Northwest Arkansas Naturals
Channel: all the knowledge of the universe PRINCIPIA
Date: 2022-01-13

Northwest Arkansas Naturals, by Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10060417 / CC BY SA 3.0

#Kansas_City_Royals_minor_league_affiliates
#Professional_baseball_teams_in_Arkansas
#Baseball_teams_established_in_2008
#Springdale,_Arkansas
#Former_Texas_League_teams
#2008_establishments_in_Arkansas
#Double-A_Central_teams
The Northwest Arkansas Naturals are a Minor League Baseball team based in Springdale, Arkansas, a suburb of Fayetteville, Arkansas.
The team is a member of the Double-A Central, and serves as the Double-A affiliate of the Kansas City Royals.
The Naturals play at Arvest Ballpark, which opened in 2008 and is located at the intersection of Gene George Boulevard and Watkins Avenue.
The team relocated from Wichita, Kansas, in 2008, where they were known as the Wichita Wranglers.
The Naturals were previously members of the Texas League from 2008 to 2020.
The Wichita Wranglers had struggled with low attendance numbers and an aging Lawrence–Dumont Stadium throughout Bob Rich Jr.'s 18-year ownership of the team.
In 2006, he sought a move to Springdale, contingent on a citizen vote to approve financing for a new stadium.
The pro-baseball movement in Springdale had counted on the support of Ronnie Floyd, influential pastor of local megachurch First Baptist Church of Springdale.
In June 2006, Floyd abruptly pulled his support after he discovered that the team would serve alcohol at games, making professional baseball a contentious and evenly split issue in Northwest Arkansas.
The July vote on a measure to extend a one-cent sales tax to raise $50 million for the stadium passed by only 15 votes.
The team's nickname plays off the state's nickname as the "Natural State," as well as the Robert Redford film, The Natural.
The Rich Family owes much of its baseball success to the film.
In 1983, Bob Rich Jr. bought the Double-A Buffalo Bisons, who had suffered low attendance the previous season, for $100,000.
That year, Hollywood producers approached Rich about fi...