We’re ready to play ball — and see if Wichita’s ballpark lives up to its promises
It’s almost time — finally — to play ball in Wichita.
When the Wind Surge takes the field May 11 against the Amarillo Sod Poodles, it will mark the long-awaited launch of Wichita’s Riverfront Stadium.
And soon after the first pitch, we’ll discover whether there’s any truth in the years worth of other pitches — that Wichita can support another Minor League team, that the $75 million stadium will pay for itself, that the ballpark project will spark other development, that selling prime riverfront land for $1 an acre will make sense in the end.
Former Mayor Jeff Longwell called the new ballpark “a transformational piece of our community (that will benefit) generations to come.”
This summer, when the bats start swinging and the beers start flowing, we should begin to see whether that’s really the case.
This first season won’t be baseball as usual, of course.
Riverfront Stadium will open with limited-capacity seating and follow COVID-19 safety protocols. A condensed season will feature a new type of schedule, with a six-game series every Tuesday through Sunday.
Since last spring, the team lost its owner and general manager, Lou Schwechheimer, who died of COVID-19. The pandemic forced Minor League Baseball to cancel its 2020 season — including the Wind Surge’s inaugural season. And a league reshuffling meant Wichita was knocked down a peg to Double-A and cast as the new affiliate for the Minnesota Twins.
But fans are excited about the return of baseball. Wind Surge coach Ramon Borrego is readying his team. The ballpark is hiring part-timers and auditioning mascots.
You can almost smell the Freddy’s burgers.
We may even be warming to the Wind Surge name — a moniker that drew unfavorable reviews when it was announced more than a year ago. Petitions to change it have fizzled out, and perhaps Wichitans are ready to just forget the name and start cheering for the team.
Plenty of questions remain about the new ballpark and its potential impact on Wichita’s economy and quality of life. There’s also still confusion about parking, and we don’t know whether fans will be willing to use public transportation or hoof it to the games.
But Opening Day is about optimism. Now that Wichita has games on the schedule, we’re ready to play — and hope for the best.