ROYALS STADIUM

Kauffman Stadium opened, way ahead of its time. With the Kansas City Royals playing at a deteriorating Municipal Stadium, it was time a new stadium was built. In 1967, Jackson County voters approved a $43 million bond issue for a sports complex. Unlike many other cities, that were building multipurpose stadiums at the time, the county decided to build two new stadiums. One for the Royals, and one for the Chiefs (NFL). However, Royals owner Charles Finley, could not wait for a new stadium to be built, and moved his team to Oakland. But in 1969, Major League Baseball awarded Kansas City and Ewing Kauffman an expansion franchise. Originally known as Royals Stadium, the ballpark debuted on April 10, 1973 and hosted the All-Star Game the same year The stadium was very colorful, with 40,793 seats, all facing second base and arranged in three tiers with maroon, gold, and orange seats. The stadium was the American League's first ballpark with Astroturf as the playing surface. The most unique feature of the stadium was the water fountains beyond the outfield fence. The fountains, stretch 322 feet horizontally, and have a 10 foot high waterfall that descends from an upper cascade pool that serves as a background for two water fountain pools. It is the largest privately funded waterworks in the world, that features lighted cascades between innings. Beyond the fence in left field is a 30-by-40 foot Sony JumboTron video display board that was the largest in the United States when installed in 1990. Of the stadium’s 40,625 seats, over half (20,316) are on the lower level of the three-tiered park. In 1995 the Royals replaced their Astroturf field with natural grass. This gave Kauffman Stadium a very intimate feel. During 1999 and 2000 the team replaced all of the old red seats with dark blue seats. They also added dugout suites, ran exclusive restaurant, the Crown Club, Royal Pavilion and clubhouses throughout the stadium. Although it is nearly three decades old, Kauffman Stadium remains one of MLB's top ballparks. The largest single-game attendance record at Royals Stadium is established as 41,860 fans watch Kansas City face New York on 26th of July, 1980. The cost for building Kauffman Stadium and the Architect responsible were $43 million and HNTB respectively. The Kauffman stadium has the best visibility for hitters in the majors and few homers are hit here because alleys are deep and the fence cuts away sharply from the 330-foot foul poles. Retired uniform numbers of Dick Howser (10), George Brett (5) and Frank White (20) are displayed on the base of the scoreboard. Nolan Ryan pitched the first no-hitter of his career there on May 15, 1973. Since then, two other no-hitters have been thrown in Kauffman Stadium, both by Royals pitchers. Jim Colborn against the Texas Rangers on May 14, 1977, and Bret Saberhagen beat the Chicago White Sox on August 26, 1991. Dan Quisenberry, Dennis Leonard, Freddie Patek, Cookie Rojas and Amos Otis have all left their mark on Kauffman Stadium, but it will forever be linked to George Brett, one of the greatest hitters in baseball history.