The new downtown baseball stadium has a second tenant.

Creighton and MECA announced Tuesday that the Bluejays will play baseball at TD Ameritrade Park Omaha, the future home of the College World Series, starting in 2011.

The Bluejays will play several home games in the ballpark in 2011, then play all of their home games there beginning in 2012. The lease is 10 years with a five-year option, said Roger Dixon, president of the Metropolitan Entertainment and Convention Authority. Dixon said Creighton would pay $10,000 per game.

Creighton Athletic Director Bruce Rasmussen said the Bluejays would schedule about 25 games per season at the park. The Bluejays drew an average of 792 fans for 20 home dates last season. The average was only 225 for 12 dates at the CU Sports Complex, but was 1,648 for eight games at Rosenblatt Stadium.

Rasmussen noted that attendance improved when Creighton moved its basketball games to Qwest Center Omaha, its soccer games to Morrison Stadium and women's volleyball to Sokol Arena.

“We've seen a spike in attendance before, and we fully expect to see a spike in attendance,” Rasmussen said. “We'll work very hard. We've got a lot more to market. I expect to see a nice jump in our attendance.”

Rasmussen said he hopes the Bluejays will draw 3,000 to 5,000 per game.

“That's a very realistic number to begin with,” he said. “If our product is good, we hope to grow and develop that. Some games are going to draw more.”

Rasmussen said national baseball powers such as Miami, Stanford, North Carolina, Louisiana State and Notre Dame have all expressed interest in playing in the new stadium if the timing is right on their schedules.

Drawing teams of that ilk could lure the kinds of crowds necessary to make the $10,000 rent worthwhile.

“Wherever there’s opportunity, there’s exposure (to risk),” Rasmussen said. “If you want opportunity without exposure, you’re going to be waiting a long time. We think it’s a tremendous opportunity. There’s definitely some exposures, but we think the opportunities way outweigh the exposures.”

The Rev. John Schlegel, Creighton University president, said the agreement was a win, win, win for the downtown economy, for baseball and for Creighton.

“In five short years, in part due to our relationship with MECA, we have changed the face and the feel of Creighton athletics,” Schlegel said. “I believe this baseball park will do the same for baseball and the downtown economy.”

Speaking across the street from the under-construction stadium at a press conference inside the Qwest Center, Schlegel said Creighton’s baseball benefits would be threefold.

“TD Ameritrade Park Omaha will be a potent element in the recruitment and retention of Creighton baseball players,” he said. “It will allow us to attract top-notch college teams from across the country who would just love to play at the home of the College World Series, and hence improve our power ranking and that of the Missouri Valley. And it gives us the ability to play night games — folks like nighttime baseball.”

Dixon said MECA will continue to pursue landing the Missouri Valley Conference tournament as well as regional and super regional tournament games, concert dates and an independent league baseball team. Creighton’s home baseball season runs roughly from mid-March through mid-May.

Contact the writer:

444-1027, rob.white@owh.com

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