OMAHA, Neb. — On your way walking to the College World Series, you may have noticed a couple new stores and thought to yourself, "were those always there?"
In short, the answer is no.
"We use this store as a clearance store annually, once a year, and it just brings people from everywhere," John Smith, owner of Sports Mania said.
Temporary pop-up stores are popping up all over the city for the College World Series.
"My friends from the Slowdown, Saddle Creek Records, they own most of this block and so we've leased from them for eight years now," Pat Lawlor, owner of Lawlor's Custom Sportswear.
These owners say it's great business.
"It gets very busy before games," Lawlor said. "You have people coming and going."
But specifically only for this time of year.
"Year round for a retailer this is a fairly hard place, there's not a lot of traffic down here after the College World Series is over," Lawlor said.
For just a couple months out of the year these pop-ups know they're competitive with other clothing stores inside the stadium.
"We're giving shirts away for five dollars or seven dollars," Smith said. "We can beat them on price because we're not giving the NCAA a 35% royalty right to have the rights to the stadium."
"Things are always going to be more expensive in the stadium and everybody expects that I mean you're paying $10 for a beer, you're not going to pay $10 for a beer anywhere else," Lawlor said.
When it's not the College World Series, these locations serve other purposes.
"There's been different shops in here at different times," Lawlor said. "There's been an art studio and a gift shop. Some years it's vacant."
"It's an event party facility now they run weddings out of here, bar mitzvahs out of here," Smith said. "Somebody got married the other day I thought they we're going to have a funeral in here too. They flip it over and Abraham Catering is now the tenant and we subcontract."
For now these businesses are as busy as ever, trying to make it to the finish line.
"The day after the series, by five o'clock we'll be out of here," Lawlor said. "We're ready to be done by then, we love the series but it's always a relief when it's over."
