Before the Wind Surge takes the field at Riverfront Stadium, there’s already an error

Like an easy fly ball that drops between fielders, Wichitans flocking to the city’s new $90 million baseball stadium this weekend likely will groan over the signs directing them how to get there.

Signs along Kellogg still direct visitors to Lawrence-Dumont Stadium even though the new ballpark is called Riverfront Stadium.

“We dropped the ball collectively,” said Tom Hein, the Kansas Department of Transportation public affairs manager for the Wichita metro area.

“It’s an error,” he said. “It’s unfortunate, but we’re working on it.”

That’s about two and a half years later than Wind Surge CEO Jordan Kobritz hoped it would be.

“You’re working on a story near and dear to my heart,” he said.

Kobritz first brought up the issue of the signs in November 2018 after Lawrence-Dumont was demolished.

He was told — he won’t say by whom — that the team couldn’t make a direct request to get new signs.

“It had to be through the proper authorities, and we contacted the city, and we contacted the county, and we contacted KDOT, and as you know, the sign still says Lawrence-Dumont Stadium next right.”

Kobritz won’t say whose fault the error is.

“I would like to defer to the official scorer, let’s put it that way.”

Unlike when an official scorer attributes an error to one team or the other, no seems to be making a ruling here.

Hein said he’s taking one for the team.

“I do think we should have been on this,” he said. “We should have had that on a list.”

After much investigating, Hein said he discovered e-mails about the signs between KDOT and the city from 2019.

“It was just back and forth for months,” Hein said. “It really became more of a thing this spring. . . . The city kicked it into gear with us.”

Though it may not seem that complicated to put up a sign, Hein said, “There were a lot of pieces to the puzzle for KDOT to get this right.”

Hein said this is a bit of a replay of what happened in 2015.

“We went through the same thing when they renamed the airport,” he said.

“Often it does take someone being sharp enough to notice these things and alert us to them.”

Then it takes a while to make changes even once the new signs are ready.

“It’s quite a production of traffic control and lining up the crew to do it, so it’s not something you just run out and do,” Hein said.

He said KDOT is focused on so many big issues, sometimes the smaller ones take time to address.

Hein said he knows the reaction is going to be, “God, come on, government, you can do better than this.”

Still, he said, “Sometimes we need a little help.”

Kobritz simply wants the situation fixed, and he doesn’t care who does it — even if that person is a reporter.

“If you can help us on this one, I owe you a beer and hot dog at a minimum.”

Hein teased, “I’ll give you a beer and two hot dogs not to run the story.”

The signs won’t be up in time for Wichita State’s game at Riverfront Stadium on Saturday, but Hein said he hopes they can be for the Wind Surge’s inaugural game on May 11.

Whenever it is, Hein said, “We’ll get there.”

This story was originally published April 8, 2021 at 2:48 PM.