern baseball history.
Of course, he's referring to where the Tampa Tarponds play.
That is the single a affiliate of the Yankees, who

(05:24):
happen to be playing in Steinbrenner Field, which is the
spring training facility for the Yankees. It's located right next
door to where the Tampa Bay Buccaneers play. I went
and saw it when we were in Tampa the other month.
What's the mascot again, the Rays? No, the other one,
the Yankees? No, the one you were just talking about,
the Rais No. You know what he doesn't want to
say it the Tampa Tarpons. Yees, say it again, Tarponds.

Speaker 2 (05:49):
I'm not going to make the joke. You should just
keep going.

Speaker 1 (05:51):
What is a tarpon. It's a fish, It's a big fish.
It's from the genus Megalops. They're the only members of
the family Megalope. Day. Make it up a day, So
there you go.

Speaker 2 (06:02):
Oh, they sure do absorb the competition.

Speaker 1 (06:04):
They are megalops. Maybe I don't know a tarpon is
a megalop. Anyway, there you go. Anyway, he goes on.
He says, as we all recover from imbacs from hurricanes,
we are incredibly grateful for the support from our fans
to the wider Tampa Bay community. We are especially appreciative
of how our corporate partners have stepped up during this
challenging time for our organization. After careful deliberation, we have

(06:25):
concluded we cannot move forward with a new ballparking development
project at this time. A series of events beginning in
October that no one could have anticipated, led to this
difficult decision. No one could have anticipated. Seriously, not a
single person, not a single person expected a hurricane to
you know, ever hit Saint Petersburg ever again and rip
off that little, uh fabric roof that you guys had
sitting on that dome.

Speaker 2 (06:45):
Hurricanes are unheard of in Florida.

Speaker 1 (06:48):
He goes on and says, our commitment to the vitality
and success of the Rays organization is unwavering. We continue
to focus on finding a ballpark solution that serves the
best interests of our region. Major League Baseball and our organization.
The City of Saint Petersburg is currently advancing plans to
restore Tropic Canna Field for the twenty twenty sixth season.
We are thankful for their efforts and are excited to
return to our home field next spring. I call absolute bs,

(07:11):
absolute bs on all of that. You're going to pay
seventy five million dollars to replace your little fabric roof
for two years before your lease is up. I call
Shenanigans straight up. Brandon is on a phone line four two, five, five,
eight eleven ten. Welcome in, Brandon. What's going on?

Speaker 5 (07:26):
Oh?

Speaker 6 (07:27):
You guys were saying that the Greater Omaha population around
seven hundred, and we're actually over a million now if
you count counts.

Speaker 1 (07:34):
The ball Well see what I'm see what I mean, Matt?
How can people hear this and not be like, Okay, yeah,
I mean if we got a basketball team in New Orleans,
you know they can support that. Oklahoma City has got
a basketball team. Portland, Oregon has a basketball team. They're
supporting that. Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada is able to support a

(07:55):
hockey team. What are we talking about here? Yeah, we're ready.

Speaker 6 (07:59):
Hockey travels well anyway, but it's we're way past due
for a professional sports team here.

Speaker 1 (08:04):
Yeah. Well, Brandon, and think about this. We're averaging like
thirteen thousand people going to the Supernova's volleyball games pro
volleyball in downtown. Omaha's averaging more fans on a game
to game basis than the Tampa Bay Razar in their
home stadium. So what are we even talking around this town?

Speaker 6 (08:19):
Look around this town and all you see everywhere is
sports academies and sports clubs. It's it's in almost every
strip mall all over town.

Speaker 1 (08:27):
They would if we depending on the size of the ballpark,
if we just built like a thirty thousand seed ballpark,
which is pretty you know, it's even a little bigger
than what the the Tropicana is holding down there in Florida,
they would be like one hundred percent ninety to one
hundred percent full every single home game, because Omaha is
that hungry for a team like that. So I'm with
you one, why not.

Speaker 6 (08:48):
Just instead of building a stadium, why not just work
out a deal with one of the existing stadiums.

Speaker 5 (08:53):
That's here.

Speaker 1 (08:54):
I agree, and you know what we have we've talked
about this. I mean in a pinch if they were
not already playing where the Tarpons play. I was saying
they should just come here and play over a swab anyway,
because that stadium is the right size, it's in a
good spot, and outside of just three weeks a year
with the Big Ten tournament in the College World Series,
we could have you play here and you would be
absolutely fine. They have to play seventy percent of their

(09:16):
second half of the season on the road because they're
afraid of the hurricane season again, so I mean all
of them.

Speaker 6 (09:21):
We need a mayoral We need a mayoral candidate to
get on board with this to help make it happen,
because that would pay.

Speaker 3 (09:27):
A lot of bills around here.

Speaker 1 (09:28):
Now, see, Brandon, you are speaking my language. This is
what we want to talk about. This is why I
brought this back up. Brandon, you're my guy. Thank you
for calling in today right on? Yeah, yes, yes, And
a mayor ole race right now? Where's where's mayor stoth?
Where's McDonald? Where are you and the other people? Everybody?
You want to know you want my vote? You can
tell me right now. I'm going to try to get

(09:49):
that baseball team up here to Nebraska. Yeah, that's what
I'm hearing. And Iowa can be a part of this too,
because Omaha is seacially located. If they played in Omaha
Des Moines all of a sudden has a much closer
team than anywhere else that they would have. You don't
think people from the one wouldn't make some trips to
go enjoy Omaha Rais games, right, They absolutely would. We

(10:09):
got more calls coming in. If you want to be
a part of this conversation, we are doing it. My
show is ground zero for this conversation. Let's get Tampa
Bay and get that baseball team up here and playing
in Omaha permanently. If they go up for sale or
are looking to relocate, call us at four h two
five to five, eight eleven ten on news radio eleven
ten kfab.

Speaker 7 (10:28):
Em Marie Sung on news Radio eleven ten kfab.

