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Royals Don't Want Downtown Ballpark.
By Nick Scott
It is over. The great idea and forward thinking of a new downtown baseball stadium for the Royals was put to an abrupt halt on Friday, with a hastily thrown together press conference. Dan Glass, the son of Royals owner David Glass, Jackson County Executive Katheryn Shields, and Mayor Barnes were all present to deflate the hopes and dreams of progressive Kansas Citians.
The move was startling in it's timing, only 20 days into the 100 day waiting period imposed by Jackson County to study the possibility of a downtown baseball park.
Katheryn Shields kept hammering away with the phrase "keeping our community major league", as if somehow the thought of building a new stadium in a revitalized downtown with a new and acceptable lease agreement is minor league.
Dan Glass was also repeating his one talking point about how the fans do not want a downtown stadium, saying
"I've heard it from countless numbers of fans, from businesses, from people who support us and buy tickets. It's my judgment that far and away the greatest percentage of people want to stay where we are. That's my take and my call on the thing."
He later slightly retracted the idea that he has heard from many fans saying it was "a gut feeling"
Glass' gut feeling can be nothing like the feeling currently in my gut. I feel we have been crushed by the powers that be. I would agree that Kauffman Stadium is a fantastic place to see baseball, but there are major problems with it. It is one of the oldest stadiums in baseball and needs millions of dollars in upkeep. There is absolutely nothing to do near or around the stadium. You drive in, drive out and go home. The most glaring problem is the horrible lease signed by Jackson County that will be defaulted on soon regardless of the $40 million dollars we are getting scammed out of.
Considering all of these obvious problems with the current stadium and the obvious benefits of a new stadium, why on earth would the Royals and the city not want to get this done? Has there ever been a baseball team on the face of the earth that held a press conference to say that they would not want a new stadium? Something just does not add up here. It would be one thing if the proposal came back and it was something the Royals would not be able to do, or would not be feasible, but they did not even get to the point where they received the proposal. What business would turn down the prospect of a new, taxpayer financed building?
The unsung anti-hero in all of this is the Kansas City Chiefs. It may seem strange that a football team would be so integral to the building of a baseball stadium, but welcome to Kansas City. The Chiefs love being tied to the Royals because they can get whatever the Royals get from the taxpayers.At first glance it may seem that since they are both local sports teams at the same location they should be treated equally, and that is exactly what the Chiefs want you to think. The similarities in the teams ends right there, and the glaring differences are shown immediately.
The Chiefs make tens of millions of dollars a year because of the remarkable job the NFL has done to keep competitive balance and revenue sharing. Also, the chiefs only play 8 home games a year. That is just 8 days of economic impact from traveling fans and such.
It would seem unfair to punish the Chiefs for the great job the NFL has done to make their business a level playing field, but it is even more unfair to punish the Royals for the poor job MLB has done of doing the same. The Royals need our help now to stay competitive and to stay in Kansas City; a downtown ballpark would do just that. However, as tax payers we are not in the business of helping out sports teams, we want to improve the lives of the citizens of our city, so when we spend money we want a good ROI (return on investment). Giving the Chiefs money is just adding to the bottom line profit of an already profitable team, but investing money in the Royals will achieve a great ROI. How? Let's get back to the 8 dates a year the Chiefs play in Kansas City. The Royals play 81 games per year at home, which is 81 days for people to travel to our city and pay taxes on all kinds of stuff. That is where you get your money back, and the best way to get the most out of that money is to build a downtown ballpark.
I can't blame the Chiefs for wanting to get as much money as they can; they are in the business of making money. However, if they are involved in getting the Royals to stay at the sports complex then they have taken greed to an all-new level. I have no facts to prove that the Chiefs are the reason for this strange unfolding of events, but when their neighbors have the possibility of $200 million in a new stadium, and nobody even talking about Arrowhead, it seems very probable. Of course, the Royals could not be completely complicit in all of this. They have just realized that they are better off in a unified front with the Chiefs to milk as much taxpayer money out of us as they can.
This whole fiasco just underlines the fact that we must separate these teams in the future in order to keep from getting fleeced from both teams when something is only needed for one team. The downtown ballpark was the ideal solution to many of our sports team ills in this city. I am disheartened and dismayed that the civic leadership let this happen. I expect this small-time thinking from Katheryn Shields, but shame on you Kay Barnes, you were the one person who could have made this happen and you just sat by idly and got steamrolled. You even looked flat at the press conference.
