5. Amy Hornocker, Executive Director of the College World Series – Behind the Scenes of the CWS
Farrell Sports Business Podcast
Interviews with unicorns from sports business and their unique stories, dreams, ideas, insights, innovations, flops and career paths. Get a unique perspective of the inner workings of jobs working in sports beyond just pro sports leagues. Hosted by 30-year sports business veteran Matt Farrell, President of Farrell Sports and CEO of Bat Around.
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Farrell Sports Business (00:00)
On this week's Farrell Sports Business podcast, we're going to go behind the scenes of one of my favorite events, the baseball College World Series in Omaha. Look at how it works. The organizing committee, the relationship with the NCAA. They call this event the greatest show on dirt and it drives over a hundred million dollars of economic impact to the city of Omaha. Phenomenal event. And I love it. I've been three times, sometimes with work. I'll be there again this year with my company Bat Around
and also keeping an eye on the Arkansas Razorbacks, of course.
I'm the host, Matt Farrell, and today's guest is the executive director of the College World Series at Omaha, the greatest show on dirt, Amy Hornocker
Farrell Sports Business (00:57)
Amy, I'm so happy you joined.
Amy Hornocker (00:59)
so good to see you. Excited to be here.
Farrell Sports Business (01:01)
Well, this is great and such a timely topic, but just not all listeners are in the United States. So I think a little quick refresher on what is the College World Series and maybe a little bit of its history with Omaha in particular.
Amy Hornocker (01:18)
Okay, yeah, so the College World Series is basically the national championship for men's College baseball. So the NCAA is national championship. So we actually have what we call Selection Monday instead of like Selection Sunday for basketball So we'll get a bracket of 64. They'll play regionals and then they'll go to a super regional before the eight finally make their way to Omaha. So that's awesome.
So it's unique, you know, you see a lot of, you know, Final Four, Frozen Four, and we get eight. So that's a kind of an extra challenge with basically double the teams. But the history here in Omaha is long. So it's been, we will actually celebrate taking into account the COVID year, 75 years in the city next year for 2025. So.
It started out in I think it was Kalamazoo for a couple years and then it went to Wichita for a year. We had Omaha Municipal Stadium was built which was then later Rosenblatt Stadium for people that know the College World Series. We had some leaders, it was built, we had some like community leaders that had the like they just had a vision for this event to be in Omaha so they successfully took it from Wichita.
It was not making money for many, many years. But now it's been here, like I said, it will be 75 years next year. So a long tradition. Obviously, if you are familiar with the event, the road to Omaha is basically synonymous with it. We take pride in the fact that across the country, these teams locker rooms don't say like men's College World Series, they say road to Omaha and there's different varieties.
of whether it's our sculpture of the dog pile or just the words themselves, but so it goes hand in hand.
Farrell Sports Business (03:24)
Well, it's, it's phenomenal. I've only made three of the 75, but it's, it's just a, just a great event and I love being a part of it. So this bears a little bit of explanation maybe of your organization is called the College World Series at Omaha.
Can you talk about that organization and its distinction from the NCAA because it's not the NCAA. And I think just a little explanation would be helpful.
Amy Hornocker (03:52)
He...cracked.
Yeah, so we are one of we are the only like full time local organizing committee for any of their national championships. So we are a nonprofit governed by a board of directors that was put together by those same community leaders in 1967. So we did not have an actual we actually had like a meeting planning business that actually ran this event alongside this Series until we built the new stadium in 2011.
and that as part of that long -term contract, they hired a full -time staff. So while the NCAA has championships, long -term championships in other cities, Oklahoma City, Frisco, Texas, we are the only entity or local organizing committee that exists year -round. USA Softball runs...
and along with the committee and the university down there runs the Women's College World Series. They have been, we've talked to them a lot. I think they're looking at a similar structure. So, and we've actually been talking to Division I Gulf. University of Texas is hosting in California, but they're hoping for, they've put a lot of money into this course in California. So they're hoping for a long -term agreement. So we're seeing more and more of,
these communities trying to get long term agreements. But we are the first.
