Wichita, Kansas, has a storied history of baseball. Yet, until recently the city did not have a ballpark befitting that rich tradition. When JE Dunn and Aptitude were brought in to help make a new ballpark a reality, seamless technology that would ensure a top-notch experience was just as important as the park’s ball field and structure. The stadium is a dark brick and steel structure set on the Arkansas riverfront that pays homage to the site’s former 1934-era ballpark and surrounding historic Delano neighborhood. It has become an anchor destination with the intent to inject energy into the city’s downtown riverfront area. Riverfront Stadium is not only a beautiful building, it also boasts top-of-the-line technology systems that can make a day at the ballpark even better.
The goal of the Riverfront Stadium project was to build a stadium that is not only a beautiful structure for hosting a myriad of events and drawing crowds to a reviving neighborhood, but also to ensure that ballpark visitors, employees, athletes, and journalists experience the up-to-date technology that scrutinizing patrons have come to expect. This is what the Aptitude team does well: think about how a built environment will be used, and design and manage the implementation of the technology that will make the user’s experience seamless. To make this project more challenging, the city was on an expedited schedule – breaking ground in February 2019 and finishing in April 2020 – a timeline that was condensed by several months compared to similar projects. Due to this aggressive schedule, the technology design was not complete prior to the start of construction, creating unique challenges associated with rough-in, routing, and just-in-time delivery of critical materials and equipment.
The stadium’s technology considerations included a need for network cabling for voice and data; a broadcast booth which would need to be integrated with a scoreboard and the audio-visual throughout the stadium, as well as accounting for external broadcasts; wireless internet; closed circuit television;
a pace of game clock; intrusion detection; and card and gate access security systems. The Aptitude team worked with representatives from Major/Minor League Baseball, the City of Wichita, the design-build team, and four low-voltage trade partners throughout this project. Ongoing communication, collaboration, and finding every efficiency possible were critical to delivering each aspect of the project within its condensed timeline.
Rather than hiring a variety of trade partners who each have their own markup and consider only their individual specialty, Aptitude’s strength lies in how it adds value and saves in project costs by managing every element of the entire technology picture and making sure each system works seamlessly in conjunction with every other system – all while serving as the single point of contact from start to finish.
The beautiful stadium, which was voted 2nd place by fans among the 2020 Best Minor League Ballparks in America in Baseball Digest magazine, has quickly become a popular neighborhood fixture. By combining beautiful design elements, best in class construction practices, and the cohesive modern technology integration managed by the Aptitude team, this venue will continue to usher in a new generation of fans for decades to come.