Veterans Memorial Stadium is a minor league baseball

stadium A stadium ( : stadiums or stadia) is a place or venue for (mostly) outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage either partly or completely surrounded by a tiered structure designed to allow spectators to stand o ...

Cedar Rapids, Iowa Cedar Rapids () is the second-largest city in Iowa, United States and is the county seat of Linn County, Iowa, Linn County. The city lies on both banks of the Cedar River (Iowa River), Cedar River, north of Iowa City, Iowa, Iowa City and north ...

. It is the home field of the

Cedar Rapids Kernels The Cedar Rapids Kernels are Minor League Baseball team of the Midwest League and the High-A affiliate of the Minnesota Twins. They are located in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and play their home games at Veterans Memorial Stadium. The Kernels are owned ...

of the

Midwest League The Midwest League is a Minor League Baseball league established in 1947 and based in the Midwestern United States. A Class A league for most of its history, the league was promoted to High-A as part of Major League Baseball's 2021 reorganizat ...

. It is often called New Veterans Memorial Stadium to distinguish it from the original Veterans Memorial Stadium, which existed from 1949 to 2001.

Overview

Veterans Memorial Stadium is located southwest of downtown Cedar Rapids on Rockford Road.

ImOn Ice Arena The ImOn Ice Arena is a 3,850-seat multipurpose arena in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, located adjacent to Veterans Memorial Stadium. The arena opened on January 8, 2000, and is owned by the city of Cedar Rapids. It is home to the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders o ...

and Kingston Stadium, home to Kennedy, Jefferson, and Washington high school football, are both adjacent to Veterans Memorial Stadium. Veterans Memorial Stadium has a total

seating capacity Seating capacity is the number of people who can be seated in a specific space, in terms of both the physical space available, and limitations set by law. Seating capacity can be used in the description of anything ranging from an automobile that ...

of 5,300. It has 12 luxury suites and several sections that are reserved for group outings, including a mezzanine terrace in the upper deck behind first base, a pavilion in left field, and a pre-game picnic area. In addition to Kernels games, Veterans Memorial Stadium hosted the Midwest League All-Star Game in 2004, and again in 2016. On July 9, 2005, the stadium hosted its first concert, featuring

Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...

and

Willie Nelson Willie Hugh Nelson (born April 29, 1933) is an American country musician. The critical success of the album ''Shotgun Willie'' (1973), combined with the critical and commercial success of ''Red Headed Stranger'' (1975) and '' Stardust'' (197 ...

. The

American Legion The American Legion, commonly known as the Legion, is a non-profit organization of U.S. war War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militi ...

World Series was held there in 2006. It is also occasionally used for high school and college baseball games, including the annual

American Rivers Conference The American Rivers Conference (A-R-C) is an NCAA Division III athletic conference. From 1927 until August 9, 2018, it was known officially as the Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (IIAC) and commonly as the Iowa Conference. History The A ...

baseball tournament. It hosted the annual "Corridor Classic" between the

Iowa Hawkeyes The Iowa Hawkeyes are the athletic teams that represent the University of Iowa, located in Iowa City, Iowa. The Hawkeyes have varsity teams in 22 sports, 8 for men and 14 for women; a 15th women's sport will be added in 2023. The teams partici ...

and the

Northern Iowa Panthers The Northern Iowa Panthers are the athletic teams of the University of Northern Iowa. The university is a member of the Missouri Valley Conference and competes in NCAA Division I (Division I FCS in football). History The school's mascot is t ...

until the

University of Northern Iowa The University of Northern Iowa (UNI) is a public university in Cedar Falls, Iowa. UNI offers more than 90 majors across the colleges of Business Administration, Education, Humanities, Arts, and Sciences, Social and Behavioral Sciences and gr ...

discontinued its baseball program. The city of Cedar Rapids owns Veterans Memorial Stadium, which was named to honor veterans of all wars, and the city's Veterans Memorial Commission operates and maintains the stadium. The Linn County All Veterans Memorial is located next to the stadium. In March 2004 the Kernels and the city agreed to a new 40-year lease agreement that reduced the ballclub's monthly payments from the original 20-year agreement that they had signed when the new stadium opened. In March 2008 the Kernels sold the

naming rights Naming rights are a financial transaction and form of advertising or memorialization whereby a corporation, person, or other entity purchases the right to name a facility, object, location, program, or event, typically for a defined period of t ...

of the playing field to the

Dale and Thomas Popcorn Dale or dales may refer to: Locations * Dale (landform), an open valley * Dale (place name element) Geography ;Australia * The Dales (Christmas Island), in the Indian Ocean ;Canada * Dale, Ontario ;Ethiopia * Dale (woreda), district ;Norway ...

