This one is screwed. What used to be the most beautiful ballpark in the majors has been turned into a gimmicky amusement park. Some of the upgrades were probably needed but the whoring of the outfield is inexcusable. All that comes to mind is Caddy Shack 2, cheap thrills designed to appeal to casual numb nuts in order to get them to the ball park. Does it enhance the fan experience? Sure, in the same way that a cheap-o toy in your cereal enhances your breakfast experience. The beauty of the K has been lost. The fountains, while they still remain, look ridiculously out of place. Centerfield looks as though someone ripped apart a green dumpster in order to put up fence. Where did the grass go? Was it taking up valuable space that could be used for a walkway for yahoo’s that can’t still during the game.

The K used to remind me of the ball field in Iowa that was used in the movie Field of Dreams. Now, it is just a run of the mill stadium where only a biased hometown fan could find beauty. On a scale of 1 to 10 the new K drops from 10 to 5, spectacular to normal. Go to Hell KC.

I agree with the poster that said “mostly I like it” The positives are the wider concourses improved bathrooms and especially the upper deck concourses. The upper deck used to feel like you were hanging on some sort of an outdoor balcony and offered no shelter during a rain delay. The outfield seats are a big plus, along with the various bars and activities out there. The meh is that they reduced capacity, but the Royals don’t sell out anyway so that is a problem that does not exist ( yet ). The negative is the dead space behind the club seat area on the first level, and seemingly fewer choices for food, I thought there were supposed to be more. If there are only going to be 8 or 10 main concession stands in the upper deck at least expand the menu at each one of them.

i will first agree with weatherstone that this really needed to be done downtown and it will be a long time before i can let that go.
BUT, the stadium was definitely better. i did not eat any food, but i never had to wait in a very long line at all. the mens restroom lines were actually long, but i was the jerk that went in through the out door with no wait at all.
the wider concourses were very necessary.
i walked around the entire stadium. the outfield seats are pretty good seats, especially for the price. the HOF was not open yet. the scenery overall seems gaudy and overdone.
the stadium improved where it needed to, and one can ignore things they do not like.

and I love the changes. I make it to somewhere between 15-30 games every year, and I’m glad they renovated instead of building a downtown stadium. I was pretty excited to see the changes, so it was like giving sugar to a 3 year old. But I thought the outfield area was nice. The bar looked cool. I’m sure my kid will like the carousel. i’m bound to have a drunken minigolf competition with somebody. I didn’t like that they closed off the area behind home plate for the diamond club or whatever – I liked to walk around behind home plate and still see the game, but now i’ll just walk around the outfield. No biggee. It seemed like the waits were all shorter than previous openers (they seemed about the same as a SEA vs KC on a Saturday night with no giveaways from year’s past). So I would guess that the waits will be significantly less during normal games, but probably a little worse during game 6 of the ALCS!

I thought everything was great, the bathroom and concession lines weren’t as bad as what I had heard, but it wasn’t Opening Day, so I don’t see it being a huge problem the remainder of the year. The little walkway in front of the scoreboard looks ridiculous as well. Prices were about the same, I bought a powder blue Hulk Hand coozy, its awesome, but be prepared. $28 for ONE. No major complaints, everything was amazing for the most part. I’ll get some pics up after we go back on Wednesday, my camera died when we were tailgaiting.

On the lower level, the Royals ushers were instructed to stop patrons with “200” section tickets from entering the vomitorium and using facilities underneath the 1st level. Only “100” section tickets were supposed to use those.

FYI – there are no differences in the amenities in the underneath facilities and the top-of-the-first-level amenities.

BIG PROBLEM – from what I saw while working, this caused long lines at the top concession stands, while at the same time workers in the “underneath” concession stands were twiddling their thumbs at times. The reason – many of the patron with section “100” tickets still go to the very top – probably because they don’t realize the underneath facilities are exclusively for them.

I’d look for this to change, once enough patrons bitch about it to the Royals. I talked to one of the ushers checking the tickets in the vomitorium; he said the Royals brought in some people from San Diego who were responsible for devising this policy. He thought it was very stupid as well, and was not really doing his best to enforce it. Just goes to show you what happens when management thinks they know it all, and doesn’t solicit advise from the soldiers on the front lines. I guess the idea was to further create a “tiered” experience by giving the box seat holders a slightly better service than the cretons in mere reserved seat status. My personal opinion is that there is not all that much difference in costs among all of our downstairs tickets to justify this attempt. This ain’t San Diego, in other words.

How many different price levels are there? Is RF or LF appear to be any better? Can’t imagine so. How about Rivals, can you see the game from in there?

It looks great on TV and the Yankee radio announcers thought it was very good.

I wish they would have gone forward with the Kaufman/Arrowhead Rolling cover though. But hey, I don’t live in KC so I didn’t get to vote and don’t have to pay the taxes. I thought the cover (if done right) would have made a great landmark for the City’s pro sports complex.

New Yorkers think Yankee Stadium is great, although they haven’t even had a home game yet as of this post.

They are complaing about the Mets place though because from many seats, you can’t see the entire field. That is pretty bad if it’s true. I haven’t been yet.

I brought my 10 year old son and nephew to opening day. We sat in section 143. I went with a group of 7 kids and 7 adults on Monday night. We “sat” in the right field underneath Rivals.

My thoughts: The exterior is pretty bad, not that it matters. I can count on one hand the number of US stadia that are attractive from the outside and the new K is not on the list.
As far as I’m concerned, the new K experience is entirely about the outfield. I’ve always believed that the OF offers the best viewing experience and the K went from being the worst stadium in baseball for outfield seating to perhaps the best. The standing room rail in right center is genius—a great view and a cool experience. We watched Greinke warm up on Monday from above the bullpen in right and when he was done, he tossed the ball up to my nephew, who’s probably still smiling about it. I’ll post pictures in a couple of days.

If you’re looking for a social night out for a decent price, here’s the drill: Buy the cheapest tickets in the house for you and seven or so friends and get to the game an hour early. Go to Rivals and grab two tables in front facing the field. There’s a $100 minimum for the table for the night, so you can use the table as a home base and wander around the stadium or you can sit tight and watch the game. You’ll get out of there for $25/head or so and have a blast. We did that Monday and loved it. It was especially nice because it allowed us to get out of the cold.

It’s a much better place to watch baseball. I’ve been to 25 of the active stadiums and the K is certainly in my top 5. Its location will always keep it from doing any better than that.