It’s official: The Wichita Wranglers plan to move to Springdale, Ark., the team president confirmed Thursday. If that happens, the departure will be a loss to this community.
Still, the team is replaceable. The city is already looking at attracting a team from an independent league. The most encouraging news is that the Wranglers’ owners, who also own the National Baseball Congress, hope to keep the NBC tournament in Wichita. The 16-day tournament, which is going on now and runs through Aug. 12, has been running for 72 years and is a big economic boost for Wichita, as it draws teams and spectators from around the country.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Registered?
Commenting on WE Blog now requires you to be a Kansas.com member. Use the links above to register, if you haven't already, or to log in.Contact us
Follow us
Daily Archives
-
Recent Comments
- donndublin on Open thread 11/24
- donndublin on Open thread 11/24
- donndublin on Open thread 11/24
- DavidB on Open thread 11/24
- parkay on Open thread 11/24
- donndublin on Open thread 11/24
- parkay on Open thread 11/24
- Pleefer on Open thread 11/24
- Pleefer on Open thread 11/24
- cosmos_originally on Open thread 11/24
25 Comments
This evening, Friday, August 4th, the famous Wichita tradition, known as “BASEBALL AROUND THE CLOCK” begins with continuous baseball throughout the days and nights until Sunday evening, August 6th.
By Sunday evening, some of the 65 or so teams participating in the annual National Baseball Congress (NBC) will have lost twice and be on their way home.
Many of these baseball players are also college baseball players and students so are on their way back to their respective colleges across America.
So tonight or tomorrow night, head for Lawrence-Dumont Stadium and watch good old American baseball all night long until the morning sun begins to rise over the Arkansas River and the downtown skyline of Wichita. You will be in good company with the 100 or so “round the clockers” who will be there the full time trying to win free tickets to the remainder of the tournament.
Its an unforgetable Wichita event.
I remember a long time ago after the remodel in the 90’s, the park offered camping space over where the playground is now so that you could literally spend 48 hours inside the confines of the park. That was fun, my dad, my friends and I did that for a couple of years.
Its things like that, that make the baseball games fun…
Next thing you know we’re going to “need” a new baseball stadium.
The NBC is a part of the fabric of my summer.I could care less about the Wranglers.So today’s announcement is good news.
On another thread KsFG raised the idea (facetiously I think) of turning LD into an Arena. I followed that up with a serious proposal to do just that – site the Arena where LD is. The City already owns the land.
Then, collaborate with WSU to upgrade the stadium there. NBC is in summer when WSU is out. Might that be a better alternative than what we are doing now?
Ben, the WSU baseball schedule crosses with the WWs in April, May & June.
Eck Stadium at WSU would not need an upgrade to handle a minor league bb team.
Actually, a domed baseball stadium with air-conditioning might help attendance for minor league bb.
NJC – I’m assuming the Wranglers are gone – just focusing on NBC.
Domed and a/c? On who’s dime?
It is amazing that if you drive by Lawrence-Dumont Stadium right now at 4 PM on Friday afternoon, other than quite a few cars parked in the parking lot and some RV and buses from various states — you wouldn’t know that the SEMI-PRO BASEBALL WORLD SERIES is taking place there.
There should be flags or banners along the surrounding streets, Maple, Sycamore and McLain Boulevard. Also on Douglas in Delano area. And some loud baseball music in the area. Unfortunately, there is very little support by Wichita City Government.
Also during the early evening when the Wranglers normally play beginning at from 6 PM to 7 PM — I estimate 50% of the stadium seats are in direct sunlight, especially in the hard ball cafe area and, of course, directly in the fielders eyes. I have suggested for several years that the Wrangler’s games begin later, say about 8 PM, to reduce the sunlight and heat problem.
Another alternative would be to build a sunshield on the west side of Lawrence-Dumont Stadium but don’t know if this would work. The best answer as suggested above would be to cover L-D stadium with a dome and air-condition the interior.