Company. The playing field was known as Dale and Thomas Popcorn Field at Veterans Memorial Stadium for the 2008 season. The field was renamed Perfect Game Field at Veterans Memorial Stadium when Perfect Game USA, a baseball scouting company based in Cedar Rapids, bought the naming rights to the field in March 2009 in a five-year contract. In 2017, the stadium won a bid to host the NCAA Division III College World Series from 2019 to 2022, after long time host of the event the

Fox Cities Stadium Neuroscience Group Field at Fox Cities Stadium is a baseball park in Grand Chute, Wisconsin (although it has an Appleton mailing address). It is primarily used for baseball, and is the home field of the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers, the Midwest Lea ...

Grand Chute, WI Grand Chute (French: ''great fall'' or "large rapids") is a town in Outagamie County, Wisconsin, United States. The unincorporated community of Apple Creek is partially located in the town. With a population of 22,249, Grand Chute was the large ...

chose not to bid on the rights to host the event after 2018.

History

The original Veterans Memorial Stadium was built in 1949 for the Cedar Rapids Rockets of the

Central Association The Central Association was an American minor league baseball league. It began operations in 1908, as it was essentially renamed from the 1907 Iowa State League. The Central Association ran continuously through 1917. It was reorganized thirty year ...

. It later became home to the Cedar Rapids Indians (1950–1952), the Cedar Rapids Raiders (1953–1957), and the Cedar Rapids Braves (1958–1961) of the

Illinois–Indiana–Iowa League The Illinois–Indiana–Iowa League was a Minor League Baseball organization that operated for the better part of 60 seasons, with teams based in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska and Wisconsin. The league began pla ...

. From 1962 until its demolition, Cedar Rapids' Midwest League teams—which went through several name changes before becoming the Kernels in 1993—played their home games there. Kernels

During the 1990s, Veterans Memorial Stadium failed to meet many of

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

's new standards for minor league parks as newer facilities were opening in other Midwest League cities. On August 15, 2000, Cedar Rapids voters approved a referendum that helped provide some of the money needed to build a new ballpark adjacent to the old one. (Other funds came from the state of

Iowa Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to the ...

, the Kernels ballclub, and private donations.) The last game at the old Veterans Memorial Stadium was played on August 28, 2001, with the Kernels defeating the

Wisconsin Timber Rattlers The Wisconsin Timber Rattlers are a Minor League Baseball team of the Midwest League and the High-A affiliate of the Milwaukee Brewers. They are located in Grand Chute, Wisconsin, a town on the outskirts of Appleton, Wisconsin, Appleton in the Fox ...

, 4–1. The stadium was demolished shortly afterwards and the site now serves as a parking lot for the new stadium. The new Veterans Memorial Stadium was dedicated on April 7, 2002, but that day's scheduled game against the

Quad City River Bandits Quad as a word or prefix usually means 'four'. It may refer to: Government * Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, a strategic security dialogue between Australia, India, Japan, and the United States * Quadrilateral group, an informal group which in ...

was rained out. The first games were not played until April 9, when the Kernels swept a doubleheader from the River Bandits, 5–4 and 3–0. The ballpark was damaged by a derecho storm which hit Cedar Rapids on August 10, 2020. Damage was estimated at $1 million, with outfield walls, an electronic ribbon advertising board, and a light pole beyond right-center field all blown down.

References

External links

Cedar Rapids Kernels

{{coord, 41, 58, 5, N, 91, 41, 11, W, region:US, display=title Buildings and structures in Cedar Rapids, Iowa Baseball venues in Iowa Sports in Cedar Rapids, Iowa Minor league baseball venues Tourist attractions in Cedar Rapids, Iowa Monuments and memorials in Iowa 2002 establishments in Iowa Sports venues completed in 2002 Midwest League ballparks