Speaker 1 (10:35):
Very realistic. Once they play their lease out over the
next couple of years, if they spend millions of dollars
to fix Tropic Cannafield, that they will be looking for
another place to play baseball, whether it's bought by somebody
who wants to move the team or whether he just
tries to relocate it. Himself. I don't know. All I'm
saying is, this is an opportunity for Omaha, an incredibly
important baseball town, to have a seat at the table

(10:58):
and potentially have a major League team. Uh, let's get
to the phones. Four, two, five, five, eight, eleven, ten. Roger,
how's it going today?

Speaker 5 (11:06):
Going great?

Speaker 8 (11:06):
How are you?

Speaker 1 (11:07):
I'm fantastic. What do you think about this?

Speaker 8 (11:09):
I think it's a great idea. Iola's ninety miles northwest
of Omaha, that Iowa's died, and I would come down
there and watch professional baseball. My daughter's a Husker, so
I got to support what's going on there, because what's
what's good for Nebrats the good.

Speaker 1 (11:23):
For Iowa exactly, especially when it's that located, that close
to everything in Iowa. They'd be closer in Des Moines
to any team in Omaha than any other metropolitan area
in the surrounding states. It makes too much sense, Roger,
too much sense.

Speaker 8 (11:38):
It does, And I think maybe we should do another approach.
Do what the Packers did when they wanted their team.
They they support, the local community got behind him, and
they basically crowdfunded the Packers pro pro franchise. We could
do the same here as well as bring on it's
philansthrophy like born Buffet and those types. That'd be great, Roger.

Speaker 1 (12:00):
And that's why we're doing it loud and proud on
the fifty thousand while Blowtorch I'm sitting on right now.
So maybe one of these people who have the means
can say, you know what, this isn't such a bad idea.
Let's see what we can do to make this happen.
We're gonna try to make it happen. Roger. I tell
you what, I think it's a good goal.

Speaker 8 (12:14):
I think we should go for it.

Speaker 1 (12:15):
There we go. Thanks, Roger, appreciate the call. Yeah, and
here's the thing. We could just talk you know, politics
and get get all you know, sour and mad. How
about this is a positive thing for Omaha. You want
to talk about talking about some positivity for this market
and for what this means for people. Paul is on
the phone line of four h two, five five, eight
eleven ten. What's say you, Paul?

Speaker 5 (12:35):
Back in the sixteen sixty two Dallas, Texans, we are
not a Kansa City, Chiefs. We're gonna move. The three
towns they looked at was Kansas City, Saint Louis and Omaha,
and they chose Omah because of the larger population population
in the city limits. But then they say not to
move up. Their facilities had no facilities, and that's what's
gonna happen in baseball. So it feels about good enough

(12:57):
skating is not good enough for a major league.

Speaker 1 (12:59):
Yeah, that would be the trick. And again, if like
I had the earlier call where he said, why don't
we play at one of the stadiums, whether Werner Park
that's way too small or at Charles Schwab Fields, which
is an appropriate size. The Rays are playing in a
stadium right now that it's basically the same size as
that one. The problem would be you have to work
around Creighton Baseball, you'd have to work around the College

(13:22):
World Series, and you'd have to work around the Big
Ten Baseball Tournament, among other things in the area. I'm
sure the arena itself also would be like, hey, you're
taking up like some of our parking here for all
the major events that we're having throughout the summer. The
easiest answer to try to win that bid and to
get Major League Baseball to agree on the move would
be to have plans on a permanent baseball stadium that

(13:44):
the team itself would own, and that would be, like
you said, that would be the big trick, right, because
if you don't have that, that's going to be a
strike against you every single time, and that would be
something we'd have to talk about. Paul.

Speaker 5 (13:56):
Well, they couldn't use swamp Field because the Glockerer was
to start.

Speaker 1 (14:03):
They are, Yeah, that's true, and a lot of.

Speaker 5 (14:05):
Medical facilities in those stadiums. Then they don't have a reader.
You know, it's a whole big they have to build
a new stadium.

Speaker 1 (14:13):
It's a good point, Paul. Thanks for calling in. We
really appreciate it.

Speaker 5 (14:17):
I wish they would go, yeah, hey.

Speaker 1 (14:18):
We're going to try to make it happen, Paul. We
we we have we have a really important you know,
medium here that we can spread the news. How different
was it would the history be of Omaha and Kansas
City both if the Dallas Texans of the time would
have settled in Omaha instead of landing in Kansas City,
all right, because.

Speaker 2 (14:37):
We had the Kings in the seventies, the Omaha.

Speaker 1 (14:39):
Kansas City City Kings. Yeah, that was kind of just
a so there.

Speaker 2 (14:43):
Was so basically there was a possibility there that that
could have happened.

Speaker 1 (14:46):
Yeah, but that was in the seventies, right, Like so,
but that I've read about that the Kings franchise was
just and we caught them at the absolute worst time.
When they were the Rochester Royals, they had Oscar Robertson, Like,
they were actually really competitive.

Speaker 2 (15:02):
Is that Rochester, New York?

Speaker 1 (15:03):
Yeah? Yeah, And then obviously Rochester wasn't big enough to
support them, so they moved to Kansas City became the
Kansas City Kings. Omaha shared them for a few seasons
for just a few home games they played in that
Civic Auditorium, which no disrespect that's at the time it
might have been NBA caliber, but the team stunk and
there were no good players. I mean, they really didn't

(15:24):
have like marquee players that played for that team that
you wanted to go see. And the team lost all
the time. So you know, if that would have been
anybody else, maybe it could have stuck here. But you're
never going to build like a real good base splitting
home games in two markets like that. You have to
build and you have to own, and we do sports
so strangely in North America versus how like Europe does

(15:45):
them like all of like people are really prideful in
their own towns teams and their town has like soccer
teams or basketball teams, and they play on different levels.
We don't have that, right. There are only so many
seats at the table for the major, legitimate Big Four team,
and that's why it's so important, I think, to try
to get in there. But think about the spoke of

(16:05):
geography here. And yes, the Kansas City Royals would raise
a big stink about this if it actually were to happen,
and I understand why because a lot of people in
Omaha would consider themselves Royals fans. The problem is that
if you're looking at Omaha, now, all of a sudden,
you're closer to Des Moines, You're closer to all of
the little, you know, suburbs of the cities, the Lincoln's,

(16:28):
the Sioux cities that are like, are so far away
from everything else South Dakota, and now all of a sudden,
they could take some ownership over maybe this team if
they feel like they're too far away from the Twins
or whatever.

