The NEW Kauffman Stadium - post your reviews

[im2kull]

Please clarify, I have not been following this at all, but after looking at a picture of the renovation in some journal today, are there no longer any fountains in the park?

There are, they just have them turned down to like...bubble...mode, so they are quite hard to make out on standard def. TV or in small pictures, or in general...they look very different than what we're used to seeing..but they're still there.

[chrizow]

can someone explain to me why we needed to expand seating capacity in a park like the K? 

[mean]

I'm pretty sure there are fewer seats now.

[chrizow]

oh, ok.  then why did we kill the large, awesome fountains?

[kcmetro]

What bugs me is that only 31k showed up the day after the opener on a beautiful Saturday evening.  The second game of the season in the new stadium and it was against the Yankees.  That should have sold out.

Economy or not, I’m getting really disappointed in the Royals fan base.  I guess there is just nothing left to it?  There seems to be a core of 20-30k fans in metro KC that go to more than five games a year.  We have got to draw 25-35k on Fridays and Saturdays for a good entertaining team like this.  Anything less is embarrassing.  It’s time for Royals fans to step up and actually go to the games rather than watch them on TV or wait for somebody to hand them free tickets.

Typically a team has to win some games before sell-out crowds will throw dollars their way.  Unfortunately, the Royals haven't been very good at consistently winning games since the early 90's.  So I don't blame the fan base.

[im2kull]

oh, ok.  then why did we kill the large, awesome fountains?

We built around them, they're still there.  They're just not on "full blast" due to the crowds being placed around them now.  Hopefully they'll turn them on, like normal, but who knows...people tend to complain, and I wouldn't be surprised if someone with a seat next to the fountains tried to sue the Royals for getting wet and having their phone or something electronic ruined.

[GRID]

Typically a team has to win some games before sell-out crowds will throw dollars their way.  Unfortunately, the Royals haven't been very good at consistently winning games since the early 90's.  So I don't blame the fan base.

Well, what’s the deal with opening against the Yankee’s?  Why does KC get thrown under that bus every year now?

A summer series against NY used to draw close to 100k or more, even in the horrible Royals years.  Instead we get them when we sellout anyway (opening day) and early in the year with potentially nasty weather etc.

Save the Yankee’s only home series for a nice weekend after school lets out and we will average 35k per game.

Glass has to have “some” pull.

[LenexatoKCMO]

Sorry, enough of that topic.  It’s like that all year long, but I’m done with it for another year or so.  Stepping down.

Yeah right and pigs will start flying any day now.

[WSPanic]

oh, ok.  then why did we kill the large, awesome fountains?

What?

The fountains are still there.

And yes, capacity is less than it was before.

Well, what’s the deal with opening against the Yankee’s?  Why does KC get thrown under that bus every year now?

A summer series against NY used to draw close to 100k or more, even in the horrible Royals years.  Instead we get them when we sellout anyway (opening day) and early in the year with potentially nasty weather etc.

Save the Yankee’s only home series for a nice weekend after school lets out and we will average 35k per game.

Glass has to have “some” pull.

If we're relying on one series to fix our attendance problems, we're screwed anyway. Winning will bring fans - it's that simple.

[shaffe]

 Also, what happened to the Boulevard -

They had Boulevard on tap at - from what I could tell - every single concession stand.  My dad and I were looking at all of them in search for his preferred Coors Light on tap.

[LenexatoKCMO]

They had Boulevard on tap at - from what I could tell - every single concession stand.  My dad and I were looking at all of them in search for his preferred Coors Light on tap.

I only saw the wheat - no pale or anything else.  They used to have the Boulevard sausage stands that carried at least a few varieties in addition to the now missing Sheboygen Brat - RIP. 

[pstokely]

That's BS.  As usual, there were 50 people with KU crap for every 1-2 with MU/Kstate.  It's retarded looking.

KU fans wear their gear everywhere, like Cardinals fans wear their gear everywhere (including Mizzou games).

[WSPanic]

KU fans wear their gear everywhere, like Cardinals fans wear their gear everywhere (including Mizzou games).

Don't do it man - it's a trap.

[LenexatoKCMO]

I was rather surprised on Saturday to see some really odd groups of folks wearing non-Royals MLB apparrel - in addition to the usual suspect team (BoSox, Cards, Twinks), I saw a couple groups of folks all decked out in Cubs attire and one large group of ChiSox fans. 