The best answer would be to recognize that people have voted with their wallets and understand that baseball is no longer viewed as a viable entertainment option by many people. Baseball is a sport that is experiencing a decline in popularity nationwide and no amount of stadium upgrades, marketing promotions, AC, etc is going to make Wichitans waste their time and money watching the most boring sport on the face of the planet. If baseball was as important to Wichita as fans claim, there would be no problems attracting huge crowds willing to pay double or triple the current ticket price for a chance to experience what has been billed as great family entertainment. The truth is that even with a large amount of tickets available cheap or even free, people do not feel that baseball is worth the effort. Capitalism ruthlessly weeds out businesses that do not have enough customer support to be viable and the Wranglers have merely felt the invisible hand telling them to get out of town.
No dome for baseball! I’m all about building a stadium with a retractable roof, just to have winter events, year round useful.
No way should football be played in a dome. Indy Colts decided to build a retract roof. Seattle did as well couple of years ago. Houston.
How the Astos close their roof to play baseball is idioticy. Sports are supposed to played in the elements.
LD should remain a roofless, but much improved baseball stadium.
Goodbye Wranglers, the business failed Wichita, city council let it happen and we shouldn’t shed a tear because of the decesion. I don’t blame fans not going to games the key reasons Wranglers are moving.
Lure of a new stadium is strong with teams. Fans appreciate them too, but hate the cost of improving things. All public money shouldn’t be in teams and stadiums. Investors have to be financial providers and key fans always coming to games.
Mrage! Are you blaming this on the City Council?
I don’t think they should recieve any blame whatsoever. It’s not the governments job to retain or attract sports teams or to market them to their citizens.
One thing to be learned from our present Wichita baseball situation is that the proposed downtown ice hockey arena will be a giant failure, by far the largest of all the various city and county boondogles.
Anybody can build anything in Wichita if they have enough money, particularly unlimited basket fulls of Sedgwick County’s sales tax money.
Once the downtown arena is built south of Douglas, east of the railroad tracks, like a new penney, it will most likely start with some activities but then reality will set in. Income will have to cover heating and air conditioning of a huge glass building not designed for conservation. Many employees will be needed to just preserve the place. What about security?
In the current security awareness, most likely attendees will be required to pass through metal detectors? Even now, Wichita police often search purses of females attending Wrangler’s games, an irritant to many.
I used to attend everything that moved in the 70’s and 80’s. Now I am much more selective and won’t attend anything where I have to sit in an audience for any length of time. At baseball games, I usually move around and watch the game from the hard ball cafe and/or the viewing area behind the outfield.
I’m certainly not going to sit in arena seats to watch anything not matter how appealing.
I think times are changing. People are super busy with many options in their lives and won’t give much more than an hour for any particular activity.
Also a big change from even five years ago, I now keep in touch with a lot of people from various times in my life via the internet particularly “hometown type” people. So I don’t need “entertainment” spoon-fed to me by county commissioners.
As we all know in reality, the purpose of the proposed downtown ice hockey arena is to build something in an attempt to ramp up Old Town and the east part of Downtown Wichita.
A quarter-billion dollar gamble with taxpayers’ money is a tremendous risk to take. Multiplying by the normal factor of eight gives a gigantic TWO BILLION DOLLAR ECONOMIC HIT ON THE WICHITA ECONOMY. That’s two billion dollars in canceled expenditures by the taxpayers with their OWN HARD ERNED MONEY for such things as dinners out in Wichita restaurants, school supplies for school children, textbooks at $100 each (plus $7/sales taxes per book), groceries, cable TV (I know, you say the public doesn’t need cable TV), housing costs, etc. Is a white elephant ice hockey arena really more important to Sedgwick County families than the above things? I doubt if many would think so.
