Kansas City Royals: Comparing Kauffman Stadium to Newest MLB Park

Kansas City Royals fans take a lot of pride in Kauffman Stadium. So we decided to compare the experience with seeing a game at the newest MLB stadium—SunTrust Park. Here’s what we found.

Growing up as a fan of the Kansas City Royals, it was always a special treat when my family would make the drive from rural Pettis County, Missouri, up to Kauffman Stadium. The team wasn’t so great in those days of the early 2000s (Sorry to make some of you feel old.), but I loved going to the ballpark. And not just because we could usually sit close down the lines for cheap.

Unfortunately, I was only able to go to one home game during the amazing 2014-15 stretch due to moving out of state. During that visit, it was just as I remembered it—with a few more bells and whistles. It was the only MLB stadium I’d been to my entire life, so I was always a little partial to it. I understood, obviously, the majesty of Wrigley Field and Fenway Park. As modern stadiums go, The K was definitely in the upper echelon for me.

I got my first chance to compare it to another ballpark on Tuesday night.

It just so happened that the stadium is the newest one in MLB—SunTrust Park. In July, my family relocated to Marietta, Georgia, just a few miles away from the Atlanta Braves’ new stadium. We finally made it to a game on Tuesday with the Washington Nationals in town. Ironically enough, former Missouri Tiger Max Scherzer was pitching for the Nationals.

It seemed like the perfect time to go.

My girlfriend suggested I write something about the game. I thought it would be cool to compare the experience at Kauffman Stadium to the one at SunTrust Park. So here are my completely (un)scientific findings.

Sports Complex vs. Shopping Center

When it comes to comparing Kauffman Stadium and SunTrust Park, the biggest difference is easily location. Comparing the Truman Sports Complex to The Battery Atlanta is like comparing night and day.

As Kansas City Royals fans know, the Truman Sports Complex includes The K and Arrowhead Stadium. The respective homes of the Chiefs and Royals are surrounded by vast parking lots. It’s a destination people only have reason to visit when one of the teams is hosting a game. The rest of the time—for the most part—the complex sits unused by the public at large.

Contrast that with the location of SunTrust Park.

After moving from the downtown Atlanta location of Turner Field, the new ballpark sits in Cobb County. While the move from the heart of the ATL would suggest a somewhat more secluded area, that’s far from the case.

SunTrust Park is easily accessible from interstates 75 or 285 and is located in an advantageous area. Two different shopping centers sit in close proximity to the stadium. There are also several places to eat and shop just outside the ballpark in The Battery Atlanta.

To put in perspective how much the Braves value the area around the ballpark, it was reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that SunTrust Park would cost $672 million to build. The entertainment district—which would eventually be called The Battery Atlanta—would be a $400 million project.

Advantage: SunTrust Park. The Battery Atlanta allows for the area, which even includes living spaces, to have a vibrant social scene even when the Braves aren’t playing.

Fountains vs. Monument Garden

For a ballpark that opened in 1973, Kauffman Stadium has one impressive list of attractions within its gates. Undoubtedly, the renovations from roughly a decade ago, which included adding the Royals Hall of Fame in left field, helped modernize the stadium.

The iconic feature of The K is the fountains. Not only are they a cool aesthetic feature, but the meaning behind using them at a stadium in the City of Fountains makes them that much cooler.

Elsewhere in the stadium, there are family friendly spots like The Little K. There are more adult spots particularly across the renovated outfield terrace. The crown jewel—and not just because of the crown on top—is the unrivaled Crown Vision scoreboard.

SunTrust Park boasts its own solid scoreboard with a secondary one that includes pitching stats and out-of-town scores. Here’s a tweet I sent with pictures of the scoreboards:

As expected, SunTrust Park has similar in-stadium amenities to Kauffman Stadium. The kids’ area of SunTrust Park, though, seems to be geared more towards older children. The area—called the Sandlot—features a climbing tower and zip-line. The AJC reports SunTrust Park is the first professional sports stadium or arena with those features.