Farrell Sports Business (05:28)
Well, you do it well. But, you know, really they're...
are three major entities, maybe more that I just don't know of, but really your organizing committee, the NCAA and then ESPN, the broadcaster. How do you navigate that? ESPN's role is probably pretty obvious, but how do the roles divide? How do you navigate that three -way partnership of you, NCAA and ESPN?
Amy Hornocker (05:49)
Yeah.
So actually the end, we actually have like little to do with ESPN. So the broadcast portion of their rights and everything is like the NCAA's contract. So we have the, we have a contract with the NCAA to host the event. And then our organization has a mirror contract with the city and Mecca who runs our stadium. But outside of that, the NCAA's broadcast agreements and like their
corporate partner agreements are separate from this overall contract. So we're here, I mean we're here, we know the ESPN folks, but have little to do with TV time or any of that. So.
Farrell Sports Business (06:43)
Got it. Well, how about you, Amy? What, what's your, we, we met in a different phase of our professional lives through connections with swimming, but what's, how did you get into this role? A little bit of perfect professional background for you.
Amy Hornocker (06:52)
Mm -hmm.
Yeah, so it's kind of like I tell this story, it's a long history. I was a, I grew up over in central Iowa. I was a baseball manager. We were in...
tournament. My high school team was in a tournament in Sioux City, which is an hour and a half north of Omaha, around the same time the CWS was. So we came down, went to a couple games, and that was like my first taste of the event. And then fast forward to my College career, I needed an internship, and it never really like left my mind. It's not far from home. So just reached out and was lucky enough to get that.
the internship here.
Just kind of kept in touch with people as I graduated came back over here to the Sports Commission And you know, that's when we cross paths had the opportunity to to do be a part of three Olympics swim trials in a bunch of variety of other sporting events here in Omaha and then in 17 came back to this staff so I have a long trip a long history with this event, but Been doing sports for a long time in this city. So
So pretty much call it home now.
Farrell Sports Business (08:19)
I didn't know the internship start to that. That's amazing.
Amy Hornocker (08:22)
Yeah, so like I can't like I can show you a little I think if I move my camera. I have a logo on my wall from 1998 which is that was the year I came here. So that ages me a little bit. Yeah.
Farrell Sports Business (08:36)
that's, that's so good. Cause we talk with students all the time about the importance of the internships and you never know where it's going to start. Mine was with USA swimming when I was a junior in College. So.
Amy Hornocker (08:38)
Yes.
I don't think I knew that either. That's great.
Farrell Sports Business (08:51)
So you touched on this a little bit. I want to come back to Omaha and just the absolute iconic connection of the College World Series to Omaha. What does this event bring to the city?
Amy Hornocker (09:09)
I mean, on top of the economic impact we did with tourism economics, we did our study last year and we were at about 115 million. So besides that impact, it's just the start of summer. I think we never felt it as much as the COVID year where...
This thing is large. It goes about two weeks. It impacts like every corner of the city. So when we got the call that we weren't doing this, it wasn't happening in 2020, the phone start ringing and you forget how many people play a role in making sure this thing happens. So from fireworks to the people that were sewing sew patches on to the uniforms, there's so much.
many people that in this city that play a role in this thing, small and large, but it was also like, it felt, people felt lost. Like they're like, this is how we kick off summer. Can you at least open the parking lots? Can we at least tailgate? So I think it's just, it's crazy the support. I mean, from the mayor's office on down.
Farrell Sports Business (10:21)
Wow.
Amy Hornocker (10:32)
on just the from public safety to public works to all the things that these people contribute every day. We also have these team hosts for each each team gets a team host these guys I'm not kidding. We have one group that's retiring this year been doing it since the 70s. So they have many many stories some of them have national championship rings so.
does so many moving parts, but Omaha does it better than a lot of people, I would say.
Farrell Sports Business (11:04)
How about the, the, the brand side? I think what, what people maybe just the light bulb goes on of how much of a financial hub it is from everything from Berkshire Hathaway to union Pacific to mutual of Omaha. But how do you look at it from a brand recognition as a place to live, a place to do business in Omaha?