One thing about summer baseball games at Lawrence-Dumont Stadium is it gives families a place to go to be outside with their families in the evening in a safe, secure place under the watchful eye of the Wichita police department. For many, the actual baseball game is only part of the reason for going there. Lawrence-Dumont wasoriginally built in 1936 by the WPA for the people of Wichita … not at the expense of the people of Wichita.THE REAL ANSWER FOR RENEWING DOWNTOWN WICHITA which I and many other long-time Wichita observors want to see is — renew the downtown area with a plan developed by everybody concerned. Use the best ideas from cities across America but tailor it to the unique factors that make WICHITA a unique city. Then somewhere in the downtown area preserve a “footprint,” preferably near the Arkansas River, for an arena that a private sports developer might choose to build on in a way that is competitive in the sports world.
Joe,
Yeah, the city council has fault for letting LD get old. That’s their responsiblity because its a Wichita asset. The Wranglers lease is just that. The landlords have always been the city council. The property is in disrepair.
The city council shouldn’t own sports teams. I’m glad their not trying to buy the Wranglers, it shouldn’t be in the contract at all.
It looks nice to me. Didn’t they do serious renovations just in the past 10 years?
JWink,
Let the arena get built and some events be considered. The downtown arena may hold more concerts than hockey games. Some want arena football team, I think that sport sucks.
We don’t know events but I think more people will go downtown to see something than they did traveling out to where the Coliseum is. I’m talking about people I know, that rarely went to the Coliseum, the whole time it was being used.
I’m like you not staying in my seat and wandering around.
We need a downtown arena for events. A rebuilt LD and a distinctly engineered stadium for County “dirt’ events. WSU football, and any other kind of NCAA regional consideration for sports. Plus we could have concerts with the roof open.
We could use a speed skating track combined with the hockey rink and that gives ice loving folks a better place to see events or skate. It would have to be in another location than where the Ice Rink is right now.
Why don’t we have a bicycle race around the curvy streets downtown and on the straight. No mountains to climb, just a fast flat bicycle race for men and women. Roller bladers could do the same thing.
We’re not using Wichita correctly to have events.
Joe,
LD has a very poor infield. Bad turf. Dugouts are low, ancient places for the players. Every seat should be a chairback. Better concession. It needs improvement.
We have new stadiums taking our business in Missouri and the one going to be built in Arkansas. I think most of the Texas league teams have new stadiums or building one. Arkansas is going to have two minor league teams. Wranglers and the Travelers.
Mrage, I think your ideas are great! The city should build a facility for everyone! Why should the good people of Wichita have to pay for their own entertainment facilities? Let the other guy pay!
I agree with you Marge that this city isn’t utilizing its resources as it could but i also think it has to do with mentality.
I have noticed just in observance (and maybe u can attest to this) but it seems that people are becoming busier and spending less time doing “recreational things”. Things like going to Wranglers games, or biking, or going out, etc…
If the people rnt there to organize these events or to even participate than whats the point in even having them?
I would say, if the demand is there than lets do it, if not than lets not…
Bars/restaurants could organize bus transport to events. Then we have dinner before the event and a couple of drinks and relax after. Tony is right; most of us are just too busy with jobs, kids, grandkids, etc, to do the organizing. HOWEVER – we do have disposable income to spend.
Some of us have disposable income… ;-) Some dont.
We need disposable income just to pay for gas.
Are people, including me, busier with our own life goals, I think so. But Wichita lacks the engine of group therapy thinking that happens in other cities.
When 20,000 to 30,000 see or do something at the same time. Every weekend. We have 1000 to 5000 doing a group thing and those numbers fluctuate. Our facilities are the problem. The east side has a mall where folks gather by a fountain and WaterWalk will build a similar gathering place eventually.
Not everyone always wants to meet in a bar or at a sporting event. They just want a place to go, walk around, talk to some folks. Old town is too bar heavy, strangers have been drinking, half of them.
Parks really aren’t the place either. Some want to group picnic or play some park game. Do we trust hanging around some parks, probably not.
We don’t gather by the river and walk down there.
Wichita is trying to make the river corridor worth a stroll, its good. But we aren’t there yet, the place to walk every weekend just to see what’s going on.
We’re in malls and only among folks we know most of the time. No big events to pull a large group of citizens together.