Speaker 4 (16:41):
Like.

Speaker 1 (16:41):
There are so many different aspects of this that could
absolutely make a legitimate sense if we could just figure
out the stadium would be a big part of it.
You'd also have to figure out not just you know,
the logistics of that and where you would put it,
but also you would have to you know, be patient
with that entire process, and hopefully you can be able

(17:01):
to build the team in a way that they can
be competitive, because you'd want this to be a thing
that would be here for generations to come. I don't know,
I think we're onto something here, but certainly, if you're
making this a permanent idea, you're gonna have to come
up with an idea of a potential major league caliber
stadium in facilities to attract them. And that's probably like
you're looking more West Omaha incent of downtown where Swap schwab.

Speaker 2 (17:24):
Is Shout out to Nate, who just called in. He
wanted to tell you, Actually, his name wasn't Nate. This
person he's talking about, his name was Nate. Nate Archibald
played for the Omaha Kings. Yeah, the tiny Archibald, my bad. Yeah,
you're right. It's a pretty good stat it's about twenty
five good for about twenty five points and eight assists.

Speaker 1 (17:43):
Yeah, and he's the only guy in the history of
the NBA. I don't know if Westbrook did this or not,
but he led the NBA in points and assists. He
was the first guy to do that. Okay, one year,
I don't know if that was while he was in Omaha.

Speaker 2 (17:55):
Let's see, his highest point total was in seventy four
to seventy five. Let me just check this, see, was
that why they were playing in Omaha. I'd have to check.

Speaker 1 (18:03):
It'd be about the right time, Like it was the
early seventies they were playing in both that team still
was garbage man, and no disrespect to Tiny Archibald, but
it wasn't like Doctor J was playing here.

Speaker 2 (18:13):
They played here from seventy two to two seventy five,
So the last year here he would have been seventy
four to seventy five. Yeah, that would have been the
year that he most likely did that.

Speaker 1 (18:21):
So that's cool. I just you know, uh, and obviously
didn't matter that much because people weren't going to the games.
And due respect to Tiny Archibald, like I said, he
wasn't Doctor J. He wasn't you know, George Gervin, He
wasn't David Thompson or any of the other great you know,
exciting stars of the nineteen seventies, and unfortunately the NBA
just wasn't in the same place that it would have

(18:41):
become a decade later when Bird and Magic were running
the show. Anyway, two twenty nine. If you got thoughts
on this, loved to hear from you A four Roho
two five to five eight eleven ten four Roho two
five five eight eleven ten, News Radio eleven ten kfab
Emery's songer.

Speaker 7 (18:54):
A stout feeling it now, mister drad on News Radio
eleven ten kab the.

Speaker 1 (19:01):
Tampa bay Rays baseball team. I know that I've brought
this up on multiple occasions, but today their owner said
we are no longer looking at a long term solution
or stadium plan and development in Saint Petersburg, Florida, where
they are currently located. Their lease is up for Topicicana
Field after the twenty twenty seven season. I have no
idea what it would all take, but I am just saying,

(19:23):
if there was ever a team in a sport that
could use Omaha, Nebraska, this is the one. And I
am going out of my way to push this narrative
until somebody with the power to make it happen tries
to make it happen. Let's go to the phones. Four, two, five, five,
eight to eleven ten. We have Terry on the line.
Welcome Terry. What's going on?

Speaker 3 (19:42):
Hey? How's it going Emory?

Speaker 1 (19:43):
Hey, what's up?

Speaker 3 (19:45):
As I was telling Matt, I think a professional team
of any sort has zero chance of making it in Omaha,
and we have no further need to go further. If
you look at our local newscast, you don't see a
single professional box score of any professional sports crawling across
the bottom during the Sports department's broadcast.

Speaker 1 (20:10):
You don't think we could fail that though, Like you
don't think we could change change that?

Speaker 3 (20:15):
Well, we've tried. We've had a CBA team here, seem
to be a basketball aficionado. We had the Omaha Racers here,
a CBA team some twenty years or so plus ago,
probably thirty actually more. We didn't support them. I mean,
and you heard from the guy who was out of town,
Like you know there's one hundred and sixty nine game
season for professional baseball that the games are on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Like,

(20:39):
we would not get near half the attendance. We'd need
to support them during the weekdays because honestly most and.

Speaker 7 (20:46):
I'm one of them.

Speaker 3 (20:47):
I'm a transplant here from New York. Like I'm a
I already have a favorite team. It would be hard
to get a base, a foundation base for support of
a new professional team here, in my opinion.

Speaker 1 (21:00):
Yeah, and I respect that, Terry. I guess I would
just I would push back a little bit because, first
of all, we're talking about a major League baseball team
that's been in Tampa Bay, in the Tampa Bay area
for twenty five years, twenty twenty six years, and they're
routinely taking seats out of their stadium to make it
a little bit more intimate because they can't sell tickets.
They are averaging under twenty thousand people per game very easily.