Amy Hornocker (11:30)
Yeah, I think it's a huge piece and it's something that we continue to try and get out in the community we don't want.
to be taken for granted, we happen every year, because it's a huge piece of retaining and keeping talent here is to have these kind of cool events happening in your community. So yeah, I think Omaha people always are like, if you meet them in the airport or something, they're like, yeah, College World Series or Warren or the zoo. So those are like our three pillars. But yeah, we have a lot of Fortune 500.
companies, which is another reason they've helped stand us up.
And make sure that we continue to be successful and as we our contract goes through 2036. So that's not too far down the road. So and I think this contract is going to look a lot different. This is the second highest grossing revenue championship that the NCAA has behind March Madness by a long shot. But baseball is their second out of the 90 So they're constantly looking at ways to and rightfully so with all the
the things going on in College athletics of how to leverage revenue. So I think our contract will look a lot different. And so our companies in town and just community members to keep as we kind of navigate the next, hopefully, extension. So.
Farrell Sports Business (13:05)
that, I mean, just the economic impact and being number two, I think you might intuitively think football, but maybe that's just so fragmented around the, that baseball's being number two is surprising.
Amy Hornocker (13:14)
Yeah, so they have, yeah, so the CFP doesn't really feed in to the NCA. I mean, they follow NCA rules, but they have the FCS, which is normally dominated by the North Dakota states of the World. So, but yeah, that's, we're a big one.
Farrell Sports Business (13:36)
So how about your organization itself being year round and I will get into like what happened specifically at the event during those two weeks, but what's the size of your operation, your organization, mission, other things that you do in the community would be helpful to understand.
Amy Hornocker (13:57)
Yeah, yeah, so there's five of us that are here. We call it, say, Boots on the Ground year round. So we have...
what we call a season ticket holder base. So we have about 3000 season ticket accounts. So that's almost like 12 ,000 tickets. And when we say season, they basically get the all session. And some of these people have had these tickets since the beginning. And then when we moved to the new stadium, we reset them and it's a real fan. They pass them down. The only way you can transfer these is to
a relative. So we have a pretty strict transfer policy. So they've gone through a lot of, you know, generations of families. But we have a director of ticketing that manages, her job is to manage those accounts and she works with the NCA ticketing team on all things ticketing. We also have pretty much, it's like operations and events director who oversees a lot, like they're kind of the catch -all. So we have an
opening event that they organize volunteers and we have a pretty robust internship program that we can talk about because it sounds like you have some listeners that maybe are looking for those kinds of things. And then last year we added or two years ago we added
a creative person. So we had marketing. We worked through an agency for many, many years. But the need for like social media content and any creative stuff was there. So we made that higher. Because I will say we have three distinct lanes we stay in for this event. So the NCAA runs basically what we say anything in between the chalk. So like all the baseball event specific
things. They're less like fan information, fan focused, like they don't interact a lot with the fans where we, our channels are more to tell the story of Omaha, the fans, everything that's going on. And then Mecca has, who is our stadium manager, you know, does all the, you know, safety messaging, concessions, all those kinds of things. So we have definitely lanes. We all work together well when we need coordinated messaging.
But it's been great seeing these content teams come in. We get a couple of interns every year and they think I'm so dorky. It's not my wheelhouse. I'm operations based. Always have been. And so I watch them put these videos together. They put the national championship trophy in the penguin exhibit at the zoo last year. And I was like, so it's really cool to see what they create. Yeah.
Farrell Sports Business (16:54)
Well, I mean, you're okay. We just learned you're a product of this internship program. And can you talk about that a little bit? Because what does it entail? Is it just spring and summer, year round? What's the internship program about?
