KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Steve Carter’s fascination for Kansas City, Missouri’s Municipal Stadium began as a child.
“My first Chiefs game was 1969,” Carter said.
The retired Sprint employee grew up in Paola, Kansas, but attended Athletics, Royals and Chiefs games at the stadium at East 22nd Street and Brooklyn Avenue in Kansas City.
The city razed the building in the mid-1970s.
“[Being there] was so much different than seeing it on TV,” Carter said. “I never could quite figure out how the field’s laid out, how do they do this on a baseball field. I was really curious as to how all that worked out. So I had a fascination as a young kid.”
That fascination manifested itself about two and a half years ago. Carter began researching designs, plans and photographs of the stadium.
He decided to create a model to scale recreating the building which played a role in so many of his memories.
The model depicts Municipal Stadium during a Chiefs victory over the Raiders on Dec. 12, 1971.
From the score, to the advertisements, to the numbers of each gate — Carter didn’t overlook a single detail.
“I did some of it, then I tore it out and redid some of it,” he said. “Then I would find a photograph and say, 'Whoops, that’s not quite like what it was.”
Carter believes he spent less than $100 on wood and card stock for the project. He says the model is about 98 percent completed; he has a few details yet to add.
Carter would like to display the model somewhere publicly like at the Toys and Miniature Museum, or a sports museum so others could see it.
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