(21:24):
There are markets that are not that much bigger than
Omaha that are able to support basketball teams or hockey teams.
And I'm just throwing out there that if we are
a baseball city, I think if you had a stadium
or you know, you were able to play at Schwab
where you had a Schwab like facility that's major League
upgraded in a spot somewhere near the metropolitan you know,

(21:50):
hubub of Omaha, I do think people would not take
that for granted because you're going to be seeing the
Yankees come to town. You'll see the Red Sox come to town,
the Cubs, the Cardinals, They'll all come to town. I
think you could build up a really good base because
we are first and foremost, I think, a baseball city.
So that's my pitch. I guess to why this would
be different than the CBA, than the NBA back in

(22:12):
the seventies, than any other sport including minor league sports
around here, because let's be honest, Terry, I love the
Storm Chasers. I love going to the games and everything.
But the storm Chasers, even though they do win, like
winning isn't the most important thing for that organization. It's
about developing their talent, developing their players, and as soon
as the player is ready to get called up, they

(22:32):
don't really care how it affects the Omaha Stormchasers. They
just want them playing for the Royals on Tuesday, you
know what I mean. So having their own like our
own team where we are trying to win and compete
against the Yankees and the Dodgers of the world, I
think could absolutely change how people view that. And I
think we could for anybody who wants to go and
do something, they'd be way more likely to do it,

(22:52):
especially if that stadium would be in a good spot
for them to be able to enjoy legitimate Major league
sports right here in Omaha. If it doesn't happen with this,
nothing will happen. Because I know there was that NHL
thing that they had put together that they suggested that
and proposed that last spring. I mean they're talking, there

(23:14):
are people in this town talking about stuff like that.
I just think baseball would work way better.

Speaker 3 (23:18):
Yeah, I wouldn't disagree that there should be or you know,
really some support for a different team. Like look at
the Owls. I mean, you know, this was not really
a soccer really city, but the Owls are to them
pretty bad. And you mentioned the Storm Chasers like that,
that's a really good example. They don't and they've been
here for a long long time under many golden spikes

(23:40):
or you know, whatever iteration we have with them.

Speaker 7 (23:44):
But they even then.

Speaker 3 (23:45):
Like this field or the stadium's half empty most of
the time, Like you can't get during one hundred and
sixty five game season. You have to pack people in
on the week dates like we could get a ton
of smart When the Yankees during town, you bet I'll
be there all three games, you know, and you know
probably half the time you'll you'll get some pretty solid attendance.

(24:05):
But you know, to make a team successful monetarily, you
got to pack the stadium at all time, and I
think that's a real challenge there. So, but I do
appreciate what you're saying, and I really hope there is
an opportunity for that. But Es, I've been here a
long time as a transplant, and I've not seen the
support that you know, the city needs to provide for

(24:26):
heavier sports.

Speaker 5 (24:27):
Please.

Speaker 1 (24:28):
Yeah, And that'll be the argument against it, Terry, for sure,
And I get that. I'm just hopeful that, hey, when
you use the word major league in front of it,
that changes the game a bit. I appreciate the call, though, Terry,
good thoughts.

Speaker 3 (24:39):
Yeah, thanks for your time, my friend. Have a good day.

Speaker 1 (24:41):
Yeah you too. By the way, attendance for the Rays
last year ago ready to go a percentage or overall
how many thousands of people? I guess like twelve thousand,
sixteen before that, seventeen before that, thirteen they had. The
year after COVID it was nine. They have not averaged
over twenty thousand people at a single for a season
since twenty ten.

Speaker 2 (25:01):
What's capacity for them?

Speaker 1 (25:03):
The way it keeps getting lower, It's about twenty five thousand.
Now it's Charles schwab Field's size. I mean Schwabi is
twenty five. It's about twenty five. Yeah, okay, got it
now now that they I mean the Rays that stadium,
you should be like forty forty five thousand people could
fit in there, and they've just been pulling seats out
of it because they can't sell it out even when
they're in the playoffs. They've been out playoffs quite a bit,
but people just don't care and they just don't go.

(25:24):
So I don't know, I have a I have this
feeling in the pit of my stomach. They are one
of the like if there was ever a team that
you're not trying to impress them with attendance, I think
they would get plenty of support here in town. But
there's no way we would be averaging less people per
game than they are right now. I mean they're in
this year when they're playing in a minor league ballpark,

(25:47):
you know it's a single a ballpark that's a spring
training facility. It's gonna be half that at least at
least it's in Tampa, I know, but like gosh, I
can't imagine. I can't imagine that that's going to go. Well,
Dave's on our phone line. He's going to change up
the subject just a little bit because I did forget
to mention Tiny Archibald as being a guy who played
in Omaha in the NBA. Dave, what's on your mind?

Speaker 9 (26:06):
Yeah, yeah, I did go to those games. I was
a sophomore in high school to the Civic Auditorium to
watch the Omaha Kansas City Kings and it was fantastic,
and I remember Kansas City was really mad because we
got the first game and we played against the defending
world champion Lakers, and Archibald was unbelievably good. The rest

(26:31):
of the team was, and I suppose maybe since it
was a new team, they had to have at least
one really good guy. And to this day, I would
pick him as one of my point guards on one
of my best teams and stuff like that. He was
almost Pepe Marivich, like he could steal, push, penetrate, pass score,
you know, And it was fun and I was really

(26:52):
disappointed when they finally folded. You know, the NBA was
on its deathbeds back then, and that's probably why they
had to have both Omaha and Kansas City. But before that,
I was a huge, you know, baseball fan, and I
would like to see I'd like to see the Rays
come here, you know, in twenty four thousand seats down

(27:15):
there downtown. Yeah, I would hope they could fill it up,
you know, and stuff like that. I was really I
would just be concerned. I'm you know, to this day,
I make.

Speaker 10 (27:25):
About eighty thousand year. I just wondered, could I afford
the tickets? I mean, I could afford the ticket to
the Kansas City Omaha Kings on a pizza part time
salary in high school.

