The crown on the scoreboard, which has long been a signature of the stadium, is down, but a new crown, which is under design, will go on top in 2009. Rice said parts of the old crown will be placed in the Royals Hall of Fame.

Courtesy of kcroyals.com

Though the crown is down, this is not the only thing that will be different when you go out to the park in the upcoming months. Concessions will be shut, favorite attractions are currently gone, and you may even need to figure out a new way to enter for parking.

For example: do you usually enter the K through gate 1? Well, unless you're coming by taxi or ambulance/police car this season, you probably won't get the chance to enter this way. Gate 1 is closed except for the previously mentioned cars. Instead, you will be ushered into Gate 2. If you're smart, you'll wrap around to Gate 3 or Gate 4 and deal with a much much shorter wait line.

Another thing which may be confusing is the new tunnels, or as the site and my dad like to call them, vomitories. They are quite wide and leave lots and lots of room to stand and chat, which is nice. The only problem is that some of previously existing tunnels have been removed as a result. Instead of being able to go down around section 108/110 for example, you'll have to walk over to 104 or 116 to get down to the dugout concourse. This has also caused some changes in seating up in the dugout plaza. Some sections of seats have been completely eliminated and if you're lucky enough to have seats in section 116, you're down lower than you probably think (I figured this one out on my own for all y'all).

If you go to the K a lot and you go into auto pilot while there, the new tunnels and the new lack of tunnels will most likely throw you off. And if you have a meeting spot at one of these old tunnels, for example, you should probably change it to one of the new vomitories or somewhere else in the park before hand ;)

2008 In-Season Projects

Work in Dugout Concourse will begin -- one side shut down for first half of season, the other side for the second half

New Plaza Level Concessions and Restroom construction begins

Exterior work continues to widen concourses on all levels

Outfield Plaza work continues - From foul pole to foul pole, the entire area behind the outfield wall will be shut down for the beginning phases of the 360 degree connection.

Courtesy of kcroyals.com

I have it on good authority from the vendors that this dugout concourse construction will not begin until after the current home stand. I believe that the first base side will be shut first; but don't worry if you're all the way out in the outfield and need food. I've also been told that they will leave the very last concession stand down there open to help with the traffic flow in that area. Ditto goes for the third base side during the second half of the season.

 I have no word about the 2nd or 3rd levels (and you'll never get a 2nd level status out of me), but I will update you guys on Friday or Saturday night after I get back up there and actually take some time to explore and see what sort of trouble I can get into.