This being year 1 of our retirement, and never having been to Omaha, and fully vaccinated, the Mrs and I drove up from Tulsa and stayed to watch all 7 VU games.
Being basically cheap, we stayed at an Extended Stay America in the Dodge/90th St area - about 6 miles from TDA. Less than $900 for the 13 nights. Downtown would have been a different story.
We bought all our tickets off of the Ticketmaster app. For the prelim games, if that's what you call them, we always had tickets in either 112 (directly behind home plate), or a section to either side, for $100 or less. For the finals, we were out in 122 (3rd base line in the OF) for <$200. The final game we were able to get $38 seats in the 3rd level immediately when they came on sale 30 minutes after game 2. At that time section 122 tickets were about $500. The next morning they had dropped to $150 in section 118 (behind our dugout), so we sold the $38 seats for $60, and moved to 118.
The first day we parked in a private lot for $20, and a good hike to/from the stadium. After that we parked in Lot D - across the street from outfield side of the stadium, $15. Maybe at most 200 yds from the car to our seats. We never saw lot D get full.
All the finals games were miserable from a crowd standpoint, as everyone knows. All the MSU people we talked to had come just for the finals, so they probably weren't that bad for the prelims. Nice to talk to before the game, mostly, but insufferable during it. For game 1, there were some coed aged MSU girls behind us, one yelling about us being cheaters. I turned around and politely asked what she was referring to. She yelled that NCSt should be playing. I pointed out that it was a shame they didn't get vaccinated, but that we had nothing to do with that. She said "Ok, I wont say that anymore" - so she wasn't totally irrational. Thankfully, she and her friends took off pretty quickly after we had the big lead.
For game 3, we were in a true sea of maroon. There was a middle-aged MSU couple in front of us. They were booing every ball/strike call that didn't go their way. Eventually I yelled, pretty much over the top of them, "Way to go ump - don't let them intimidate you!". She turns around to me and snears "Really?". I said "Really!", and tried to introduce myself, but apparently her husband is well aware that she's a nut case and kept her from lunging at me. Later she told me that I should be cheering for MSU. They left their seats for most of the middle of the game - apparently she really couldn't take have one VU fan within earshot. I congratulated the husband after the last out, we shook hands. She was in tears.
I couldn't help observing that MSU, a state school in a state with the largest % black popullation in the country, and the only black MSU fan I saw was Dak Prescott on the jumbotron. What's up with that? Meanwhile, VU, a private school, had a fairly diverse fan base. After one of the early games we went to the Doubletree, where VU was staying, got the last table in the bar, and welcomed the first couple looking for a table to share it with us. They were a black couple from Kingston Springs - with no relation to VU other than fandom (mostly her), but his kids had given him this trip for Father's day. I took notes to let my kids, who gave me a card for father's day, know all about that.
VU draws well for the early games - they all had good crowds, with good pro-VU representation both in the stadium and around us. Mostly locals - I asked what they thought of the whistler, they said it didn't bother them. Arizona, Stanford, and NCSt crowds were about our size or smaller. Lots of baseball fans from other schools were about, as well. The typical LSU and Arkansas fans, etc..
In between games, we did the usual Omaha stuff. The Durham museum was very good - mostly the history of Omaha and the area, located in the old Union station, with some train cars in it as well. The botanical gardens was a can't miss stop for the gardener in the family, really very impressive as well. The Art museum had a very impressive collection. We saw several VU fans there, but curiously no MSU fans. We walked the pedestrian bridge over the Missouri. Girls and Boys Town was closed for tours, we heard the zoo was great, but we never got there.
We ate a few meals in the Old Market area. Lots of bars and restaurants located together. Obviously still feeling the impact of Covid - one restaurant was out of food when we got there, most were short on staff. We tried the porterhouse at Omaha Prime in the Old Market - not impressed, the prime rib we had at Charlestons later in the week was better.
Omaha people were great. We went to mass at the Cathedral, at the dismissal the priest asked if anyone was in town for the CWS. We raised our hand, he asked us if our team was winning, we raised our thumb.
