There won’t be any cheers coming from the left field side of the upper deck at Kauffman Stadium for games played after mid-August.
The Royals will close off nearly 6,000 seats from about third base to the left field foul pole after the Aug. 10 game to work on concourses behind those areas, said Bob Rice, vice president of ballpark operations and development.
One of the projects is to install new acrylic flooring, which has to be done before cold weather sets in, Rice said. While that may be a long way off, getting part of the stadium done early will help assure the rest of it gets done after the season ends, he said.
“It will bring more certainty to having our grand opening in 2009,” Rice said. “It’s one of the challenges of renovating a stadium that you have to continue to play in it.”
The Royals this week are contacting fans who bought seats for games in the closed sections, said Mark Tilson, the Royals’ vice president of sales and marketing. Those sections are numbers 419 and higher in the upper sections and 317 and higher in the lower sections of the upper deck.
Fans will be placed in seats deemed to be at least as good as what they had, Tilson said. In all, 19 games will be affected, beginning with the Aug. 22 contest. The team is on the road for 12 days before that game.
About 500 dugout plaza seats behind home plate also will be closed off for construction of the new Diamond Club seating area, Tilson said. Those seats are held by about 185 people, Tilson said.
The Royals plan to have the stadium project, including new concourses, concession stands, restrooms and entertainment areas, finished by opening day next year.
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If a Royals’ Web site survey is any indication, the first half of the season was not a big letdown for fans.
On the royals.com home page, fans are asked how the team’s performance compared to expectations. The results show 47 percent thought the Royals played about as expected and 21 percent said they fared above expectations. Twenty-nine percent said below expectations and 3 percent said the team was “exceptional.”
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