For one night each October, the gates at Werner Park swing open for something that has nothing to do with a baseball game and everything to do with a pillowcase full of candy. Baseballoween, the Omaha Storm Chasers' free community Halloween night, returns to the Papillion ballpark on Friday, October 23, 2026, running from 5 to 8 p.m. According to the team, this marks the 15th straight year the event has been staged.
The premise is simple and, judging by the crowds, durable. Admission is free. Kids trick-or-treat around the concourse. Activity stations are set up for families. And at some point in the evening, a family-friendly movie goes up on the stadium's videoboard, the same enormous screen that usually shows replays and between-innings entertainment. Leashed dogs are welcome, which means the ballpark's walkways fill with costumed children and costumed canines at the same time.
There are a couple of house rules worth knowing before you load up the car. Costumes may not include guns or knives of any kind upon entry, a restriction the team lists plainly on its event page. And while admission is free, the Storm Chasers are using the night to collect donations for Food Bank for the Heartland at the gates. Donations are encouraged but not mandatory; the most desired items include peanut butter, macaroni and cheese, cereal, canned tuna and chicken, pancake mix, canned fruits and vegetables, rice, pork and beans, pasta and sauce, and boxed meals.
The event's longevity is unusual for a minor-league promotion. By the team's own count, 2026 is the 15th consecutive edition. A Storm Chasers news item announced that Baseballoween would take place on Thursday, October 29 from 5 to 8 p.m., describing it as a free community night presented by Mannheim Steamroller in association with Q98-Five and 1620 The Zone. That version already had the shape of the modern event, with trick-or-treating around the park, a haunted house in the press box, a Mad Scientist Show on the third-base party deck, glow-in-the-dark mini golf, inflatables, a Facebook photobooth costume contest, and returning favorites like piñatas and arts and crafts. It also marked the Baseballoween debut of the Canine Costume Contest, with interested dog owners required to register in advance.
By 2019, the event had grown into a genuine draw: the Storm Chasers' community report notes that more than 3,100 people attended the October 25, 2019 edition, which included games, trick-or-treating, a haunted house and clowns. In 2022, the 11th annual Baseballoween closed with something the early organizers could hardly have imagined. Fantasy Drone Shows, a Norfolk-based entertainment company, put up what local television reported as the largest choreographed drone show in the state, using 160 drones to light the sky above the outfield. WOWT described the drones as "the final treat" for families who had spent the evening trick-or-treating on the field, playing games on the concourse and watching a scary family movie on the big screen in the outfield. Don Wisnieski, a co-owner of the company, told the station that with modern software "you can make these things do anything with the lights in the sky," adding that the 900-lumen, full-spectrum lights made the possibilities "limitless." His co-owner Ted Kallhoff noted the company was one of only five in the United States using those drones, all made in the USA.
The setting itself is part of the story. Werner Park opened in April 2011 and is owned by Sarpy County, a detail that mattered enormously at the time. In 2010, the final out was recorded at Rosenblatt Stadium in South Omaha, the longtime home of Triple-A baseball in the metro, and some fans questioned whether Sarpy County could carry on the tradition. Opening night in 2011 answered that. Martie Cordaro, the Storm Chasers' general manager, told 3 News Now that the move was about "being able to show what we were going to be able to continue to do in the community. Not just Sarpy County, but the entire Metro." He added that the club "moved closer to where families are and we are in a spot that is easy to get in and out of." In the years since, the ballpark has drawn 2.2 million fans and hosted four division titles, three league championships and two national titles, while the surrounding land filled in with schools, parks and housing. Cordaro recalled when the stadium stood alone; now it sits in the middle of a neighborhood.
That family-first geography is exactly what Baseballoween trades on. The Storm Chasers are the Triple-A affiliate of the Kansas City Royals, and Werner Park has become a proving ground for players on their way up, but on this night the field is given over to kids in costumes. The event is free, there is no capacity limit, and the gates are open to anyone in the Omaha metro willing to show up in a costume, bring a leashed dog, or carry a box of cereal for the food bank.
Baseballoween runs Friday, October 23, 2026, from 5 to 8 p.m. at Werner Park, 12356 Ballpark Way in Papillion. Admission is free, leashed dogs are welcome, and costumes with guns or knives of any kind will not be permitted at entry. Food Bank for the Heartland donations are encouraged at the gates.