OMAHA, Neb. — Rich Tokheim's sports apparel shop is right across the street from TD Ameritrade Park. More than half his annual revenue comes in the 11 or 12 days of the College World Series each June.
“We're here," he said, "because of the College World Series. It's just so many people.”
Those people won't be in Omaha this year. The Division I baseball championship, decided in this city of just under a half-million for the past 70 years, is a prominent sports casualty of the coronavirus pandemic — a blow not just to the ledgers and coffers of local businesses but to the identity of the city itself.