Amy Hornocker (17:02)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, and I should step back. We also have a NCAA internal team that works on baseball too. I want to give them shouts out too because they are, obviously, this is their event and we have counterparts in Indianapolis that work with us on this thing, but they also run, most of them have four other national championships that they touch. So good friends there, but yeah, the internship is awesome. I love it. We actually have three in the office right now. We'll add about,
about seven more the week before the event that just day for the event. So we need obviously the extra people when this thing comes along and then.
they also really changed the dynamic of our office. So it just gets a lot more fun. And then when everybody leaves, I'm sad. But we have a few different options for our internship. Our spring intern is, they're usually doing it for a College credit. So.
it's usually like a semester long. So she joined us in January, we'll stay throughout and they're essentially like the lead intern. So they will hire with one of our staff members, the other, like basically their team. And then we have a summer intern that really her, her sole focus is helping with volunteers and FanFest. And then we have a social media intern.
And then we also, the ones that come on board for the two weeks, they have a lot of jobs. So they assist in different ways between, you know, on field, in game presentations with the corporate partners to a hospitality room management and all that stuff. So they get a seat. What's really cool about the internship is, you know, a lot of times you specialize, right? Like you're going to either be in ticketing or marketing or you're going to be calling people.
to try and get them to buy tickets, those things where they get to see a lot of different pieces of this championship.
Farrell Sports Business (19:18)
what a valuable experience. So, okay. So this can be a little bit hard to generalize Amy, but we'll, we'll do it anyway. So two, two week event. How, what's a typical day for you and does it change when there's eight teams involved at the beginning and two at the end? But talk, what does your day look like?
Amy Hornocker (19:21)
Yeah, so.
Yeah.
Yeah, so we have, yeah, with the eight teams are here, it is a lot crazier. We have two games a day, so we'll have four on and four that aren't. So they need offsite practice space, which we also manage.
My role has changed a lot since I moved into this executive director role two years ago. So I'm still kind of trying to find out like where I belong on like being in the trenches on is a little less and less for me. And so, but every day is different. Just making sure everybody's doing what they need to do. Was so like, you know, who's here from, you know, a VIP standpoint. If we have weather.
how that works out, which we oftentimes do in this part of the country. So yes, every day's different. We usually have a normal schedule, but then anything can take that off the rails.
Farrell Sports Business (20:42)
Well, I mean, that's kind of maybe the follow -up to it is we've talked about the different entities involved from ESPN, DNCAA, to MEKA, the stadium, volunteers, your staff. Another general question, but it's a live event. Things don't go as planned. Weather or some other surprise, take maybe COVID year out of it.
Amy Hornocker (21:06)
Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm.
Farrell Sports Business (21:09)
How do you, from a process standpoint, if something doesn't go right, how do you manage that group of entities and stakeholders and what's the process you might go through when maybe something just doesn't go quite right?
Amy Hornocker (21:27)
Yeah, so what's great about being here year round, I think, is that we have the opportunity to come together for a lot of different scenarios, I would say. So especially from the event management and security standpoint, we have a pretty big footprint of law enforcement.
in public safety entities from local to federal levels. So we usually have like from that side, at least once a year, we're running some sort of tabletop or.
security sort of training. There's unfortunately, you know, always a new trend of what terrible people have in mind. So we all work really well that way. And then again, our partnerships with all of between the city and the stadium operators and the NCA and their partners because of the familiarity we have, we have a different scenarios of like who goes where when, you know, and what messaging is here for.
different things.
Farrell Sports Business (22:35)
Well, on the good side, Amy, then, then you have some, maybe hopefully some fun surprises where a Peyton Manning shows up or, now I'm just blanking on her name.
Amy Hornocker (22:43)
Yeah. Yeah. Or Olivia Dunn. Olivia Dunn. She was everywhere last year. So, yep, it's good. We do get a lot of people through here. It's so interesting. We have these very large youth tournaments, baseball tournaments that pop up for this so that they can go to the games at night. And so a lot of times we'll get, Peyton's been here because his kid was playing in that tournament. So a lot of times they're...
It's wild how many of them have kids that are playing and then they just end up in Omaha. So, and then obviously there's the ones that follow their fan, you know, if they played there or whatever. So like someone I know, is there like a Hogs fan here? Yeah, I'd love to see them. I'd love to see them get one though. Just talk about a classy operation, like one of my favorite teams that rolls through here. So.
