Veterans Memorial Stadium II

The front of Veterans Memorial Stadium, including the war memorial.

The seating bowl and roof, from the left-center field concourse.

Here, the netting stretches all the way to field level without a curb, so field level seats are actually at field level.

Chronological Tour: Stop 249

• Location: 8th Avenue at 15th Street SW, Cedar Rapids, Iowa (map it using Google Maps)
• Opened: 2002 as Veterans Memorial Stadium
• Additional names: Perfect Game Field (2009-19)
• Home team: Cedar Rapids Kernels, Midwest League (2002-present)
• Capacity: 6,000

Rating: 3 baseballs

The biggest shortcoming I found with Cedar Vet II was its access and egress. There's only one entrance to the park, off the parking lot in left field – and there's only the one exit, too. On my initial visit, emergency exits were not opened to let fans get out into the parking lot after the game; by 2018 that had been rectified.

The park looks nice enough, but it seems the current management has bent over backward to make things uncomfortable for the fans. This includes the overuse of between-innings video and between-batters music. (By 2023, most of that extra sound was being imparted by sponsorship announcements.) The park itself is sunken from the concourse / parking lot level, although the lay of the land makes field level about even with the surrounding outfield ground.

On a return visit in 2015, a capacity crowd, combined with a number of stations for charity silent auctions, combined to make the concourse nearly impassable.

On the plus side, the park features a marquee board for the starting lineups, which is uncommon; I've also seen it at Centennial Field in Burlington, Vt., and Principal Park in Des Moines. That board had been replaced by a video display at the time of my 2023 visit.

The field naming sponsor for 2009-19, Perfect Game USA, is a provider of amateur scouting services and tournaments based in Marion, just east of Cedar Rapids.