Riverfront Stadium (Wichita)

• Name: Riverfront Stadium
• GPS-able Address: 275 S McLean Blvd., Wichita, KS 67213
• Ballpark Owner: City of Wichita
• Architect(s): Heery & Heery FABRaP
• Groundbreaking: 2/13/2019
• Minor League Baseball Team: Wichita Wind Surge (AA) 2021-present
• Class/League of MiLB tenant(s): AA/Texas League 2022-present; AA/Double-A Central 2021; AAA/Pacific Coast League 2020
• First Pro Baseball Game: 5/11/2021; stadium debut of Class AA Wind Surge
• Others Playing or Operating Here: Wichita Baseball Museum
• Previous Ballpark Names: None
• LF: 340 CF: 400 RF: 325
• Seats: 6,500
• Stated Capacity: 10,000
• House Baseball/Softball Record Attendance (as currently configured): 8,506, 4/12/2023

Riverfront Stadium in Wichita, KS, is the home of the Wichita Wind Surge, the Minnesota Twins' Double-A Texas League farm team. Although its predecessor hosted the National Baseball Congress World Series from 1935 through 2020, Riverfront has hosted NBCWS games only in 2021 - and only some of that year's event.

Iconic Lawrence-Dumont Stadium was built in 1934 specifically to host the NBCWS, which debuted in 1935. L-D soon landed minor league ball as well, but as it became first outdated and then antiquated it lost affiliated baseball several times - last when the Wichita Wranglers left after the 2007 season. Over the next decade, local opinion evolved from "too iconic to replace" to "the reason we can't keep a pro team." Finally, on February 13, 2019, Wichita broke ground on the same piece of land, although not in exactly the same footprint, on Riverfront. That followed the city getting a commitment from the Pacific Coast League's New Orleans Baby Cakes to occupy it, with the team announcing its new nickname that November 13th.

Thus, Wichita built a ballpark for a Triple-A team but ended up with Double-A after MLB's 2021 Minor League Reorganization knocked the Cakes/Surge franchise down a class - but that would prove not to be the only upended plan.

The original announcement said the new ballpark would house a museum to the NBCWS. In March 2019, The Wichita Eagle reported that ballpark plans did not include one. However, in January 2021 the city said a museum would be built near the Surge front offices - which are, unusually, positioned beyond right field. Solicitations for appropriate memorabilia followed, and the Wichita Baseball Museum opened July 15, 2022.

Although that situation panned out as originally planned, another has not and shows signs it may not. With a February 2019 groundbreaking, there was no L-D or Riverfront to host the NBCWS so Wichita State University pinch-hosted at Eck Stadium. Riverfront opened in time for the 2020 campaign, but the Coronavirus pandemic kept it from hosting Surge or NBCWS baseball. The latter, which is in August, was split between Eck and Hobart-Detter Field in nearby Hutchinson, KS, after Surge and NBCWS officials both said COVID crowd limits made it logistically impossible to play in Riverfront that year. In 2021, with the Surge season delayed rather than abandoned, the NBCWS was split between Riverfront and H-D. However, 2022 again saw Riverfront uninvolved - with both sides saying that was temporary. Then, coincidentally, both the Surge and the NBCWS changed leadership. On January 6, 2023, new Surge President Jay Miller told a Wichita Business Journal podcaster "I know I'm going to heal (the division with) the NBC Tournament. We're going to do everything we can to get them back here."[1] Just four days later, NBCWS Tournament Director Katie Woods announced that the entire 2023 and 2024 tourneys will be played at Eck.[2]