Assigning "Fs" All Around

Omaha Mayor Mike Fahey, Jack Diesing (president of CWS, Inc.), and the NCAA have announced they've signed a Memorandum of Agreement that promises to keep the College World Series in Omaha until at least 2030 . . . contingent upon the building of the new downtown stadium, of course.

So Fahey's Folly has reached fruition. I am surprised that the NCAA was willing to commit to a 20-year extension of the CWS contract (the present one expires after the 2010 CWS). I really thought the NCAA wouldn't be willing to commit for such a long time until after it saw how revenues and attendance would play out in the new facility. So I give myself an F on that score.

Still, the way this has developed merely reinforces my contention that Fahey and the NCAA had the deal in hand all along, despite everyone's protestations to the contrary. Fahey claimed he didn't want to give up on Rosenblatt Stadium until after he saw the numbers that made it financially imperative to do so. The NCAA says it had no preset preferences about anything except for need for whatever proposal Omaha presented to have "wide community support." CWS, Inc., through its president Jack Diesing, said it preferred to stay at Rosenblatt and re-re-renovate it until it became obvious that no such thing was going to happen.

But what has come about is exactly what Fahey said Omaha "needed" from the very first day he proposed the idea of building the new stadium. For that reason, I also give Fahey an F. He deserves it for his duplicity in the entire mess.

And while I have resigned myself to the facts of the situation, I will never attend a CWS game again. I have no interest in spoiling my lovely memories of great games in the pleasant summer breezes of Rosenblatt with the tears of good-byes. I have less than no interest in sitting in a concrete sauna in physical misery attending a game in the new facility.

BTW, one of the revenue streams to help pay for the new stadium is "naming rights." I know some corporate sponsor is going to pony up big bucks to get its name on the place, but it will always be "Fahey's Folly" to me.