All in all a great experience. 4 wins vs 3 losses. Next time we'll probably hold off till the finals, but I'm glad we took in the whole thing. One more item checked off the list.
Being basically cheap, we stayed at an Extended Stay America in the Dodge/90th St area - about 6 miles from TDA. Less than $900 for the 13 nights. Downtown would have been a different story.
We bought all our tickets off of the Ticketmaster app. For the prelim games, if that's what you call them, we always had tickets in either 112 (directly behind home plate), or a section to either side, for $100 or less. For the finals, we were out in 122 (3rd base line in the OF) for <$200. The final game we were able to get $38 seats in the 3rd level immediately when they came on sale 30 minutes after game 2. At that time section 122 tickets were about $500. The next morning they had dropped to $150 in section 118 (behind our dugout), so we sold the $38 seats for $60, and moved to 118.
The first day we parked in a private lot for $20, and a good hike to/from the stadium. After that we parked in Lot D - across the street from outfield side of the stadium, $15. Maybe at most 200 yds from the car to our seats. We never saw lot D get full.
All the finals games were miserable from a crowd standpoint, as everyone knows. All the MSU people we talked to had come just for the finals, so they probably weren't that bad for the prelims. Nice to talk to before the game, mostly, but insufferable during it. For game 1, there were some coed aged MSU girls behind us, one yelling about us being cheaters. I turned around and politely asked what she was referring to. She yelled that NCSt should be playing. I pointed out that it was a shame they didn't get vaccinated, but that we had nothing to do with that. She said "Ok, I wont say that anymore" - so she wasn't totally irrational. Thankfully, she and her friends took off pretty quickly after we had the big lead.
For game 3, we were in a true sea of maroon. There was a middle-aged MSU couple in front of us. They were booing every ball/strike call that didn't go their way. Eventually I yelled, pretty much over the top of them, "Way to go ump - don't let them intimidate you!". She turns around to me and snears "Really?". I said "Really!", and tried to introduce myself, but apparently her husband is well aware that she's a nut case and kept her from lunging at me. Later she told me that I should be cheering for MSU. They left their seats for most of the middle of the game - apparently she really couldn't take have one VU fan within earshot. I congratulated the husband after the last out, we shook hands. She was in tears.
I couldn't help observing that MSU, a state school in a state with the largest % black popullation in the country, and the only black MSU fan I saw was Dak Prescott on the jumbotron. What's up with that? Meanwhile, VU, a private school, had a fairly diverse fan base. After one of the early games we went to the Doubletree, where VU was staying, got the last table in the bar, and welcomed the first couple looking for a table to share it with us. They were a black couple from Kingston Springs - with no relation to VU other than fandom (mostly her), but his kids had given him this trip for Father's day. I took notes to let my kids, who gave me a card for father's day, know all about that.
VU draws well for the early games - they all had good crowds, with good pro-VU representation both in the stadium and around us. Mostly locals - I asked what they thought of the whistler, they said it didn't bother them. Arizona, Stanford, and NCSt crowds were about our size or smaller. Lots of baseball fans from other schools were about, as well. The typical LSU and Arkansas fans, etc..
In between games, we did the usual Omaha stuff. The Durham museum was very good - mostly the history of Omaha and the area, located in the old Union station, with some train cars in it as well. The botanical gardens was a can't miss stop for the gardener in the family, really very impressive as well. The Art museum had a very impressive collection. We saw several VU fans there, but curiously no MSU fans. We walked the pedestrian bridge over the Missouri. Girls and Boys Town was closed for tours, we heard the zoo was great, but we never got there.
We ate a few meals in the Old Market area. Lots of bars and restaurants located together. Obviously still feeling the impact of Covid - one restaurant was out of food when we got there, most were short on staff. We tried the porterhouse at Omaha Prime in the Old Market - not impressed, the prime rib we had at Charlestons later in the week was better.
Omaha people were great. We went to mass at the Cathedral, at the dismissal the priest asked if anyone was in town for the CWS. We raised our hand, he asked us if our team was winning, we raised our thumb.
All in all a great experience. 4 wins vs 3 losses. Next time we'll probably hold off till the finals, but I'm glad we took in the whole thing. One more item checked off the list.
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