Wichita City Council approves new Wind Surge agreement, but questions linger

Following Major League Baseball’s approval of the sale of the Wichita Wind Surge to Diamond Baseball Holdings last week, the Wichita City Council had to vote on the sale Tuesday, but even council members needed clarification on what the vote meant.

“So it is a requirement?” asked council member Jeff Blubaugh.

He said he received clarification before the meeting on whether the council had to approve the sale but asked about it during the meeting for the public’s benefit. Mayor Brandon Whipple also asked for clarification.

Assistant City Manager Troy Anderson said the actual sale had to be approved only by MLB. He said according to the city’s agreement with the Wind Surge, the team had a right to sell.

City Manager Robert Layton explained that the action before council was to approve the assignment of obligations from the current Wind Surge ownership group to Diamond, which will assume all liabilities and responsibilities at the ballpark.

Layton noted that the agreement includes the city’s requirements as landlords, which also remain in effect.

Blubaugh expressed concern about the four acres the city sold for $1 apiece to the Wind Surge, formerly the New Orleans Baby Cakes, for development around Riverfront Stadium. The Baby Cakes made it a condition for the team to move.

Anderson said the city’s agreement for that development and the agreement to operate the stadium are “two completely different things.”

“But it was the enticement,” Blubaugh said.

Even if the agreements are separate, he noted that they’re still intertwined.

“The enticement of bringing the ball club to Wichita was successful,” Anderson said. “We have every reason to believe that development will occur around the ballpark.”

Wichita Riverfront Limited Partnership, a group made up of outgoing Wind Surge owners, and EPC Real Estate Group still are responsible for that development, which has stalled without much explanation.

“Can we at least get a status update where we’re at with the development?” Blubaugh asked.

In early November, The Eagle reported that construction fencing and a sign touting that development, which is supposed to be completed by July 2024, had vanished. The city called in a mediator to assist with some of the complex aspects of the development.

“We’re really excited about a lot of the conversations we’re having of late,” Anderson said.

He said he was hopeful that development would start soon.

‘Didn’t do the best job’

Another big topic during the discussion was on the number of events the new ownership group will host outside of baseball games, which has been a point of contention with the team’s outgoing owners.

The city said there were potentially going to be hundreds of events, such as festivals and parties. Not many materialized.

“We didn’t do the best job of defining what events were,” said council member Brandon Johnson.

He asked Michael Byrnes, a Diamond representative at the Council meeting, “Could you define more what that looks like?”

Byrnes, who is president and general manager of Diamond’s Oklahoma City Dodgers Minor League team — one of 10 it currently owns — said it’s about “consistently getting people into the park.”

In Oklahoma City, that has meant everything from small chamber-type events to large-scale activities such as snow tubing at the ballpark that brought in 20,000 people.

Council member Maggie Ballard asked how Diamond would advocate for the Wind Surge when it owns so many other teams. The company is in the process of acquiring a couple other teams in addition to the Wind Surge and hopes to have more than 20 by opening day next spring.

Byrnes said there’s one Diamond employee who works with national promoters to bring events to all its ballparks, and he said local management is then free to concentrate on bringing local events. He said those local events “can be acted on quickly.”

Ballard further asked what a realistic goal is for the number of events Diamond may throw. Fifty? One hundred?

Byrnes said Diamond has to get to Wichita, learn the market and learn what opportunities exist, though he added, “We see a lot of opportunity.”

In Oklahoma City, he said there have been more than 150 events, though he didn’t specify in what time frame.

After public input — two people spoke about the stalled development around the stadium and one, Celeste Racette, expressed concern about how that may affect taxpayers — Johnson brought the discussion back to the four acres. He asked Layton to explain how not just anyone could have bought the acreage for $4, “because that doesn’t get enough attention, I think.”

Layton said the sale came with financial responsibilities, and the city expects revenue generation for the first phase of development — including a hotel, two office buildings and a transit center — to be in excess of $52 million.

The city needs the sales tax revenue stream to pay off its debt on the $85 million stadium.

Lingering concerns

Although at the outset of his comments Blubaugh said, “I’m pretty excited to have Diamond come here,” he was the only one to vote against approving the city’s agreement with Diamond. He explained he has lingering concerns.

“Everything with Diamond sounds great,” he said before noting, “Everything sounded great two years ago.”

Also during the meeting, Blubaugh said part of the Wind Surge draw was the promise of 200 annual events and things such as a Ferris wheel and a Margaritaville restaurant that never materialized.

Following the meeting, he said, “I want the public to understand why we made the decision that we did then.”

Now, Blubaugh said he’s not only concerned about the number of events, but he’s concerned about the lack of development, too, since it’s no longer tied to the team.

“There’s no way to keep their feet to the fire on development around the river, and I don’t want to wind up with another WaterWalk . . . where it just sits and nothing happens.”

He added that there are clawback provisions on the land, “But they don’t kick in till 2024.”

Blubaugh said he has “a lot more questions about the development agreement” and more questions in general with Diamond as well. He said it’s “better to ask the questions.”

“I would have thought that this would look a lot different by now.”