One of the neat things about Kaufmann Stadium in Kansas City is the fountains that they call the “Water Spectacular” in the outfield. Unfortunately for television viewers of the game between the Kansas City Royals and the Minnesota Twins on Thursday, the fountains made it tough to see the action on the field.
The reason for that is because high winds kept blowing fountain water into the center field camera at Kaufmann Stadium.
The 322-foot wide fountains have been in operation since the stadium opened in 1973. They are the largest privately funded fountains in the world and have become synonymous with Kansas City Royals’ games.
On Thursday night, however, wind gusts of up to 55 miles per hour sprayed water from the fountains onto the camera in center field. Normally, broadcasters would use this as the default view of the game for any Major League Baseball broadcast.
The high winds made that almost impossible at times Thursday night as water droplets, mist, and the shaking of the camera forced the broadcast to change things up.
The high winds forced the broadcast to make an unusual change
The winds forced both the Twins and Royals’ broadcasts of the game to make the unusual move of showing portions of the game from a camera behind home plate.
“We’re showing you a different image of the at-bats because our cameras in center field are just not able to work right now with the wind that we have blowing from the fountains into the lenses of the cameras,” Twins broadcaster Cory Provus explained during the game.
Typically, the fountains operate before and after games and between innings. They shoot streams of water up to 70 feet high, while waterfalls operate continuously. During night games, different-colored lights illuminate the fountains, creating a visual spectacle. Thursday night, it might have been better to just shut the whole thing off completely because of a whole different kind of spectacle.