CWS 2023: Businesses around Charles Schwab Field preparing for Greatest Show on Dirt

OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) - We’re a little less than 72 hours from Game 1 of this year’s College World Series, also known as The Greatest Show on Dirt.

This is the day when it’s really tough to get around downtown. Every type of delivery truck imaginable is descending here to drop off everything under the Sun -- from chicken wings to chips, beer to barbecue sauce to meet all the fans’ needs for the next couple of weeks. This is the Charles Schwab Field’s vicinity’s Superbowl.

Rocco’s Pizza and Cantina, right across from the right field entrance, decided to commemorate last year’s CWS Tuesday afternoon. They’ve turned JELL-O shots into a competition. Last June, Ole Miss fans downed 18,777 JELL-O shots, setting a new record. The new sign is now up, destroying the old record of 3,000 shots by Mississippi State fans.

It’s all in good fun -- profits are donated to the food bank here and food banks in each college town of the eight CWS teams.

Things are getting settled for this year's College World Series.

With so much business in so short a time span, businesses have to get creative with where to store it all. For instance, Rocco’s filled a storage closet with nacho chips last year.

As for this time around...

“The tower of chips went to my sister’s basement because we have 65 cases of Tito’s coming in to replace the tower of chips,” said Rocco’s owner Kevin Culjat. “You kind of do it now in sections, now that we’ve learned.”

For small businesses, it’s not easy -- after all, tomorrow, the pizza joint needs to pack its only cooler with 40 cases of cheese and 40 cases of dough. And that’s just for part of the series.

If you’re looking for free family entertainment, Thursday is the day. Open team practices begin at 9 a.m.

Fan Fest follows at 11 a.m. There’s a difference this year: The teams will take part in private events in their honor Thursday night; those used to be open to the public. CWS officials say it was a way to keep Opening Day from being a 12-hour affair for the student-athletes.

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