Compared to this time last year, Saturday was an entirely different scene for the areas surrounding the just-built Riverfront Stadium.
Families tailgated in packed parking lots.
Restaurants were jammed with diners.
Coming from all directions, crowds of people streamed into the ballpark, ducking out of the way for passing scooters.
"The place was a zoo," said Don Hinson, who arrived in the Delano District early to get a close parking spot and lunch from Picasso's Pizza. "You can see that Delano is going to really flourish.... Long lines, no tables."
About 7,500 Wichitans showed up Saturday for a college baseball matchup between Wichita State and the University of Houston — the opening event at the long-awaited Riverfront Stadium, and what many considered to be a test run of sorts for the minor-league Wind Surge.
Since construction finished last spring, the $75-million ballpark has sat empty because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The delay was a significant blow to neighboring restaurants, hotels and other businesses gearing up for the an uptick in foot traffic, so Saturday's WSU game was no doubt a much-needed change in pace.
Saturday was also an experiment in parking for the stadium, which besides handicap stalls, doesn't offer on-site spots.
Ahead of the game, the city shared a map of nearby parking lots and garages which they said offers 9,000 available spaces, including in the Gander Mountain and Fairfield Inn & Suites garages that are within walking distance. Father east, the parking lot off Broadway between William and English streets was available, along with two garages at Topeka and William.
Mike Tann, the city's transit director, said during a livestreamed media event Thursday that there's "plentiful" parking available east of the river.
"We think that it's an enjoyable test run for what we're hoping we'll able to do during the baseball season as well, and we'll learn from our experience on Saturday," he said.
The city provided free shuttle rides for Saturday's game, stopping every 5 to 10 minutes at four locations downtown.
With some planning ahead, it seemed to go smoothly for some fans.
"It was really easy," Lyndsie Oathout said after the game. "We actually parked across the river and rode the shuttle in."
Her friend, Joshua Mcwithey, added, "We didn't wait but 2 to 3 minutes."
Jessica Hammans said she and her friends visited Pumphouse in Old Town before the game and walked to the stadium from there.
Asked if it was a far walk, her friend, Kylie Rorabaugh shrugged and said, "It's downtown."
"We figured we'd spend 20 minutes finding parking or walking," Hammans added.
Gary Hoepner, who parked in one of the handicapped spots in front of the stadium off Maple Street, said he noticed how congested the downtown streets were with cars.
"They need closer parking," he said. "I hope they’re planning on taking all of these houses down across the street and making that a parking lot."
In fact, the city has plans to build a six-story multimodal center across Sycamore Street from Riverfront Stadium that's expected to have up to 500 parking spots.
Planned for the 1.5-acre square block bordered on all four sides by Oak, Texas, Sycamore and Burton streets, the garage will also serve as a bus plaza and storage and rental space for bikes and scooters.
But construction hasn't started yet, and isn't expected to finish until around 2023.
So far, Riverfront Village, the $127-million mixed-use development expected to go up northeast of the stadium, also plans to include a 600-space parking garage. Developers behind the plan have said the project will be market-driven, meaning that deals will be made with tenants before any work starts on the site, so there's no timeline yet on construction.
Those two garages would add about 1,100 spots adjacent to the ballpark.
Reviews from Saturday were largely positive, but it wasn't without some minor hiccups.
Some complained the music volume in the stadium was too loud. A few concession stands ran out of canned beer.
The largest complaint, though, was the long lines getting into the ballpark, which for one family took about an hour.
"A few blips," said Wind Surge CEO Jordan Kobritz, "People came late. We couldn’t get them in as fast as we would like, but that’s why we have soft openings like this. We’ll work on that between now and 5/11," when the Wind Surge will play its first home game.
One fan wished the temperature was displayed on the scoreboard. Another would have liked to have programs.
"Those are the kind of problems I love to hear about because we can solve them," Kobritz said.