Well Platte County, what’s in it for us if Kansas City Royals baseball team owner John Sherman gets his wish for a new stadium? Baseball nirvana? Well I doubt it. But the new stadium proposal is the most talked about Royals subject this summer, in part because the team is one of the worst in Major League Baseball.
The most Royals fun so far this summer is watching rookies come up and get their shot at the major leagues. For some, it’s been a quick turn around back to Omaha. Some of us can’t help watching no matter the score. But it’s been a painful summer.
Bill Graham
Meanwhile, Sherman and the ownership team say they want to build a new estimated $2 billion project (these things always wind up costing more than projected in the end). One billion for a new baseball stadium, another billion for an entertainment complex around the stadium that they would control. Location? One site proposed is in the so-called East Village area of downtown Kansas City. Another site is at the site of a former bowling alley and meeting hall in North Kansas City. Sherman says a new stadium would generate more revenue for the team and in theory make the team more competitive.
Competitive is a sore point for the Royals this summer. Why not now?
Does it matter to Platte Countians if a new stadium is built and which site option is chosen? What about the several times remodeled Kauffman Stadium conveniently located between Interstate 70 and Interstate 435 in eastern KC?
If you prefer to shorten your drive, either the Downtown or NKC site would do the trick. It’s about 40 minutes or so to get near Kauffman from Platte City when you swing east on I-435, another 20 minutes or more getting parked, depending on crowd size. The miles are shorter to Downtown. It’s a hop-skip-and jump from Riverside and Parkville to NKC if a stadium went there, and no congested Missouri River crossing.
But when talking time as well as miles, how long are you willing to circle around in a downtown setting to look for a paid parking spot?
A well-informed and one-time city official told me that the downtown stadium thinking is that most game attendance would be from people who work and live downtown. Business types taking clients to a game and so forth. They won’t need parking and will use public transit. That thinking leaves most of us circling looking for parking and likely paying handsomely if we find it.
Lest you think I’m an old fogey, well . . .
I am old enough to remember in my grade school years, my father driving our car in circles around the old Municipal Stadium so we could watch the Kansas City Athletics play. We had to pick out which yard in front of a house we were going to pay to park in. I did once get to see Roger Maris hit two homers against the Athletics in one game during his 1961 duel with Mickey Mantle for the home run crown.
Fast forward to the early 1970s, and my father took my brothers and I to see the Royals play at the brand new Kauffman Stadium. I remember how nice it was to have expansive parking lots that could accommodate thousands of cars and people. Since then I’ve been to the ballpark by myself and with others many times. Getting parked I’ve never worried about. My confidence in a downtown site providing the same is low.
The Royals have always drawn fans from a wide multi-state area. Folks from the country often don’t like to fight with the big city. But that doesn’t seem to matter in discussions ongoing now. Also, downtown is already a congested bottleneck to drive through, I do it often. I can’t see game day helping that.
So what about the NKC site? Hey it would bring the Royals into the Northland. Clay County is our sister county in the metro. County leaders there are making a strong pitch. You could see the tall buildings of Downtown KC from there if you were up in the upper decks.
Myself and other pundits have figured Clay County and the city of North Kansas City are playing a long shot because it’s worth a try. But Sherman and the Royals likely see them as a bargaining chip against Jackson County and Kansas City. But the NKC site did throw a scare into someone on the editorial board of The Kansas City Star. They wrote an editorial saying why build a downtown stadium if it’s not downtown. They lamented that if it went to NKC, the poor fans would have to drive north of the river to attend games. Well boo hoo. What a snooty point to make. Sorry about the scare Brookside resident. In Platte County, we’re not worried about people having to drive across the river. I’ve wondered if Johnson Countians not wanting to drive to Missouri for a ball game is part of this?
The opinions on the need for an entertainment district around a stadium may vary according to age. I recently was in Michigan and watched the minor league high-A Lansing Lugnuts play the Cedar Falls Colonels. The young people wore the team ball caps and sat at tables and drank beer and yakked. Older folks watched the ball game. The desire for a big party before, during, and after a game is stronger in the young. It’s true that an entertainment district would separate a lot of money fast from fans for the team owners.
Light rail from the KCI corridor along I-29 to downtown and points beyond would increase my enthusiasm for a new stadium. I think it will happen someday, but well beyond my lifetime.
The growing population in Platte County that live within the city limits of Kansas City have a stake in this. Their city tax dollars would be in play. They would likely vote on some type of funding proposal. Chunks of that $2 billion are going to come on the backs of taxpayers, state, county, and city.
Kauffman Stadium has always seemed fine to me, especially once the grass field returned and artificial turf was retired. As is, we pay plenty to go watch millionaires and other very well paid major leaguers pitch, catch, throw, and hit a small ball in a game that’s supposed to be fun. I can’t find any fun in spending $2 billion to replace a perfectly good baseball stadium so the rich can get richer.
Bill Graham is a long-time commentator on Platte County and its history. He lives in the Platte City area and can be reached at editor@plattecountycitizen.com.