Get your Instagram ready. A new banner is about to wave proudly at Modern Woodmen Park this year. The season hasn’t even started but the Quad Cities River Bandits just walked off a major win. The team’s ballpark was nominated as one of USA Today’s top 10 minor league ballparks in the world. As one of just four High-A or Low-A teams in the top 20, the River Bandits stadium took home the top spot.
This award is just the latest jewel in Modern Woodmen Park’s crown. Back in 2017, Midwest Living magazine tipped its hat to the park, ranking it as a Top-5 Ballpark in the Midwest. The accolades kept rolling in: the Best Ballpark Amusement Ride nod from MiLB.com, the crown for Best of the Ballparks at the Class-A level by Ballpark Digest, and a spot among the 10 Best Minor League Ballparks in 2015. In the world of minor league baseball, Modern Woodmen Park is essentially the Beyoncé of ballparks.
A well-deserved honor for a beautiful Midwest ballpark
I spoke with Dave Heller, the President & CEO of Main Street Baseball, LLC (the entity behind the stadium). He spoke about the importance of the award within the community.
“That award means a lot to our team, to be sure, but it means even more to our community. There are so many people who do so many awesome things here in the Quad Cities who never get the recognition and accolades they deserve. All too often, those of us in the Midwest are overlooked and underappreciated by folks on the coasts. So it means a lot when a national publication such as USA Today calls us the Best Minor League Ballpark in America. Yes, it’s a win for the River Bandits, but it’s a much bigger win for our entire community!”
Dave Heller, President and CEO, Main Street Baseball LLC.
When asked about the improvements or innovations at the ballpark contributing to this award, Heller detailed, “We are the only ballpark that has a park within a park — a small amusement park inside a minor league ballpark. We have a 105′ tall Ferris Wheel, a kids roller-coaster, the only double-decker carousel in baseball (and the only one anywhere between Chicago and Kansas City), a Drop-N-Twist, a couple of thrill rides, a Froghopper and a kiddie train. Everyone talks about family-friendly entertainment, but in Quad Cities we take it to a whole new level. These rides have not only increased attendance, they keep people at the ballpark longer because their kids are more entertained — and that’s how we’ve increased fan engagement and satisfaction. That, coupled with the fact that we have the very best views in all of baseball inside our ballpark — we look right out at the great Mississippi River!”
Regarding community engagement, Dave emphasized its crucial role in winning the award, “Community engagement was critical to our winning this award; the award was voted on by the general public and we in Quad Cities, a market of about 400,000 people, had to compete with big NFL cities such as Buffalo, Charlotte, Nashville and Las Vegas and NBA cities such as Oklahoma City, Salt Lake City, and Sacramento. We never could have won without strong support from the people here in our community. They support us because we support them.”
The River Bandits’ connections with the community go well beyond ballpark awards. “We have the single largest college scholarship program, our Bandits Scholars program, of any minor league baseball team in the country,” Heller continued. “[The River Bandits] give away $80,000 worth of college scholarships every year — full tuition paid scholarships to St. Ambrose University, Augustana College, Black Hawk College, and Eastern Iowa’s Community Colleges.”
Heller also mentioned other health impacts that Quad Cities provides to the community. From covering the cost of flu shots for all children in the Quad Cities areas to funding Camp Genesis — a support system for children dealing with cancer battles at home. The River Bandits provide funding to the Genesis Medical Center (in Davenport, Iowa) for their neonatal intensive care unit. The team is the largest funding partner of Family Connects. The program sends a nurse home for a full week with every newborn born to needy new mothers.
Looking ahead, Heller shared future plans for the ballpark, “Yes. We have two big plans. First, we want to get a new bridge built that will connect the ballpark all the way to Second Street, so that even during the worst of floods and during train delays, people will be able to easily access our ballpark. Second, we look forward to installing an escalator, so people can more easily enter and leave the ballpark.”
For Tickets To The Award Winning Ball Park head on over to https://www.milb.com/quad-cities.
Image Credit: Jesse Kirkendall, @JayKirkendall on X