Wind Surge 2023 home opener: The baseball experience we were promised five years ago | Opinion
“This is the opening night we’ve always wanted.”
Wichita City Council member Bryan Frye said it, and I couldn’t have said it better myself.
Tuesday’s home opener for the Wichita Wind Surge was what the council, and the community, have been hoping for since investing $75 million five years ago to replace the aging Lawrence-Dumont Stadium with the new Riverfront Stadium.
The crowd set a Riverfront record, 8,506 in attendance. But while baseball is a game of numbers, Tuesday night went beyond that.
Don’t take my word for it. Cari Bockover’s been a fan from the beginning and here’s what she had to say: “I’ve been to every opening night so far, and this is the most entertaining. I’m really enjoying this a whole lot more.”
Annie Sevart, 24, has lived in Wichita her whole life, and Tuesday was the first time she’d gone to a baseball game. “It was cool, a lot of people having fun,” she said.
Laura Lombard was there with her 3-year-old son, Johnny, who got to throw some pitches in the kids’ play area behind the center field wall and enjoy some “good, cheap food,” including a $1 hot dog for the road as they left in the sixth inning. “If it wasn’t for a 3-year-old’s bedtime, we’d stay here all night,” Lombard said.
As I’ve written before, the true charm of baseball is that at its best, it appeals to people from all walks of life. Lombard and Sevart are living proof.
Lombard is president and CEO of Kansas Global Trade Services and a former congressional candidate. Sevart is a resident of Emerge Sober Living, a drug addiction treatment center.
Seeing them enjoying the same municipal amenity restores one’s faith in the egalitarian power of baseball.
Tuesday’s matchup on the field was a bit of a rivalry game. The opponent, the Northwest Arkansas Naturals, were the Wichita Wranglers until 2007, when they up and left for Springdale.
The game was tight. It was deadlocked at 1-1 until the bottom of the eighth inning, when the Naturals’ pitching and fielding faltered. The home team scored the go-ahead run on a wild pitch and an insurance run on a walk with the bases loaded. Wichita held in the top of the ninth to preserve a 3-1 victory, their first win in a home opener in three tries.
It’s been a long road back to baseball being relevant here.
The Wichita Wingnuts, a team unaffiliated with the Major Leagues, occupied Lawrence-Dumont from 2008 until it was demolished after the 2018 season. The ‘Nuts played some decent baseball, winning eight division championships and a league title, but never really caught on. They had a loyal, but not particularly large fanbase.
The city bought out the Wingnuts’ contract and made a deal to bring the New Orleans Baby Cakes to Wichita. They were renamed and were supposed to begin play in 2020 in the new stadium.
But then came the COVID-19 pandemic. The inaugural season was canceled. Lou Schwechheimer, the team’s owner and a well-liked baseball visionary, caught COVID and died without ever seeing a game at Riverfront.
Shortly after, Major League Baseball realigned the minor leagues. Wichita was demoted from Triple-A to Double-A, and its affiliation was switched from the Miami Marlins to the Minnesota Twins.
With Schwechheimer gone, bean counters took over. Prices were set at $15 for all seats, but mandatory add-on fees jumped that to over $20.
Fans revolted when they found out about a hidden 8% surcharge on everything at the park, to raise money for the private development of four acres of prime riverfront land that the city had given the team as part of the package to bring them here.
Despite success on the field, the team ranked at the bottom of the Texas League for attendance.
Change started in December, when the team was sold to Diamond Baseball Holdings, a nationwide group that owns nine other Minor League franchises.
They hired back Jay Miller, three-time Minor League executive of the year and Schwechheimer’s original handpicked choice for team president.
Now, ticket and concession prices have been lowered to the point where just about anyone can go enjoy a game.
Midweek promos have been enhanced, including two-for-one tickets with a Dillon’s card and the aforementioned dollar hot dogs on Tuesdays, and $2 beers on Thursdays.
As Frye put it, the new owners and front office “know what they’re doing and they’ve got the resources to make it happen.”
I think he’s right. Tuesday night we got the baseball we were promised five years ago — and it felt really good.