For me, the undisputed highlight is the Monument Garden.

While there is an indoors portion of the Braves Hall of Fame—similar to the Kansas City Royals’ one—the concourse features an amazing display to Braves history throughout the years. From what I could gather, the indoor portion focused more on the team accomplishments—although the organization’s three World Series banners hung above the concourse—while the Monument Park focused on individual achievements.

My favorite part—the crown jewel of the garden, as it were—had to be the display honoring Hank Aaron:

Advantage: SunTrust Park. Kauffman Stadium made a lot of great strides with its renovations, but it’s hard to top the remarkable Monument Garden. But, hey, the Kansas City Royals still have a bigger scoreboard. Size is all that matters, right?.

Winning (Recently) vs. Losing (Recently)

The best amenities in the world can’t make up for a bad team. That’s the lesson I learned on Tuesday night. While the Kansas City Royals haven’t enjoyed the kind of success to which fans had quickly grown accustom, they have been in the playoff hunt virtually the entire season.

When you look at the last handful of years, Kauffman Stadium has filled up as the product on the field has become one of the most attractive in the game. For a long time, the Kansas City Royals failed to sell tickets as the team struggled.

Atlanta has faced the opposite problem.

The class of the National League East for more than a decade and still a playoff regular up until 2013 when they won 96 games, the Braves have taken a nose dive in the last few years. Tuesday’s 4-2 loss to the Nationals guaranteed their fourth consecutive losing season. Ticket sales predictably have suffered as a result.

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According to attendance data on ESPN’s website, the Braves have averaged 30,854 fans this season, which is almost right at 75 percent capacity for their 41,149 available seats. That’s way up from their final two seasons at Turner Field, when they barely reached 50 percent capacity. On Tuesday, the announced attendance at SunTrust Park was 26,709. For comparison, the Kansas City Royals have averaged 27,949 against a 37,903 capacity or roughly 73.7 percent full on a given night this season.

The difference in percentage can be explained by the novelty of a new stadium. The second-half swoon of the Kansas City Royals probably hasn’t helped either. But attendance numbers are a flawed statistic anyway—not the least of which because they are based on sales and not bodies through the gate.

Advantage: Kauffman Stadium. This category has as much to do with enthusiasm among fans as it does the number of fans in attendance. Despite being in my seat, I missed the first pitch of Tuesday’s game. Why? Because there was no one making any noise to indicate the game was starting. (I might have also been checking Facebook on the free Xfinity WiFi.)

SunTrust Park for the Win

If you’ve been keeping score, this isn’t a surprise. Two categories (stadium location and stadium amenities) went the way of SunTrust Park. Kauffman Stadium won the stadium atmosphere category. The pregame fun category ended in a push. So we’ll call the final score 2.5 to 1.5.

This is not meant to be a diss to Kauffman Stadium. When the idea for this article was hatched at dinner, I fully expected my final analysis would be that the in-game atmosphere at Kauffman Stadium canceled out whatever SunTrust Park would throw at me.

I was wrong.

Baseball by nature is a much more laid-back experience than going to other sporting events. With 81 home games throughout a season, including many meaningless games for teams that aren’t in the postseason race, each individual game matters significantly less than in other sports. That puts an increased importance on the experience of going to a ballgame.

The Battery Atlanta, which is still expanding, is the reason why this was always going to be an unfair fight. My girlfriend and I were in awe walking through it on our way to the ballpark. We had experienced a similar setup where we lived previously in Durham, North Carolina, where the Tampa Bay Rays’ Triple-A affiliate plays. But this vibrant scene took that to the next level.

After experiencing it, most people would struggle to argue that the Kansas City Royals are better off in their current location. There are many advantages to being part of the Truman Sports Complex, and it’s unlikely the team will move anytime soon after the renovations were completed.

Next: Moose and the Chase for No. 37

However, if the organization eventually decides to build a stadium in a more urban setting, it could do a lot worse than copying the SunTrust Park-The Battery Atlanta model.