New Wichita stadium finally gets the team it deserves

The right management makes all the difference. Affordable tickets and concessions are evidence the new owners want the Wichita Wind Surge to be a hometown team.

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Columnists

April 13, 2023 - 2:53 PM

Wichita’s iconic Keeper of the Plains is at the point where the Big and Little Arkansas Rivers join. The site is considered sacred by Native Americans. The sculpture was installed in 1974 to commemorate the country’s bicentennial. In early May, local interfaith organizations sponsored a symposium to address public health problems.

“This is the opening night we’ve always wanted.” 

Wichita City Council member Bryan Frye said it, and I couldn’t have said it better myself. 

Tuesday’s home opener for the Wichita Wind Surge was what the council, and the community, have been hoping for since investing $75 million five years ago to replace the aging Lawrence-Dumont Stadium with the new Riverfront Stadium.

The crowd set a Riverfront record, 8,506 in attendance. But while baseball is a game of numbers, Tuesday night went beyond that. 

Don’t take my word for it. Cari Bockover’s been a fan from the beginning and here’s what she had to say: “I’ve been to every opening night so far, and this is the most entertaining. I’m really enjoying this a whole lot more.” 

Annie Sevart, 24, has lived in Wichita her whole life, and Tuesday was the first time she’d gone to a baseball game. “It was cool, a lot of people having fun,” she said. 

Laura Lombard was there with her 3-year-old son, Johnny, who got to throw some pitches in the kids’ play area behind the center field wall and enjoy some “good, cheap food,” including a $1 hot dog for the road as they left in the sixth inning. “If it wasn’t for a 3-year-old’s bedtime, we’d stay here all night,” Lombard said. 

As I’ve written before, the true charm of baseball is that at its best, it appeals to people from all walks of life. 

Lombard and Sevart are living proof. Lombard is president and CEO of Kansas Global Trade Services and a former congressional candidate. Sevart is a resident of Emerge Sober Living, a drug addiction treatment center. 

Seeing them enjoying the same municipal amenity restores one’s faith in the egalitarian power of baseball. 

Tuesday’s matchup on the field was a bit of a rivalry game. The opponent, the Northwest Arkansas Naturals, were the Wichita Wranglers until 2007, when they up and left for Springdale. 

The game was tight. It was deadlocked at 1-1 until the bottom of the eighth inning, when the Naturals’ pitching and fielding faltered. The home team scored the go-ahead run on a wild pitch and an insurance run on a walk with the bases loaded. Wichita held in the top of the ninth to preserve a 3-1 victory, their first win in a home opener in three tries.

IT’S BEEN a long road back to baseball being relevant here. 

The Wichita Wingnuts, a team unaffiliated with the Major Leagues, occupied Lawrence-Dumont from 2008 until it was demolished after the 2018 season. The ‘Nuts played some decent baseball, winning eight division championships and a league title, but never really caught on. They had a loyal, but not particularly large fanbase. 

The city bought out the Wingnuts’ contract and made a deal to bring the New Orleans Baby Cakes to Wichita. They were renamed and were supposed to begin play in 2020 in the new stadium. 

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