Wichita baseball museum approved for Riverfront Stadium; NBC could have debt forgiven
The National Baseball Congress is seeking old, historically-significant baseball gear and memorabilia to be put on display at the new Riverfront Stadium near downtown Wichita.
“A lot of people might have a signed jersey or an old bat lying around or sitting in their man cave collecting dust,” said Kevin Jenks, NBC’s general manager and tournament director. “They could definitely loan those out to us for the museum.”
The museum doesn’t have an opening date at this time. It was approved as part of an $83 million stadium project used to attract a Triple-A Minor League baseball team to Wichita and replace Lawrence-Dumont Stadium at McLean and Maple.
The Triple-A team — the Wichita Wind Surge — was supposed to hold its first season in 2020, but the coronavirus pandemic forced the team to cancel its season. It was recently downgraded to Double-A.
On Tuesday, the Wichita City Council approved a $600,000 design-build project for a sports museum at the stadium and plans to forgive at least $75,000 in debt owed by the NBC Foundation. In exchange, the NBC will track down memorabilia to put on exhibit at the museum.
The city loaned NBC Foundation $150,000 in 2013 as start-up funding to hire staff and set up offices. Jenks said the organization has been making payments, but is “grateful that the city is willing to let us work this off and we’ll be glad to have that off our books.”
“We’re really excited,” Jenks said. “We’ve been waiting for this for a while, and we look forward putting on display Wichita’s baseball history, from Satchel Paige to Hap Dumont.”
Jenks said the exhibit could include memorabilia related to the NBC Tournament or anything with ties to Wichita’s baseball history, from the Jobbers of the early 1900s to the Wingnuts, an Independent League team that played at Lawrence Dumont until it was torn down in 2018.
To donate memorabilia, call the NBC office at 316-265-6236.
This story was originally published January 12, 2021 at 3:38 PM.