CommunityAmerica Ballpark

CommunityAmerica Ballpark is a minor league baseball stadium in Kansas City, Kansas, home of the Kansas City T-Bones of the independent Northern League, and beginning between 2008 and 2010, the temporary home of the Kansas City Wizards (Major League Soccer). It is located in the Village West area at 1800 Village West Parkway. Many local area High School teams play at the ballpark and it is also the home of the Kansas City Kansas Community College Blue Devils. It has also been used for concerts and some community events.

The ballpark is named after CommunityAmerica Credit Union, a Kansas City area financial institution, which bought the

The reported dimensions of CommunityAmerica are 300 feet down the left field line (with an 18-foot wall, affectionately known as “the Little Green Monster”), 370 feet to left center, 405 feet to dead center, 390 feet to right center, and 330 down the right field line. Walls are about five feet high, with the exception of the Little Green Monster and the bullpen area in left center.

The walls are about 10 feet high at the bullpens, which are in center field and add a few extra angles and contours to the outfield. The playing and seating areas are completely surrounded by a 25-foot wide concourse.

The park has 4,365 fixed seats, though its capacity (including grass berms, concourse, and center field party area) is usually listed at 5,768.

History

Ground was broken on September 4, 2002, and was completed in just over nine months by Titan Construction, opening June 6, 2003. Baseball had a record paid attendance of 10,345 on June 23, 2007. Major League Soccer attendance, with the new seating configuration, regularly exceeds 8,000, and its record paid attendance was 10,385 on March 29, 2008. The 2006 Northern League All-Star game was held at CommunityAmerica Ballpark on July 18th, with related festivities the day before.

The Kansas City Wizards are playing home games at the stadium while the team’s new stadium is being designed. On March 29, 2008, the Wizards played their first game at the ballpark and defeated D.C. United 2-0 in front of a sell-out crowd.

It was announced on January 28, 2008 that the left field berm would be replaced by bleachers. Additional bleachers were added on the concourse near the left field wall adding approximately 2,172 to the ballpark’s fixed seating capacity, making it 6,537 fixed seats. Another reason for the bleachers was that the T-Bones averaged nearly 2,000 fans over the fixed seating capacity over the last two seasons.

On June 3, 2007 the ballpark was the site of a world record-setting performance of the Deep Purple hit “Smoke on the Water” by 1683 guitarists, in a publicity stunt for KYYS radio.

(source .. wikipedia) reproduced under GFDL

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