Riverfront Stadium (Wichita)

Riverfront Stadium is a baseball park in downtown Wichita, Kansas, United States. It serves as the home ballpark of the Wichita Wind Surge of the Texas League. The team relocated from the New Orleans suburb of Metairie, Louisiana, after the 2019 season.[6]

Riverfront Stadium
Riverfront Stadium from behind home plate before a Wichita Wind Surge game in 2023
Riverfront Stadium is located in Kansas
Riverfront Stadium
Riverfront Stadium
Location within Kansas
Location275 S. McLean Blvd.,
Wichita, Kansas
United States
Coordinates37°40′53″N 97°20′45″W
OwnerCity of Wichita
OperatorWichita Wind Surge
Executive suites12[1]
Capacity
  • 10,025 seated
  • 12,000 (baseball)
  • 18,000 (concerts)[1]
Record attendance10,442 (September 16, 2023; Wichita Wind Surge vs. Midland RockHounds)
Field sizeLeft field: 340 ft (100 m)
Center field: 400 ft (120 m)
Right field: 325 ft (99 m)[2]
Construction
Broke groundFebruary 13, 2019[3]
OpenedApril 10, 2021[4]
Construction cost$75 million[5]
ArchitectDLR Group[5]
Schaefer Johnson Cox Frey Architecture
Structural engineerProfessional Engineering Consultants[5]
Services engineerProfessional Engineering Consultants[5]
General contractorJE Dunn/EBY[5]
Tenants
Wichita Wind Surge (PCL/DAC) 2020–present
NBC World Series 2019

Riverfront Stadium has a total seating capacity of 10,025 people with 6,000 in fixed seating in addition to luxury suites and a grass berm in right field.[5][6][7] When not used for baseball, the city plans to use the facility for sports festivals, high school football, concerts, and an ice rink in winter.[6] The new ballpark will share hosting of the National Baseball Congress World Series (NBC World Series) with Eck Stadium at Wichita State.[8]

History

Previous stadiums

Island Park baseball stadium was built in 1912 on what was then Ackerman Island in the Arkansas River, north of the Douglas Street bridge.[9] Baseball was played there from 1912 to 1933, when the stadium was torn down so the island could be removed to widen the river into one channel.[10]

Lawrence Stadium was built on the site of the current stadium in 1934 as a Works Progress Administration (WPA) project during the Great Depression. In 1978, it was renamed to Lawrence–Dumont Stadium. In November 2018, the stadium was demolished to make room for the new Riverfront Stadium. The National Baseball Congress World Series was played entirely at Lawrence–Dumont Stadium from 1935 until 2018.[11]

Current stadium
Wichita skyline across the Arkansas River, looking northeast from stadium (2023)

Riverfront Stadium was built on the site of the former Lawrence–Dumont Stadium.[6] Ground was broken for the ballpark in February 2019. A topping out ceremony, marking the placement of the last steel beam, was held on August 7, 2019.[12] The stadium name was announced on March 6, 2020.[7]

The ballpark was built to host the Wichita Wind Surge, a Triple-A team of the Pacific Coast League. However, a combination of the cancellation of the 2020 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic and Major League Baseball's realignment of the minor leagues for 2021, resulted in the team dropping down to the Double-A Texas League without having played a Triple-A game.[13]

On April 10, 2021, the Wichita State Shockers baseball team hosted the University of Houston in the first baseball game played at Riverfront Stadium.[4]

References
  1. Barber, Hayden (March 7, 2020). "Riverfront Stadium is 95% complete. Here are specifics of what to expect opening day". The Wichita Eagle. Archived from the original on March 9, 2020. Retrieved March 10, 2020.
  2. "2021 Minor League Baseball: What's New, What's Changed & More". Baseball America. April 27, 2001. Retrieved May 19, 2021.
  3. Spedden, Zach (February 13, 2019). "New Wichita Ballpark Breaks Ground". Ballpark Digest. August Publications. Retrieved February 15, 2019.
  4. Terhune, Ellen (April 10, 2021). "Thousands of fans turn out to watch Wichita State in Riverfront debut". KWCH. Retrieved April 11, 2021.
  5. Lefler, Dion (December 11, 2018). "City Hall Picks Team to Design, Build Wichita's New Minor League Baseball Park". The Wichita Eagle. Archived from the original on December 12, 2018. Retrieved January 28, 2019.
  6. Lefler, Dion (January 23, 2019). "First Look: What Wichita's New Ball Park Will Look like and What Will Be in It". The Wichita Eagle. Archived from the original on January 27, 2019. Retrieved January 28, 2019.
  7. Barber, Hayden (March 6, 2020). "Wichita Wind Surge's new downtown stadium has a name". The Wichita Eagle. Archived from the original on March 7, 2020.
  8. Spedden, Zach (July 29, 2019). "Future NBC World Series to be Split Between Ballparks". Ballpark Digest. August Publications. Retrieved September 3, 2019.
  9. 1917 photo of aerial view of downtown Wichita looking east, showing Island Park baseball stadium and Douglas Street bridge on right.
  10. "List of newspaper articles about early Wichita baseball" (PDF). Tihen Notes. Wichita State University Department of Special Collections.
  11. Barber, Hayden (August 12, 2018). "History made at final NBC World Series in Lawrence-Dumont Stadium". The Wichita Eagle. Archived from the original on August 13, 2018. Retrieved September 6, 2018.
  12. Spedden, Zach (August 8, 2019). "Topping Out Ceremony Held for Wichita Ballpark". Ballpark Digest. August Publications. Retrieved September 3, 2019.
  13. Eldridge, Taylor (December 1, 2020). "Wichita's baseball team will drop to Double-A, source says; no MLB announcement yet". The Wichita Eagle. Archived from the original on December 5, 2020. Retrieved December 1, 2020.
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