Texas League: New park, not renovated, would make Wichita viable

That notion about maybe putting $25 million into a Lawrence-Dumont Stadium renovation and attracting a Double-A baseball team to play here?

According to Texas League president Tom Kayser, who has been on the job since 1992 and has plenty of history with Double-A baseball in Wichita, a renovation won’t be enough.

“How many chances do you give a city?” Kayser asked. “(Wichita) has struggled at Triple-A, it’s struggled at Double-A. It’s prospered both collegiately and with the NBC (World Series), but people seem to lose interest with the professional club.”

How’s that for a wet blanket?

Just as there is some movement in the Texas League that seems like it could point to Wichita getting another Double-A franchise — the Pilots and Wranglers played at Lawrence-Dumont from 1987 to 2007 — the league’s president douses the flame.

The owner of the San Antonio Missions, a Texas League franchise, wants to move his Triple-A Colorado Springs franchise to San Antonio in 2019, through there’s no agreement yet with the city on building a bigger, downtown ballpark.

A move would leave an opening in the Texas League, one Kayser’s successor and league owners would likely fill.

When Kayser recently read that a renovation of 82-year-old Lawrence-Dumont could be considered as a way to attract a team, he saw only red flags. A renovation, he said, would not be enough.

“I don’t believe there would be anybody interested in that,” he said. “You have to look at the competition.”

The Texas League is full of newer, fan-friendly ballparks, most built in the past 10 to 15 years.

“Tulsa was $36 million and they got a bargain because they agreed to have it built and contracted right at the crash of commodities in 2007,” Kayser said. “That ballpark probably couldn’t be built for $40 million today.”

The Texas League’s eight franchises all rank in the top two-thirds of Double-A attendance and three clubs — Frisco, Tulsa and Corpus Christi — rank first, sixth and seventh. They average 7,005, 5,331 and 5,164 fans.

Wichita has never approached that, which remains somewhat of a mystery to Kayser, who believes the city’s metropolitan population of nearly 650,000 should be able to support minor-league baseball. L-D has been home to the independent Wingnuts since 2008.

“The positive is that Wichita does have an awful lot of people in the area,” he said. “The negative is that even with (McConnell Air Force Base), Boeing and a fairly vibrant economy, it was a struggle for Double-A to draw 200,000 people. And that just doesn’t get it now. Most of our clubs in most years are over 300,000. And some of our markets are half the size of Wichita.”

Kayser thinks Wichita’s only chance to attract another minor-league team is to raze Lawrence-Dumont and start over with a state-of-the-art stadium that fans will be drawn to.

“My advice to Wichita, if it’s serious about this, is to get serious,” Kayser said. “Stop talking about fixing up Lawrence-Dumont. I understand it’s an historic ballpark, but it’s not an original. It’s been tinkered with and fooled around with over the years. They’ve got to look at how they can finance and build a ballpark that is consistent with what is being built around all of Double-A and not just in the Texas League.”

Kayser said the San Antonio situation is in a state of flux and that a decision on what to do about a new ballpark could still be months away. He stresses there is, at this point, no opening for a franchise in the Texas League.

If there was, though, he’s not sure how seriously Wichita would be considered. Especially if city leaders are devout to only renovate Lawrence-Dumont and not built a new stadium.

“Just look at the park in Tulsa,” he said. “That would be a tremendous example for Wichita. They’ve got outfield seating and an outfield picnic pavillion. There are two group areas in the concourses and a conference center upstairs. There’s a party deck behind home plate with a restaurant and bar. And everything for the players is underneath ground and enclosed. It’s a very spacious ballpark.”

Kayser said he and others have looked at other cities that could be Texas League options if San Antonio becomes a Triple-A franchise. Those include the Texas cities of Amarillo, Lubbock and Waco; the Rio Grande Valley in Texas, and Shreveport, La.

“I’m a realist and a truth teller,” Kayser said. “The metro population of Wichita would put it right up there in our league and that, again, is awfully attractive. But that’s really the only thing that has kept Wichita in the back of my mind.”

Unless Wichita proposes a new ballpark with all of the 21st-century amenities — a ballpark that can be on par with some of the others around the Texas League — Kayser doubts the city’s viability as a minor-league baseball city.

“There just hasn’t been a political willingness over the years to do anything to significantly improve the ballpark situation,” Kayser said. “And I don’t see that changing.

“I would never say any city is dead in the water because you never know what’s going to happen.”

But unless something on a large scale happens in Wichita, the president of the Texas League doesn’t see minor-league baseball coming back.

This story was originally published August 30, 2016 at 9:49 AM with the headline "Texas League: New park, not renovated, would make Wichita viable."