New Stadium With Luxury Boxes Will Replace Longtime College World Series Home

Omaha, Neb., plans to replace Johnny Rosenblatt Stadium.
(Wikimedia Commons photo by John Workman)

The stadium in which the College World Series has been played since 1950 — a venue that our colleague Brad Wolverton calls “one of the coolest settings of any facility in all college sports” — will be replaced in 2010.

(Image from College World Series)

Johnny Rosenblatt Stadium, in Omaha, Neb., opened in 1948 as the city’s Municipal Stadium, and became home to the series two years later. The 23,100-seat venue will be replaced by a new, $140-million facility that will seat 24,000 in a concourse that will wrap all the way around the field.

The new stadium will offer more legroom for fans, more locker rooms for players, and—no surprise here—28 luxury suites, which have become stadium essentials in recent years. Practice facilities and offices will also be part of the complex.

The new stadium is being designed by three architecture firms. The design firm is HOK Sport, while HDR Inc., of Omaha, will be architect and engineer of record. DLR Group is associate architect. The stadium will be built by the city, but the National Collegiate Athletics Association has signed an agreement to use the new facility for 25 years.

The College World Series released this rendering of the new stadium.