Speaker 1 (27:36):
Yeah, And that would be the thing that I would hope, right,
And this is the thing. They're basically giving tickets away
to the Rais games because people just don't want to
drive to Saint Petersburg from Tampa to go watch them.
So like, I would hope that that would be especially
with eighty one home games a year, that would be
an affordable thing for families to do in Omaha if
we were able to make this happen but again, baseball

(27:58):
is in a very different place now than it was,
you know, twenty five years ago, especially with the way
that you know, inflation goes, and how much money it
takes to feel the good team, and how much money
it takes to keep the stadium as nice as possible.
You know, thirty years ago, they didn't really care about
the quality of the stadium as much. Now, all of
a sudden, that's half of the reason people go to
these games. So it's an interesting conversation, Dave, and I

(28:21):
appreciate you calling in with your memories today.

Speaker 4 (28:23):
Okay, thank you.

Speaker 1 (28:25):
All right, we will take a break. If you want
to call in talk about this with me, I'd love
to chat with you. Four h two, five to five,
eight to eleven, ten News Radio eleven ten KFAB.

Speaker 7 (28:33):
Emery Sunger on News Radio eleven ten KFAB.

Speaker 1 (28:38):
Their release runs out after the twenty twenty seven season. Portland, Nashville, Charlotte,
all among cities that have been kind of jockeying for
a major League Baseball team. Montreal is still trying to
get the Expos back. I'm just saying this, if there
was ever a market that is dry of major league
teams at any level Big Four teams anywhere, and would

(29:00):
be very up to supporting a specific professional team. I'm
just saying major League Baseball in Omaha could make a killing.
And I'm just saying that not because I have a
crystal ball, but that we want to support a good
baseball We would love to support a Major League Baseball team.
And the Rays itself as a franchise have not averaged

(29:24):
a lot of attendance. The bar is incredibly low. If
we had the facilities, we were able to attract them
and keep people wanting to go to games. I think
we would do much better as a brand opportunity than
any of the other tertiary places that I just mentioned.
Jim's on a phone line note to talk about this
at four h two five five, eight eleven ten. What
if you think about this.

Speaker 4 (29:44):
Jim, Well, I had myself, I probably would never go
to a pro game. I'm seventy eight years old now
and I just don't enjoy getting out in the crowd.
I like watching it's on TV, but I really I
believe as far as the pro team coming here, if
it interfered with any of the money that Nebraska football

(30:08):
or Nebraska anything pulls in, I think there would be
a tremendous fight to keep pro teams out of Nebraska. Totally.

Speaker 1 (30:17):
Yeah. I guess my biggest pushback on that, Jim, is
why would that stop anybody from wanting to grow? You know,
like I don't disagree, but college athletics is essentially professional
athletics now. Anyway, the Huskers for whatever you know, forever
it's worth, you know there, they have been the dominant
brand and the reason the passion is around them is

(30:38):
because there isn't a legitimate professional alternative for people in
the state of Nebraska. But look at to so many
of these other states that have the have had the
ability to share kind of that that feeling of having
professional teams. I mean, National is a great example. Knoxville,
Tennessee is where the is where the Tennessee Volunteers play,
but they have multiple professional teams in Memphis, in Nashville,

(31:01):
in a different spot in the state, and they can
support all of them.

Speaker 4 (31:04):
But I'm looking at families that have limited amounts that
they spend on sports every year, and if they got
involved into a professional baseball team, which I would love
to see too, if they got involved in that and
spent their money there instead of spending it all down
Nebraska football. I think the Nebraska Football or University of

(31:26):
Nebraska would go crazy. Yeah, but you know, when I
was a kid, I would have given anything to have
a professional team around here that I could have gone
and seen people like Mickey Mantle and Roger Marris and
Ted Williams and the whole bunch of you know, Willie
May's everybody. Yep, And if I could have seen him

(31:48):
when I was a kid, I would have given anything
to have to.

Speaker 1 (31:52):
Make Yeah, I'm with you, Jim. I guess my my
angle to this is I want to do that for
the next garate to kids who would love to be
able to see show Hey O Tani and Aaron Judge
and some of the greats of today and the greats
that are still not even in Major League Baseball yet.
And this would be an opportunity for them to have
those memories as well. And I'm hopeful that maybe our

(32:15):
dignitaries here can see what the value could look like
for something like that as well. I appreciate the call, Jim,
thanks for listening.

Speaker 4 (32:20):
Well, don't get me wrong, I do want to see
sure professional baseball team here, just like you're saying right
now for the kids.

Speaker 1 (32:28):
I appreciate it. Jim, thanks so much for the call.
We'll keep this up if you'd like. We got a big,
full show. We got plenty of people that are going
to be a part of the show as we head
to the three o'clock hour, So stick with us on
News Ready at eleven to ten, kfab say hi to
the people. Hi, y'all do Yeah. So I've been talking
so much about this. Let's have you recapped the first

(32:49):
hour of the show before I move on to the
next point.

Speaker 2 (32:52):
Well, it turns out that there's a stadium down in
Tampa that houses the Tampa Bay Devil Rays Rays. Sorry,
they updated it in two thousand and eight.

Speaker 1 (33:00):
You remember, I remember.

Speaker 10 (33:04):
I just do a.

Speaker 2 (33:04):
Baseball game voiced by Vin Scully that was probably from
like three. In high school, I played it and he'd
always say the Dampa Bay Devil Rays, and so it's
just burned into my brain as that. But they took
the devil out of their name a long time ago.
I had to beat the devil out of it, just
like Bob Ross used to say. But I'm getting sidetracked.

(33:24):
So there's a stadium down there that got hit by
a hurricane. They had a cloth towel over the top
of it. It got all ripped up and torn up. They
have Milton, right, thanks Millhouse, Milton the Third or whatever
the heck. And so now they got to get a
whole new stadium, which is a problem. This is not
good just because the top ripped off. Apparently you got
to get a whole new stadium just because of that,
and they're out there shopping. Well, the city as Tampa

(33:47):
Bay has said, we're not going to fund a new
stadium for here. I guess they don't want to keep
the Rays for whatever reason.

