Kauffman Stadium is great if you have young kids

If you want to take young children to a sporting event in Kansas City, The K is a friendly option

My wife and I are both live events people; whether it’s sports, theater, music, anything that has talented people performing at the height of their skill. Just this week we went and saw Ben Folds perform with the Kansas City Symphony (great time), but that’s not a normal outing for us anymore, because we have young children. Our boys are 4 and 2, and there’s no way to take them to an event like that, because they are going to get bored of sitting and listening to music and are going to need to move, which isn’t appropriate behavior for a venue and experience like that.

Going to live sporting events is much safer with young kids; since there is a lot of noise and movement already, the kids fit in much better than they would at the Kauffman Center or the KC Music Hall. In the past 12 months, we’ve taken them to Kauffman Stadium, GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium (for the KU-Colorado game), Children’s Mercy Park and the T-Mobile Center for various events. We’ve had a good time at all of them, but for my money, the experience at Kauffman Stadium is the best for us and for them for two key reasons: the Royals Food Policy and the Outfield Experience:

Kauffman Stadium Food Policy

Here is the official Kauffman Food Policy, courtesy of the Royals Ballpark Guide:

Food And Drink

To ensure the safety and enjoyment of all guests at the ballpark, hard-sided coolers, alcoholic beverages or other non-clear liquid containers are not permitted. Guests are permitted to bring food resembling individual portion in a clear, plastic bag no larger than 1 gallon in size. Guests may bring unfrozen water bottles into the stadium, provided the water is in a plastic 1-liter or smaller sealed/unopened plastic bottle (one per person). Soft-sided single juice or milk containers or ADA required liquids may be allowed in as well.

The ability to bring individual portion food into the K was remarkable to me when I realized that you can do that. The other places we went to this year ban all outside food and drink except for various sized unopened water bottles. Each other venue cites “safety of the guests,” for why you can’t bring in outside food, but I feel comfortable assuming that the primary motivator is that the venues have a monopoly on food inside their area and aren’t keen to give that up.

For my family at least, being able to bring individual size food for the kids (cliff bars, sausage sticks, fruit and vegetable pouches, etc.) has not stopped us from purchasing concessions. We want them to enjoy the full baseball stadium experience, and part of that is enjoying food that we don’t often eat elsewhere, like an oversized bucket of popcorn or frozen lemonade. Going too Kauffman is a treat that we want them to like; special and delicious food helps enhance the entire process.

We are, however, on a budget when we go to the game and the concessions are expensive. There is a limit on what we can buy that has everything to do with money and not much to do with how hungry my kids actually are. My boys really like baseball, but they are just young kids, and they get hungry and bored rather easily in comparison to adults or even older kids. Being able to supplement food that I buy at the stadium with food that we already bought and I know they will eat is wonderful because it let’s all of us enjoy the entire Kauffman experience more, which means we have gone back more often and spent more money.

Anyone can benefit from this food policy, so if you’re going out to the K, get your gallon sized ziplock bag and bring yourself some snacks. It’s a fan-friendly policy that I really appreciate is in place, particularly in this season of my life.

The Outfield Experience

My oldest son and I were taking laps around Arrowhead this fall, a tried and true strategy to help get the wiggles out after sitting for awhile. After we had nearly completed our first lap around the upper level of the stadium, he turned to me and said “Dad, where are the games?”

He was referring to the Outfield Experience at Kauffman, particularly the different activities that they have for kids out there. The Outfield Experience consists of more than just activities for kids and families, but there is a lot to do out there if you have kids. My boys have enjoyed hitting the baseball and running the bases at the Little K, riding the Carousel, shooting on a Pop-A-Shot and climbing all over the playground. Each activity costs a $1.50 token (the playground is free), or a $10 wristband to do unlimited activities. When compared to all the other ways to spend your money at a live sporting event, these prices aren’t too bad.

If your kids don’t like crowds, the Outfield Experience can be tough on busy days. We went to the game on Labor Day last season, and my boys were climbing over other children as much as they were climbing over playground equipment. But let’s say you decide to take your family on Tuesday April 22nd against the Colorado Rockies, your kids should have plenty of space to roam around and the lines for the activities won’t be too long, which makes the $10 wristband a more reasonable option.

I never had much of a reason to wander out to kids section of the Outfield Experience before last season, and before I had kids, I remember thinking to myself “why would you bring your kids to a Royals game if you’re going to spend time on a playground? Couldn’t you do that anywhere?” If you’re only going to the Royals game to take your kids to the Outfield Experience, there are definitely better and cheaper options to do in the city.

There are, however, a lot of things I like to do that I don’t feel comfortable taking my kids with me, like going to see the Symphony perform at the Kauffman Center. So I’ve come to appreciate that going to see the Royals play is something we can do as a family; the kids can still have fun on their terms as well while still being something that I like to go do. We will sit and watch a lot of the baseball game (thank you pitch clock), but 2.5 hours is a long time for young kids to sit and do anything, even if it’s something they like. Taking laps only works for so long as well; my kids will start to make their own adventures after the first go-around, which normally involves them chasing and tackling each other.

Hitting off a tee and then running the bases or riding a carousel is a much better way to channel that energy and desire for fun. It’s also helped make my kids excited for baseball to come back and to go back to Kauffman Stadium, which is a plus in my book. Selfishly, it would be great if going to a baseball game continued to be something we could all do together, and I’m optimistic that good experiences that meets the kids where they are at right now will make it more likely that when they get older we can go out to Kauffman and keep score together.

So if you have young kids in your life, I really do recommend taking them out to the K this season. It might not be the same experience as it was before these kids arrived, but pack some snacks, get ready to spend a couple innings in the outfield, and I hope you will have as good a time as my family has had.