By Ben McCarthy
When the College Baseball Foundation (founded in 2004 in Lubbock, TX) began their search for a permanent home for a College Baseball Hall of Fame (CBHOF) in 2017, most believed Omaha, NE, had a surefire, inside track to being selected. They’ve been the longtime home of the Men’s Baseball College World Series (CWS) every June, and the annual event is as popular as ever.
According to the NCAA, Charles Schwab Field in Omaha just set a CWS record this year with an average game attendance of 24,788 people, as the Tennessee Volunteers made their way through the field of 64 teams and claimed their first national championship. The games drew huge television viewership, as well. The three-game finals series between Tennessee and Texas A&M was the second-most-watched CWS final on ESPN with 2.82 million viewers.
Instead of choosing downtown Omaha (and a stone’s throw from the city’s famous zoo), the foundation looked toward Kansas City, specifically 135th street and saw what they viewed as the ideal location to establish the new CBHOF.
In January, the Foundation and Visit Overland Park jointly announced that the CBHOF would have its inaugural physical location in Overland Park, KS, inside the Museum at Prairiefire. The foundation also announced plans to move its headquarters up from Lubbock and establish an office in the same retail corridor.
“We loved everything about the area – from the new airport, to the access to so many college and youth sports and recreation fields,” Executive Director Craig Ramsey said. “There are so many (colleges) located within a tank of gas. There’s a presence of youth facilities all around that we were really hoping for.”
Ramsey pointed to other youth sports flourishing nearby, such as soccer and lacrosse, which ultimately factored into their choice.
“We had finished our day here last year after touring the area and went back to our car in the parking deck (at Prairirefire’s Visit OP headquarters) when it really hit us,” Ramsey said. “This is exactly the kind of environment we had envisioned it being in after a nationwide search. We felt like it was home, and it was meant to be.”
Former Royals catcher, and co-founder of Mac & Seitz, Mike MacFarlane, said he was familiar with many of the local figures involved in courting the Texas group and steering them away from the Cornhusker state.
“The youth sports here is a major draw, and all of these monster tournaments bring in a lot of families from the outside area,” Macfarlane said. “It feels like something that deserves to be here, and (frankly) the Omaha group didn’t step up.”
Almost six months removed from the decision and announcement, Ramsey says the Foundation will continue to have a presence at the CWS every June, but points to the event’s sole focus being on men’s NCAA Division I post-season play, whereas the CBHOF will incorporate and celebrate the past and present of all level of competition, including NAIA, junior colleges, and NCAA divisions II.
“Our commitment is to honor all generations (and levels) of players, and we’re going to make this Hall of Fame an interactive space that will always have new exhibits and content coming through,” Ramsey said. “Most museums were built with ‘static’ exhibits, but we’re aiming for a digitally immersive experience that can celebrate the past and inspire the future of the game.”
The Foundation is still mum on the details of what the CBHOF experience will be, but Ramsey says they are still working to finalize a local partnership to go about the design of the space before content is announced. What is known is that the space available inside the museum is 8500 square feet. By comparison, the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum downtown boasts 10,000 square feet. The College Basketball Experience, adjoined to the T-Mobile Center, has 41,500 square feet (and includes a College Basketball Hall of Fame). Reportedly, Omaha offered only 6000 square feet of space dedicated to a CBHOF inside Charles Schwab Field.
“The designers have told us that it is an adequate space, and they do have expansion plans at the museum for a whole new wing,” Ramsey said. “If it becomes successful, we have a longer term plan to expand the footprint. With the technology we’re planning to build, we think we can.”
The Museum and Visit OP did not respond to requests from the Telegraph. The Museum at Prairiefire just celebrated its 10 year anniversary, and is part of the Prairiefire retail development, which has struggled to hit sales projections for the past decade. Just weeks before the formal announcement of the CBHOF coming to Kansas, reports surfaced that PrairieFire had defaulted on STAR Bond payments of nearly $65 million. Ramsey says the Foundation was made aware of the financial situation at Prairiefire, but has no reservations about the situation.
“We had full disclosure and transparency up front, and we’ve been assured by business people and lawyers that it’s not our concern,” Ramsey said. “It’s not an issue.”
Ramsey then added: “We do feel like we’re part of a solution.”