Speaker 1 (33:54):
Well, it's been a sticky talking point because they don't
have a lot of fan support. Saint Petersburg is not Tampa.
There are a lot of people that just were unsure
of the viability of this franchise, and we've had twenty
five plus years to figure it out.

Speaker 2 (34:10):
Can we just say this out loud, Florida with the
issues with Jacksonville Jaguars in the Tampa Bay Rays, maybe
they have too many pro teams. Maybe we can spread
out a little bit, because clearly Florida doesn't appreciate the
teams they have.

Speaker 1 (34:22):
Well, Jacksonville, that's The thing is like they have people
that go to those games, but they have constantly been
up tograding that stadium because Shad Khan just is willing
to throw money all over the place, and.

Speaker 2 (34:32):
The Sheer Khan can do whatever he wants.

Speaker 1 (34:34):
Shad Khan, Shadkhan's a real guy. Sheer Khan Chad Jungle
Book and Shad Khan is a different guy. That's not
the bad guy in the Jungle Book, and he has
a lot of money gets away in the end. But
Mowgli has nothing to do with Shad Khan, so either
does MLB. You're right, So anyways, you had posited in

(34:54):
the first hour, Yeah, that maybe Omaha could fill that void,
Maybe we could step up. We gotta stay here. That
houses about twenty five thousand. That's pretty much the capacity
for the stadium down there in Tampa right now. We
got Old Schwabi, the Charles Schwab field. So maybe just
maybe they could come up here. And here's what we
always assume.

Speaker 2 (35:14):
You know what, if they come up here, it might
be an Oklahoma City thunder situation where no one because
if they did, if they did, what do you the
United States of Baseball fans would say, come again, what
now you're going to Omaha. They're going to think it's crazy.

Speaker 1 (35:27):
Well, Sacramento has a basketball team too, But but I
don't how is that.

Speaker 2 (35:32):
I don't disagree one bit. I'm just telling you the
optics of that initially are going to be rough. Sacramento
has five hundred thousand people. Sacramento is almost the same
size as Omaha, like, right, and Green Bay. I mean,
look at the Green Bay, Wisconsin. I mean it's all
much smaller, right. I'm just saying that the optics won't
be great, But the optics will change as soon as
they see how many people go to the games, because
they will around here and they will consistently. It's just

(35:54):
what we do. You mentioned Oklahoma City thunder.

Speaker 1 (35:55):
Oklahoma City has about seven hundred thousand people in the
problem that they had was they were never on the
radar and they were forced to be on the radar.
They were forced to be on the radar for one reason.
Why is that map?

Speaker 2 (36:08):
Who are we talking about again? The thunder Oh welcome
to city because of another major event. It was because
of Katrina. Back then, it displaced the New Orleans Hornets
at the time. They have since moved back to Charlotte.

Speaker 1 (36:19):
No, they just changed the name to the Pelicans.

Speaker 2 (36:21):
Oh that's right. I forgot about it.

Speaker 1 (36:22):
But yeah, they had to play a year away because
their arena was destroyed. And you know what happened. The
NBA was like, wow, Oklahoma City sold a lot of
these games. Yeah, Oklahoma City, they showed up and here's
our moment. It's a perfect example of our moment. Give
us the moment.

Speaker 2 (36:36):
Just give us a trial run. That's all we want.

Speaker 1 (36:38):
Well, they have a lease down there in Tampa for
another couple of seasons after this year. They have to
stay there through twenty seven, so they have to play
that out regardless. They're gonna pay tens of millions of
dollars to fix that roof on that stadium because where
else are they going to play there? And they're playing
at a much smaller spring training facility that's actually in

(37:01):
Tampa proper, right next to where the Buccaneers play. We
drove by it while we were down there. It's a
nice looking place. The Tampa Tarpans are the ones who
are there. I was scolded by Adam who said, it's
not Tarpon's, it's Tarpins. It's like, when would I would
have known that. I'm just gonna call him megalops megalops

(37:22):
because that's their scientific name.

Speaker 2 (37:23):
Oh that's way cooler. I know that's the scientific name
of the fish. Yeah, megalops. Yeah, Tampa, the Tampa megalops. No,
but the Omaha megalops. No, no, no, no, no, no
no no, don't do that. Don't do that, bad, bad
idea of rose.

Speaker 1 (37:39):
That's dumb. What's growth? What's growth about? At do you
actually can see tarpins down in Tampa? It makes sense
to call them the tarpins because they're in Tampa.

Speaker 2 (37:48):
I like the idea of calling them the Omaha Anvils.
We had a guy last time we talked about this.
He had a really cool idea for it, Blacksmith. Yeah,
and we decided they'd be called the Anvils, which is
a cool name for a baseball team. Makes you feel
they're going to hitting lots of bombs off a home plate.
And also it'd be cool if there was like a
Blacksmith like in the stadium and you could go down
and get some like Omaha Anville gear that he'll make

(38:10):
for you, custom made, like during the games.

Speaker 1 (38:13):
Like that's just cool. It just sounds awesome. You just
don't want to get soot on all the kids that
are hanging out, you know. But anyway, black lung from
all the Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You gotta be
you gotta be smart about the way that you do it.
But yeah, a lot of possibilities. David says, I'm curious
what do you think tickets would cost to go to
a professional baseball game? I started by looking at what
race tickets cost. Now, guess how much the average ticket

(38:35):
costs for a Tampa Bay Ray game, eh, give or
take a few cents over the last couple of seasons.

Speaker 2 (38:41):
I have zero frame of reference for this, but I'll
just guess, like seventy bucks.

Speaker 1 (38:44):
That's a good guess for Major League Baseball or for
a major league team. You wonder how much the race
tickets were on average? Roughly twenty eight dollars.

