Legends Field

Description

The ballpark was originally named after CommunityAmerica Credit Union, a Kansas City area financial institution, which held naming rights to the park from 2002 to 2017. The reported dimensions of CommunityAmerica are 300 ft down the left field line (with an 18 ft wall, affectionately known as "the Little Green Monster"), 411 ft to left center, 396 ft to dead center, 409 ft to right center, and 328 ft 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 ft 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 ft wide concourse. With the addition of bleacher seats in 2008, the park has 6,537 fixed seats, though its capacity (including the concourse, picnic area, right field grass berm, and center field party area) is usually considered over 7,500.

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. |access-date=April 27, 2008 Major League Soccer attendance, with the updated seating configuration, regularly exceeded 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 18, with related festivities the day before. Sporting Kansas City played its home games at the stadium while the team's new stadium was being constructed. Because of the soccer presence, the Baseball configuration had taken an unusual step. In most natural grass fields the base lines where baserunners run between bases is dirt. However, CommunityAmerica Ballpark had dirt sliding pits just around the three bases, homeplate, and the pitchers mound, much like most typical artificial turf baseball fields. This was so that grounds crews would not need to install excessive amounts of grass for each Wizards home game. 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.{{cite web |access-date=April 27, 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080409121741/http://kc.wizards.mlsnet.com/news/team_news.jsp?ymd=20080329&content_id=146198&vkey=news_kcw&fext=.jsp&team=t105 |archive-date=April 9, 2008

Before the start of the 2008 season, the left field berm area was replaced with permanent bleacher seats. Additional metal bleachers were added on the concourse running from behind the former left field berm to the bullpens in center field. This added 2,172 to the ballpark's fixed seating capacity, raising it from its originally 4,365 fixed seats.{{cite press release |access-date=April 27, 2008 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110604120615/http://www.oursportscentral.com/services/releases/?id=3586091 |archive-date=June 4, 2011

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 (now KZPT). |access-date=April 27, 2008 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121104175121/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/04/AR2007060401180.html |archive-date=November 4, 2012

On November 20, 2017, the T-Bones announced that the naming rights agreement between the team and CommunityAmerica would not be renewed, with the facility being named T-Bones Stadium on an interim basis.{{cite news |access-date=June 30, 2018 |archive-date=July 1, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180701030530/http://wyandottedaily.com/communityamerica-ballpark-to-get-a-new-name/ |url-status=dead

The Unified Government of Wyandotte County/Kansas City, Kansas evicted the T-Bones from the stadium on October 14, 2019 for failure to keep up rent and utility payments. Days later, the Unified Government approved a stadium lease with an organization trying to purchase the T-Bones. The purchase was completed. The new five-year lease has three five-year options.

The Kansas City Star reported in December 2020 that the Kansas City NWSL team would play home matches in the stadium.

In January 2021, the stadium was renamed "Field of Legends" to reflect the T-Bones rebranding as the Monarchs. It is now called "Legends Field".

Gallery

File:Left field wall of Community America Ballpark in Kansas City, Kansas.JPG|Left field wall displaying the Retired number of Buck O'Neil File:Community America Ballpark scoreboard.JPG|Scoreboard File:Community America Ballpark view from left field stands.JPG|View from left field stands File:Community America Ballpark view from right sideline stands.JPG|View from right sideline stands File:Kansas City NWSL 2021.jpg|The stadium's soccer configuration in 2021

References

References

1. (2007). "Kansas City T-Bones Tickets & Seating".
2. Viquez, Marc. (2018-06-30). "Legends Field - Kansas City Monarchs".
3. (19 July 2019). "New for 2019: JustBats Field at T-Bones Stadium". August Publications.
4. (October 14, 2019). "Wyandotte County evicts T-Bones for unpaid rent, utilities". [[The Kansas City Star]].
5. (October 17, 2019). "New Kansas City T-Bones owners say upgrades will bring more than baseball to stadium". The Kansas City Star.
6. (February 26, 2020). "Kansas City T-Bones Plot Future Under New Ownership". Ballpark Digest.
7. (December 8, 2020). "Inside a KC couple's vision for our city's newest pro team as women's soccer returns". [[The Kansas City Star]].
8. Godburn, Hailey. (January 21, 2021). "Kansas City Monarchs to take the field in spring 2021". [[KSHB]].
9. "Legends Field".