Wichita groups are spending too much time in restaurants, but rarely does anyone meet each other decently. Its a hello, how its going, that’s about it. No, what brings you folks out tonight. We all know the restaurant maybe highlight of the night and then its back home.
Our group participation is broken. Bad LD, not that comfortable enough for fans to gather there.
Not everyone loves the Shockers and their arena only sits 10,000 filled. We need 20,000 to 30,000 and more around Wichita doing something on the weekends.
Could the Thunder fill downtown arena, sure if tickets weren’t anything. Free admittance. Everyone has to pay season fee to get concession or use the bathrooms. I don’t know. The arena just wants people to gather inside often. Best seats would go to paying people, close to the ice.
But why not be able to wonder in, look around, leave and its cost nothing. Same thing at whatever baseball is coming to LD in the future. Wander into the stadium if seating is availabe but there isn’t a chance to use the bathrooms or get concessions unless its paid for.
We have to be trained in group participation because we’re not doing it enough.
That’s why I mentioned, walk, run, bike, rollerblade downtown on some blocked off streets. People could go watch for free, others competiting in some kind of event.
Buy a pass that gets a family into places and see things, they pay pay a monthly fee. A city pass. A county pass. It shouldn’t be always paying at the gate.
When its easier to go somewhere and not have to open the wallet, things might get better. There should be no entrance costs to museums. Everyone should get a card, pay the monthly fee, walk in. Donate to museum more often.
Unless its a specified event to see something, there is a cost to programs coming to Wichita. Okay, people are willing to pay seeing specific things.
I hope WaterWalk helps people walk downtown. The arena as well. We fix LD and some kind of baseball. Create the process to bring back college football and have more concerts come to the city.
Just get people downtown to walk around has to be our thing.
A lot of neighborhoods have less and less people walking on those sidewalks and meeting the neighbors. Why build sidewalks if nobody is ever on them
Wichita isn’t group participating and things have to be fixed so that mindset is created. Its happening in other cities, more evident here because we have old facilities or river corridor projects not yet built.
A serious question for you, Mrage: Are you on hallucinogenic drugs?
Mrage,
I couldn’t have said it better myself…
Another problem i see with this city is that it has nothing to rally around. The city cant seem to pick one thing to do well, it half ass’s everything or screws up the good things…
The city is going to allow privatization of Century II and that will screw up the last couple of good preforming arts with it.
Lefty,
No, I’m just AOLish. Give it all away to gain paying customers. Access inside stadiums and arena’s same as people do when they enter a restaurant.
Buy at the table after looking around. Family decides to stay, they pay for the seats. If not, kids are too wild and not interested, they can leave. Adults may not want to stay after entering.
A different business model to keep people want to find out whats going on, than paying and being disappointed in what’s happening.
I really don’t know. We have failing stadiums and Coliseum. We need to fix reasons why people walk in the door to those places.
Wichita acts weird in our non group participation. I don’t know completely why. Failing facilities is one problem.
Most cities have boulevards where people walk and no cars are allowed in the area. Wichita doesn’t. Can’t shut down Douglas for walkers but maybe Lewis street near WaterWalk will be a more walking experience than cars in that tightly proposed zone.
I ask questions outloud, not the answers, except to talk stadium we need to bring back WSU football. Thats the truth. Regional stadium attracting events to the state. Its necessary.
This evening, Saturday, August 12th, 2006, about 10 PM, the National Baseball Congress (NBC) finished another annual semi-pro world series here in Wichita. As usual, the last two weeks were like a military campaign with almost constant baseball being played among some 70 teams — I’m not sure how many teams actually participated.
In any case, the final winner with no losses during the series was the Santa Barbara (CA) Foresters. This evening, the Foresters beat the Derby Twins, the runner up, with a score of 8 to 7. Because of the local connection, the Derby Twins team was the crowd favorite.
I, for one, hope this great NBC tradition continues here in Wichita’s Lawrence-Dumont Stadium for many years to come.