Kauffman Stadium

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Ewing M. Kauffman Stadium (formerly Royals Stadium) is a Major League Baseball stadium located in Kansas City, Missouri, and home to the Kansas City Royals of the American League. It is a part of the Truman Sports Complex (together with Arrowhead Stadium, home of the Kansas City Chiefs of the National Football League and the Kansas City Wizards of Major League Soccer).

It is notable in that it had unique architecture in an era where building "cookie-cutter" stadiums was commonplace. Many consider Kauffman Stadium the finest ballpark built during the middle of the 20th century, and some say the stadium rivals many modern facilities as well. Although the stadium is only 34 years old, it is the ninth-oldest stadium in major league baseball, as a result of the construction of a number of new stadiums in the 1990s, most of which replaced said "cookie-cutter" facilities. (See List of Major League Baseball stadiums.) At this time, the stadium is currently undergoing a $250 million dollar renovation.

History

In 1968, Ewing Kauffman purchased the Kansas City Royals expansion team. After playing four seasons in Kansas City Municipal Stadium, on April 10, 1973 the Royals inaugurated Royals Stadium with a win over the Texas Rangers. The stadium had originally been intended to house the Athletics before they moved to Oakland.

On May 15, 1973, the stadium, barely a month into its existence, saw Nolan Ryan, pitching for the California Angels, throw the first of his seven no-hitters, blanking the Royals 3–0.

On July 24, 1973, Royals Stadium hosted its first and only Major League Baseball All-Star Game.

On October 9, 1976, the Royals competed in their first post-season game in franchise history, losing 4–1 to the New York Yankees at Royals Stadium in the American League Championship Series. The Royals came back to win the next game on October 10, 6–3, for their first post-season win in Royals Stadium.

On October 17, 1980, the first World Series game held in Kansas City featured the hometown Royals against the Philadelphia Phillies. In his first at-bat, George Brett hit a home run down the right field line. The Royals would go on to record their first-ever World Series win, 4–3 in 10 innings. However, the Royals would lose the World Series that year in six games.

On October 11, 1985, in Game 3 of the American League Championship Series, George Brett had a game for the ages. He hit two home runs off Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Doyle Alexander, made a back-handed stop at third base to throw out a runner at home, and recorded the final out to give the Royals a much-needed 6–5 win. The Royals went on to win the American League pennant in seven games.

On October 27 of that same year, the Royals clinched their first World Series title in franchise history, winning Game 7 in Royals Stadium. Led by the pitching of Bret Saberhagen, Darryl Motley's two-run home run, and George Brett's four hits, the Royals beat the St. Louis Cardinals 11–0. The Royals were the first team in the history of the World Series to lose the first two games of the series at home and come back to win.

On July 2, 1993, Royals Stadium was renamed Kauffman Stadium in honor of Ewing Kauffman, who died the following month at the age of 76.

Features

Kauffman Stadium was the sole baseball-only facility built in the majors between 1962 and 1991. Although it is a baseball-only facility, the architectural techniques used were similar to the cookie-cutter facilities of the day. It is basically the first third of a cookie-cutter stadium--that is, the seats behind the plate and along the baselines, with smaller bleacher sections (or "outfield plazas," as the Royals call them) in the outfield. The upper deck is quite steep, though not as high as other parks built during this time.

The sight lines are generally very good; the only seriously obstructed views are in the outfield plazas, where some seats are right in front of the foul poles. Many of the seats in the two view levels are almost as high as comparable seats in cookie-cutter stadiums, especially in the back rows. Most of the seats are on the first level, putting most of the fans very close to the action.

The original seats at Royals Stadium were actually red, orange and yellow. By 2000, all of the seats were replaced by blue seats, the lower section seating also getting cupholders.

The park's best-known feature is the fountain and waterfall display behind the right-field fence. At 322 feet, it is the largest publicly-funded fountain in the world. The fountains are on display before and after the game and in-between innings, while the waterfalls are constantly flowing.

When the stadium was originally built, Kansas City was the westernmost major league city other than those along the Pacific Coast (1,600 miles away), which was a major reason why the Royals initially decided to use a faster-draining AstroTurf surface. Kauffman didn't want fans who drove many hundreds of miles from across the Great Plains and Rocky Mountains to go home without seeing the game completed. The Truman Sports Complex's legendary groundskeeper, George Toma, best known as the head groundskeeper for every Super Bowl, thus had the ironic job of maintaining two carpets for most of his career, along with the surface of Arrowhead Stadium, which had AstroTurf from 1972 through 1993.

The arrival of the Colorado Rockies, however, removed a significant portion of the Royals' once-vast home territory, and the turf was replaced by grass for the 1995 season. When the Royals ripped out the turf, they kept the old drainage system, and as a result their current grass field drains very well. Many newer facilities (and some older facilities through retrofitting) have similar drainage systems to minimize downtime after rain delays.

Planned improvements

On April 4, 2006, Jackson County voters approved a 3.8% sales tax increase to fund plans to renovate the Truman Sports Complex. The construction began with a ceremonial groundbreaking inside Kauffman Stadium on October 3rd, 2007, with completion of Kauffman Stadium in time for Opening Day in 2009, and full renovation of the complex (including nearby Arrowhead Stadium) by the year 2010, depending upon cost overruns. The team committed to a lease that will keep them in Kansas City until 2030, an extension of their current lease expiration of 2015. Projected improvements to Kauffman Stadium include:

Reducing capacity to 39,000
New high definition scoreboard (shown on right) and control room
Fountain view terraces
Outfield concourse
Kids' area
Taste of KC
Right field restaurant
Left field hall of fame and conference center
New group sales areas
Wide concourses
New and upgraded concession and toilet amenities on all concourses
Enhanced vertical circulation to all levels
Four new entry ticket gates
New press facilities

Also, since this measure passed, MLB has stated that Kauffman Stadium will host the MLB All-Star Game sometime between 2011 and 2014. As part of this measure, every Jackson County residential address will receive vouchers good for 50% off two tickets at Royals games on certain nights.

A second proposal on the April 2006 ballot would have installed a rolling roof at the Truman Sports Complex. The roof could have been moved to cover either Kauffman Stadium or Arrowhead Stadium when needed. The measure failed at the polls.

Buck O'Neil Legacy Seat

Beginning with the 2007 season, the Royals had a red seat placed in the stadium amongst the all-blue seats behind home plate to honor Buck O'Neil. There will be a person selected every game from community nominees to sit in that seat, formerly occupied by O'Neil in Section 101, Row C, Seat 1, who embodies the spirit of Buck O'Neil.

References

External links

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Last updated on Wednesday March 12, 2008 at 13:58:51 PDT (GMT -0700)
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