Speaker 2 (38:52):
WHOA, that's not bad.

Speaker 1 (38:54):
You could make a night out for the fam on
twenty eight dollars tickets.

Speaker 2 (38:57):
I feel like twenty eight dollar tickets. Yeah, you and
the lady you in the missus fifty six bucks.

Speaker 1 (39:03):
Just for the tickets, and then you go and you
eat your hot dogs and your popcorn and you have
your sodas and beers and have a great night.

Speaker 2 (39:11):
I mean, that's a night out at a nice a
nice place to eat, you know what I mean. Might
as well catch a baseball game too.

Speaker 5 (39:16):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (39:17):
Now see it's not as cheap as going to see
the storm Chasers in TRIPAA Baseball. But I have this
guy arguing me on Facebook talking about the storm Chasers
don't get huge attendance numbers, and it's like, do you
know where this is? Like like are you familiar with Like,
are you familiar with Papillion? Like that's where this stadium is.
I mean it's like thirty minutes from downtown. Omah. That's

(39:38):
no disrespect to the storm Chasers, just not an ideal
spot in the soccer team too Union Omaha. You know
you're able to draw good people considering where that is,
but you're not gonna get like the hustle and bustle
of like the downtown area. Like he's telling me, oh, well,
the Nashville Sounds they get, you know, six to seven
thousand people going to their games. Like you know where
that stadium is. It's right downtown. Like there's just plenty

(40:00):
of foot traffic down there. You can't compare the two things.
He's like, well, yeah, it's a perfect Triple A town.

Speaker 5 (40:07):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (40:07):
Yeah, we've been a Triple A town. I'm just saying,
what's the difference between Portland the way that they operate.
Why did they get the Blazers, Why did Sacramento get
the Kings? Why did Oklahoma City get the thunder? Why
do these Canadian cities have a hockey team and they're
able to support it only show in town. Okay, it
doesn't make it perfect, but I think if there was

(40:28):
ever going to be a sport that we would support,
when the Yankees are coming to town, especially when the Cubs,
the Cardinals, the Twins, the Royals, the Dodgers, Mike Trout
is coming and playing in Omaha, you don't think that
would get people to want to come and check out
some baseball and maybe they could fall in love with
the Omaha team too. That's all I'm saying. I'm just like, like,

(40:49):
we're giving all these excuses for why it couldn't happen,
but I'm looking at the radius of people that are
already in within an hour or two of Omaha, that
are no closer than five hours away from basically anywhere
else except maybe Kansas City. There are two two and
hours Like the Moins like two and a half to
three hours away from Kansas City on a good day,
they're no more than two hours away from Omaha. I'm

(41:10):
just saying it would immediately become the go to major
league destination if you want to see high level game,
and if you could find a way to sell it
as a legitimate major league team like the Thunder did
for Oklahoma City, like the Blazers did for Portland, like
the Kings have done for Sacramento, et cetera, et cetera,
et cetera. Then I don't know, like how you can
just dismiss Omaha as this thing that doesn't actually exist.

(41:33):
So like, get on with yourself on that got to
talk back here from David wanted to talk about this,
and you can lose talkback by going to the free
iHeartRadio app listen to us live on eleven tin kfab.
There there's a microphone button can leave up to thirty
seconds a good audio about whatever we're talking about. What
did David have to.

Speaker 11 (41:52):
Say, Emory, I couldn't agree with you more. I've been
saying this for years that Omaha could support a major
League Baseball team. We literally have spent billions to develop
downtown and we have a baseball stadium that pretty much
sits empty most of the year. It could be much
better utilized with a pro team. Not to mention, with

(42:12):
how much taxpayer money the city is literally giving away
at this point, you might as well put it in.

Speaker 1 (42:18):
Yeah, and okay, so just to I think there's a
good point to be made that it is not a
major league facility right now. If it was a temporary thing,
that'd be a perfect spot. It's not. If we're trying
to get the race to play here permanently, that is
a different conversation that we have to have. We would
need under a pretty large amount of how do I

(42:43):
put this into good perspective, you would need to upgrade
that place if you want that to be the place,
and not that you couldn't be done, but if like
if we're in Buffett or one of these big Union
Pacific or any of these big companies wanted to buy
in and say, hey, why can't we just get this
team here and then we'll figure the just sticks out
after that. Major League basically is going to be like
we need to know what you're going to do stadium wise,

(43:05):
Otherwise we're not going to just let you have this team.
So you're either going to have to put some major
league level upgrades to where we play the College World
Series at schwals Schwapfield, or you're going to need to
invest in building a legitimate thirty thousand seat major League
baseball stadium and make that work. Yeah, we can talk
about tax money and publicly funded. I'll be honest with you,

(43:26):
there's enough good business here and enough like rich people
that kind of exist in the Omaha area that if
the right person decided they wanted to make this happen,
we could make it happen with as little a public
effort in public dollars as possible. Just throwing that out
there too. Three eighteen. We'll wrap up this conversation next
on news Radio eleven to ten kfab Emery Sunger. There's

(43:49):
a huge difference in mentality in Nebraska towards sports. I
think we're too focused on college to be able to
get behind a pro team in the manner it requires
for it to be successful, whether it's the population difference
or the long entrench Husker Nation enthusiasm at the university level.
I just can't see it working. I wish it would, though.
That's a good point. Iowa and Nebraska kind of have

(44:11):
that in common, right, we haven't had legitimate pro teams
that are at the major league level. Our major league
teams are Iowa, Iowa State, Nebraska. Makes sense? You're following me,
do I'm tracking? You're tracking me?

Speaker 5 (44:22):
I am? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (44:22):
Okay. So my retort to that would be, well, how
does something like that change? Do you think people will
feel the same way about Nebraska twenty years from now
as they once did when they were winning all those championships.
Not to say that you shouldn't, not to say that
it's bad to support the college, but the college doesn't operate.
College sports doesn't operate the same way. I mean, we don't.