On another apparrel note - why are the ticket taker/usher folks now dressed like they belong at the oakland colliseum or Lambeau?

[WSPanic]

On another apparrel note - why are the ticket taker/usher folks now dressed like they belong at the oakland colliseum or Lambeau?

Easier to spot?

[KCPowercat]

I really really enjoyed the renovations.  My best parts

- On top of the entire outfield area, I really liked being able to walk behind the batters eye in front of the scoreboard.
- My seats in front of the fountains are freaking awesome
- Expanded food offerings

I chuckled at all the people complaining about the bathrooms...which I used almost exclusively in the outfield so I can't speak to how they were changed in the old areas upper/lower deck but I didn't really have a problem with them....I think the perfect storm happened this weekend, huge crowds, lots of dudes drinking more than normal, and everybody checking out the outfield area led to much higher bathroom usage than they would normally plan for.  I'm not a fan of wasting funds to plan for the 5% of peak bathroom usage.

It's kinda like the sprint center...lots of bathrooms not far apart...I saw one line 20 guys deep on Saturday, walked 20 feet down, 2 guys in line.  the one entrance/exit didn't bug me, keeps people from "cutting" in any line as so often happens at Arrowhead.

My biggest complaint was I wasn't completely happy with how the outside looked...I think somebody else stated it but it seemed incomplete....it's not horrible and for renovations that's probably the best that could be done...also I thought the outside lighting wasn't as bright as I expected....on the "Royals" metal pieces.

Overall I give it an "A" based on knowing it's renovations....probably a B/B- comparing to other stadiums I've been to that are newer.


Chriz...the fountains weren't changed one bit that I know of.

[KCPowercat]

Easier to spot?

Yeah that's what I took from their color scheme too.

[KCPowercat]

from what i've seen on TV, it looks like a waste of a hundred million dollars.  in 5-10 years the K will be obsolete (again) and we'll still have our MLB team playing in raytown.

go out there, I think you'll be pleased.  Go stand in RF, check out the new bar offerings, and food options...plus remember the completely upgraded the infrastructure.  Not sure why it will be obsolete....any stadium w/o constant upgrades becomes obsolete in 10+ years....no matter the location.

[GRID]

My neighbor is a longtime ticket taker.  He was telling me how many people were making fun of him for working for the A’s.  He didn’t say why the changed the colors, but I would assume it’s so they wouldn’t blend in so much.

He also said that the lines are bad in some places for the bathrooms while there were no lines in other places.  I guess a lot of people didn’t know about all the restrooms?  I noticed that too though.  You could walk past the lines and find restrooms with shorter lines.

I really like how easy it is to get from the upper deck to the lower deck and outfield now.  Before, you had to go down the spirals.  The escalators were only used four filling the stadium.  So if you were in the ends of the upper deck and needed to go to the lower level, you had to walk back toward the rear of the stadium and walk down the long ramps which took forever.  Same deal coming back since they turn off the escalators after a certain time.

Now there is stairs on the ends of the upper deck and escalators between the stairs and the spirals.  You can go down to the lower level and be back without missing 2 innings.

I think they are still working on a lot of the exterior lighting etc.  I was out there today exchanging some tickets and they were installing exterior lighting.

As far as the fountains not being used as much.  They didn’t turn them up too high because of the cold weather I would imagine.  As it gets warmer, I would look for those to be running more.  Remember the fountains (jets) are not turned on while the game is going on, only between innings.

[cpt4599]

I had a great time.  Went both Friday and Saturday.  I didn't really have a problem with bathrooms either day.  There are a lot of them.  I just think people saw a line and got in it instead of just walking a little bit farther down and walking right in.  I really like that they have the same food options on pretty much all levels.  Used to you could only get certain things on certain levels.  Typically they don't have the fountains on full blast when the wind is blowing in and its this cold.  I really like the flooring in the concourses.  It looks so much nicer on than the concrete and it's not near as slick when it's wet.  I thought the food was much better than in the past.  The monster chicken nachos are really good.  I'm sure they aren't up to the standards of the high class people of this forum, but what do I know?  I thought the grounds around the outside of the stadium were much improved.  The stones out front give a very nice touch.  I liked the new gates as well.  No more chain link fence surrounding the park.  The team store is really big and very nice.  Overall i was really impressed.  It seems like we have all the same amenities of most of the newer ballparks and yes I've been to a lot of newer parks.  You can just tell they were attatched to a 40 year old park.