1,000-plus youth baseball teams adjust to loss of general admission College World Series tickets (2024)

Mike Thomas has heard all about June baseball in Omaha. So much so that he’s about to drive 1,400 miles to see it for himself.

The resident of Virginia Beach, Virginia, is justifying the trip like thousands of others from around the country have for years. His son will play in a national youth tournament in town during the day. Evenings are for crossing off the bucket-list item of soaking in the College World Series.

Just one problem for his traveling party: No one knows how many CWS games they might get to see.

Thomas, who coaches a baseball team for players 11 and younger from Five Star Virginia, has heard about the general-admission CWS options available as recently as 2019. Back then, youth tournaments would include a booklet of 10 tickets for entrants that could be used to sit anywhere in the outfield for any game. Accompanying families could easily find the same booklets for $90 — $9 a ticket — at Omaha-area service clubs and Hy-Vees.

Now The Greatest Show on Dirt is in its fourth year of reserved-only outfield seats. Great for avoiding long pregame lines behind center field. Not so much for peace of mind and budgets for long-distance arrivals.

“It is a little bit added stress because we are driving or flying that farfrom home without guaranteed tickets to any other games but the one we found tickets for,” Thomas said. “We are taking a little bit of a risk there but I’ve kind of accepted that.”

Thomas’s squad is one of 732 that will take part in the Omaha SlumpBuster event. And The Battle of Omaha attracts roughly another 250. Factor in other smaller competitions and more than 1,000 teams — ranging from grade-school to high school — will visit Omaha with their families during the nine or 10 days of CWS games. Most traveling from out of state wouldn’t do so without the draw of the show at Schwab Field.

Assuming 12-player groups with two coaches and two parents, the total approaching 30,000 people rivals that of any traveling SEC or ACC fanbase. Yet their seats are far from assured.

'Is this really what you want to do?'

The best approach for youth tournaments is full transparency, said Brandon Hardy, the SlumpBuster event director. He informed interested teams during the winter that advance group tickets would go on sale in a lottery-style system in March and that single-game tickets would become available April 23. Everything else after that would appear on the secondary market — often with a significant markup attached.

“It’s really us understanding and communicating with the teams and setting the correct expectation,” Hardy said. “We try to, in some cases, scare them by saying, ‘Hey, is this really what you want to do?’”

Thomas and Five Star Virgina put in for 50-60 tickets for the first game of the championship round and got 20 midway up in the left-field bleachers. Enough to cover players and coaches, but parents and siblings were on their own. Thomas got his wife a ticket a row behind where the team is sitting for the game. Parents all tried for single-game face-value tickets in April but were shut out.

Mike Reggio, the youth director for The Battle of Omaha and who is involved in coaching baseball at Bellevue West, said the system should consider setting aside times and allotments for each tournament individually in the future after a “high majority” of his event teams didn’t secure as many tickets as they wanted.

Too many experiences like that, he said, and teams traveling from afar may decide the investment isn’t worth it.

“They’re coming to Omaha for the CWS, they’re not coming to just play in this tournament or any other tournament,” Reggio said. “The draw is the CWS and the ability to have tickets — i.e., general-admission tickets where they can get as many as they want.

“They’re still coming. I don’t want to jinx myself here but I’m very shocked that it hasn’t affected us the way I thought it would. I hope these families find a way to get in.”

Hardy and Reggio both said the moment of truth will come whenever weather causes significant delays. Demand issues for reserved outfield seats spiked in 2022 and 2023 under relatively clear skies. But the next time morning storms push back tournament start times — many teams try to play as early as 8 a.m. in order to attend afternoon CWS games — those affected will need to decide between playing or watching games after already paying for both.

Tournament youth games typically conclude around 3 p.m., so attending evening CWS games is encouraged. Without the flexibility of GA seating, though, every ticket purchase inside Schwab Field Omaha is a potential risk.

Common advice in youth tourney circles has been to wait to buy tickets until getting to town. The idea is when College World Series teams are eliminated or if a school that doesn’t travel well qualifies, prices will drop — another coach told Thomas he didn’t pay more than $25 per ticket when attending multiple games last year.

That notion will be put to the test now in a loaded field consisting entirely of SEC and ACC clubs with enthusiastic fan bases likely motivated to pay well for any openings.

'We could use a lot more seats'

Amy Hornocker, executive director of CWS Omaha Inc., said the effort to provide advance group ticket sales for youth tournaments and corporate organizations was new this year. It was not publicized in an effort to keep out brokers. Total outfield seating — what used to be general admission — is 5,502. The number expands to about 7,000 with standing room.

“We could use a lot more seats for some of these evening games,” Hornocker said.

The NCAA recommends fans use the approved ticket portal — NCAA.com\mcwstickets — because other secondary sales can’t always be guaranteed.

Hornocker said “the majority” of fan feedback about shifting away from GA outfield seating has been positive since what began as a temporary measure in a pandemic 2021 became permanent. The hours-long lines outside the gates that wrapped around the entire outfield and beyond had also posed challenges for resources and safety of those standing in the heat, she said.

The biggest enduring fan complaints, she said, are about resale prices. Afternoon weekday games are the most affordable — anyone can still snag a pair of outfield seats for $13 each. Weekday evenings range from as low as $37 to $54. Evening games on opening weekend start as low as $91, while two seats together for the start of the title round June 22 go for no less than $130 apiece.

Fans have day-of options too. Team turnback of its allotted tickets may happen and appear on Ticketmaster that morning. If a game is sold out — as often happened with Louisiana State last June — there will a select number of standing-room offerings made available, with prices decided that day. Fans can inquire about those at the Schwab Field box office, which opens at 10 a.m.

“There’s ways to get tickets, especially if you’re willing to come down in the afternoon,” Hornocker said.

Is GA seating — long a staple of the College World Series at Rosenblatt Stadium and nearly a decade downtown — gone for good?

“There’s no plans for it to come back,” Hornocker said. “I never want to say never, but there is not any general admission in the near future.”

A new generation of fans has heard the stories of winding lines leading to new friends and a reward of front-row outfield seats for those willing to wait long enough. Crowds are also learning to adapt to paperless tickets and the different supply-and-demand realities of a College World Series event whose popularity continues to soar.

“It would be nice to be able to do GA booklets,” Thomas said, “but I don’t know any different, to be honest with you.”