Speaker 5 (44:41):
Do.

Speaker 1 (44:41):
We have to reiterate the beef that Matt Case has
with Fred Hoiberg. I mean, that's college athletics twenty twenty
five in a nutshell, isn't it. Not?

Speaker 2 (44:48):
Well, I don't like the way he puts his teams together,
but you know.

Speaker 1 (44:53):
You care about the team. I do, but you don't
like the way that the team operates. I don't. But
that's all of college sports now, especially football and basketball.

Speaker 2 (45:01):
It makes me sad that we're going to give a
guy a year number seven to try to figure it out,
and he's basically starting at year number zero every single
year because he's going to get a whole fleet full
of new players that haven't ever played together again.

Speaker 1 (45:14):
And my point isn't about him specifically. My point is
that he's doing it right now the way Almost every
other college program at the power level, like Iowa, like
Iowa State, like Nebraska, they are doing it similarly. And
now they're going to pay players. We got NIL money.
You're trying to recruit players and have resources to pay them.
All I'm saying is what if that wasn't the case?

(45:35):
Why are we the fans on the hook to make
all of that happen. You want me to buy season tickets.
You also want me to donate to the nil You
also want me to go to all these events to help,
you know, donate to the university so they have enough
money to get a five star quarterback and keep him
here for four years. Why is it always falling on me?
Why is it the fan that has to do all
of that? Now the institution will be able to pay

(45:57):
up to twenty two million dollars for players next year.
But I don't know exactly how that's going to work,
and it's going to be fascinating to see how they
manage it and what the rules are. All I'm saying
is in the pro game, I'm buying my twenty eight
dollars raise ticket, I'm going to watch the ballgame. Me
going to the games. Like, if enough people go and
are interested and the front office does their job, we're
like figuring out the free agency and drafting well and

(46:20):
developing prospects, that team can be really good. And my
tickets me going to the game for entertainment purposes and
to enjoy cheering on my team. That isn't directly correlating
to getting great eighteen year old players to play for
my university. Okay, these are grown men, these are athletes,
and we can evaluate them completely differently than an eighteen

(46:41):
year old who might be rated to a two star
but actually turns out to be a five star or
vice versa, which also can burn you. Yeah, I got
a four star guy comes to campus and we can't
get them on the field because for some reason it's
just not working out. All I'm saying is why the
heck can't we make it work in the pro game
if we just decided that, hey, we want to adopt
this as one of our core teams. Yes, it could
come at the expense of maybe Nebraska as like the Darling.

(47:06):
But we're not talking about an NFL team, you know,
we're talking about We're talking about a baseball team.

Speaker 2 (47:10):
And they're hardly ever going to play at the same time,
I mean, unlikely to happen all that often.

Speaker 1 (47:15):
Non con Nebraska games would be the only ones that
would be getting in the way of a major league
baseball team schedule down the stretch, and then if they
play in the playoffs, then potentially into October. But yeah,
the nitty gritty of the college football season is happening
at a completely different in a different place. And honestly,
you gave me playoff baseball and playoff or like a
regular season college football going on, especially in a tightened

(47:37):
up Memorial Stadium because they're losing some seats based on
the new renovations and all that. Yeah, I'm just throwing
it out there. It's not that crazy to think that
a lot of people in Omaha may be interested in
going to that baseball game. Why are we just not
allowing ourselves to think like we could do both and
why are we so worried about the Huskers. They can
take care of themselves. I couldn't agree more. And then

(47:59):
Dave said, we could make it work in Nebraska, but
you'd have to put a huge restaurant or steakhouse with
a huge bar right next to it on the top
floor of the stadium. At Werner Park, the bar is
always the busiest place. Sad but true. It's just part
of the thing. It's about the atmosphere, right, Like, there's
ways to make it work. Go to Major League Baseball
stadiums anywhere. There are different decks in different experiences that
people can pay for and enjoy. And that's what I'm

(48:21):
saying about the current You know, Charles Schwab Field as
a permanent place, it doesn't really have that offering. You
would have to probably invest in a new ballpark. But
if we get we're in Buffett on the phone line,
we decide that we want to do this and invest
for this for the kids of today and the future,
and have this here is like a staple for Omaha
and something that they're nationally known for. Why aren't we

(48:42):
investigating this? But I'm sure the people at Mecca are
just like, we're totally okay doing what we're doing right now,
Like this sounds like an awful lot of trouble. And
I'm not saying that that's what they're thinking, but there's
a chance that, you know, it's just like, let this
be an albatross for another city, because they see that
as an albatross, and its something that could be exciting
and something that could really be a rallying point for

(49:03):
our community.

Speaker 2 (49:04):
You know, we need to this needs a ground swell, right,
we need to We need to drum up some optimism.
And no better way to do that than to kind
of get out in the streets, get talking with people.
And I will even say, no better way to do
that than to find our mascot. First, I think we
need to find Uncle Ray. I think he needs to
be out in the streets in his lawnmower gloves, just

(49:26):
riding his lawn his riding lawnmower downtown Omaha with a
big old Omaha Ray's jacket on and just hanging out
and people like, who's this guy. He's the future of
the MLB. Baby, Yeah, I don't know.

Speaker 1 (49:38):
I uh, I'm telling you right now. We got we
gotta we gotta look at this with a completely different lens.
And the way we get this ground swell is the
important people, or if you work at a place that
has important people, or if you are a politician or
an aspiring politician, or you're a mayoral candidate that happens
to be listening to kfa B this afternoon. I think
a lot of people get on board if you say
this is something that you want to try to make happen.

(50:00):
I don't know how we get this to get in
the works, but Nashville has already made the first play
by showing off what their team would look like if
they got one. So we need to show our mass.
We need to get on the move a move on
if we're going to be a player in this.

Speaker 7 (50:15):
E Marie Songer on news radio eleven ten KFAB