Wichita’s baseball park has new name & city has new agreement with Wind Surge. What it means
Wichita’s downtown ballpark has a new name — and the city manager says the deal should help protect taxpayers from having to pay for the stadium.
Riverfront Stadium, home of the Wichita Wind Surge minor league baseball franchise, will now be called Equity Bank Park, the team announced Tuesday after the Wichita City Council approved a new naming rights agreement.
It’s the result of Diamond Baseball Holdings, the Wind Surge’s ownership group, entering into a long-term naming-rights partnership with the Wichita-based bank. The Wind Surge entered into a separate agreement with the city on Tuesday committing a share of its naming rights revenue to the city. Both agreements are expected to run through 2039.
Equity Bank and the Wind Surge have not disclosed how much the bank is paying for naming rights to the $75 million city-owned stadium. The city of Wichita will receive $117,500 a year from the Double-A baseball team starting this year, with 3% increases each year for 15 years.
That’s less than half of the $250,000 a year that the city could have received under its original agreement with the team — but none of that money was guaranteed.
City Manager Robert Layton said the new terms approved Tuesday by the Wichita City Council give the city more certainty about revenue from the stadium. The council also voted to eliminate a $200,000-a-year travel contingency fund for the team.
Layton also would not say how much Equity is paying to put its name on the stadium, but he said the team had been aggressively trying to sell naming rights since the stadium was completed in 2020. The asking price dropped after the Wind Surge was downgraded from Triple-A to Double-A before the team had played a single game in the stadium, he said.
“My understanding from the negotiations is it’s substantially lower than was anticipated originally when we signed this agreement,” Layton said. “But I wasn’t at the table in the negotiation, so I can’t speak to any of that. I was at the table negotiating our number.”
The naming rights payments are in addition to $350,000 a year that the team pays the city to operate the facility.
Layton said the city will begin putting some money from both revenue streams into a reserve fund for ongoing maintenance, future upgrades at the stadium or any potential shortfalls in debt service payments for the ballpark.
Equity Bank Park was financed with a complicated smorgasbord of public incentives that included creating a new sales tax at the stadium and diverting sales tax and property tax increases in the area to help pay off the bonds issued for the stadium. If any of those revenue streams failed to materialize, the city would have to use property tax money to make debt payments on the stadium.
“We want the stadium to stand alone,” Layton said. “We do not want to be required to put property tax dollars into maintenance at the stadium.”
Wind Surge and Equity Bank representatives celebrated the new partnership.
“This is a historic day for baseball in Wichita and the Wind Surge,” Wind Surge general manager Matt Hamilton said in a statement. “This is a momentous step in the continued evolution of what is now known as Equity Bank Park. We are beyond excited to continue growing in our work as a community gathering place for all fans and their experience surrounding the game.”
Equity Bank was already a major sponsor for the Wind Surge. Tuesday’s news will see the bank expand its role in sponsorship and marketing efforts in order to elevate the fan experience inside the stadium.
“This move underscores Equity Bank’s commitment to Wichita,” Equity Bank chairman and CEO Brad Elliott said in a statement. “Wichita is our home, and we are proud to bring these two local institutions together for years to come for the enjoyment of our shared community.”
After beginning construction in 2019, the state-of-the-art venue officially opened in 2021 along the banks of the Arkansas River. The $75 million stadium was built on the site where Lawrence-Dumont Stadium stood from 1934 to 2018 and can sit more than 10,000 fans.
In addition to hosting Wind Surge home games, Equity Bank Park has been a year-round facility for all kinds of events in Wichita. The downtown ballpark has hosted everything from concerts to football and soccer games, as well as weddings and receptions, graduations and corporate trade shows.
In a news release, the Wind Surge touted new promotions and fan giveaways in store for the 2025 season. The team’s home opener at Equity Bank Park is slated for April 8 against the Midland RockHounds.
“We are thrilled to join forces with a partner like Equity Bank, whose long-standing local presence and dedication to the Wichita community underscores our joint vision for Equity Bank Park as a beacon of affordable, family-friendly entertainment for years to come,” Diamond Baseball Holdings official Andrew Judelson in a statement. “DBH is proud to reinforce its continued commitment to Wichita with a partner who believes in the vibrant future of the Wind Surge as much as we do.”
This story was originally published January 21, 2025 at 3:51 PM.
.jpg)