Farrell Sports Business (23:28)
Pigs. It's so obnoxious.
Amy Hornocker (23:41)
I'm not just saying that for you, because I had no Arkansas affiliation, but I appreciate the teams that come in here and just are great to work with so.
Farrell Sports Business (23:51)
Well, what teams and what conferences are great and are a little more rowdy is probably a topic for another day.
Amy Hornocker (23:57)
Yes, yes we do. We do love we have some really traditionally great schools that come in here and our fan favorites so.
Farrell Sports Business (24:07)
I'll speak, you don't have to acknowledge this. I know the SEC crowd can be a little more rowdy and they like to have some fun. So.
Amy Hornocker (24:16)
They do, they do. I do sometimes feel bad for the teams that are their opponents that maybe travel less.
Farrell Sports Business (24:28)
So just a few questions really about you and these are meant to be just kind of quick, quick hitters understanding how you got into your job. So what was your school and major?
Amy Hornocker (24:41)
Yeah, so I went to Iowa State. I'm a cyclone. I don't have a baseball team, so I'll never see them here, unfortunately. But I went to College. I played sports in high school, but I was never really good at anything. But it was like that's where my friends were. Like that was what we did. I went to Iowa State kind of undecided. Had a really good advisor that was like, hey, we have this like tell me about yourself. We have this program. So I got involved. I have a sports management degree.
Well, I had the opportunity to work in the football office there and that's kind of how I started and then had to have that internship to graduate which started me off over here. So.
Farrell Sports Business (25:25)
and maybe a key mentor in your career.
Amy Hornocker (25:29)
Yeah, I mean, you and I both know her. So Arley McDonald was, I was like, my first job.
I was, you know, my real job was a sports commission. I started in 2007. We were hosting the 2008 Olympic trials building these pools in this building. I had never been to a swim, swim meet. And then, then Dean Echren always used to joke like, and then you got one that had like fireworks. So like you went from zero to like a thousand. So Arlene is, and I know she's probably really busy right now helping with the one at finally in her hometown. But she,
has a long swimming event, mostly swimming but event career and I've learned a lot from her about how you treat people.
you know, hard work and surrounding yourself with good people that can help you with like no ego. So sometimes I'm like, and I swear to God, cause she's, you know, she's so specific about her signage and like you can never have like a paper sign where she will like walk in there and see it from them. And so like, I think I drive my staff nuts cause it's a little bit like ingrained in here now. Like that looks terrible. You need to like,
Farrell Sports Business (26:47)
That's so good. That's so good. What a first class person.
Amy Hornocker (26:49)
So I appreciate her. Yeah, I appreciate her so much. I still haven't talked to her in a little while because I know she's busy, but she's been always been a cheerleader for me. And I have a lot. I have a lot. Like all of you guys pretty much raised me. So.
Farrell Sports Business (27:01)
Awesome. Well.
Anything just you get the last shot Amy anything I didn't ask that that you want to add add that I should be asking about you or the College World Series
Amy Hornocker (27:12)
Okay.
I mean.
I don't think so. I mean, if anybody were, like I said, celebrating 75 years, so if anybody has any great ideas of how we can do that, we're working through that, but anything's welcome. But I guess for people that are listening, I always tell anybody looking for internships, it's just like, just work hard and...
keep your contacts and never know if you're a hard worker you'll end up being okay somewhere so
Farrell Sports Business (27:50)
well, it's great advice. My shameless plug is I will actually be in Omaha for the College World Series. I'll be the front end in the back end wearing, wearing the hat of my business bat around, but I'm going to, with, with any luck, sneak a couple hog items in the, in the luggage. So Amy, you're awesome, especially at a crazy time of year. I appreciate you joining and great to reconnect.
Amy Hornocker (28:02)
Yeah.
Hopefully, yes, hopefully, hopefully.
Happy to be here. Yes.
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