American Royal BBQ

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MidtownCat
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American Royal BBQ

Post by MidtownCat »

We could write a book on how we killed this once great Kansas City tradition.
brewcrew1000
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Re: American Royal BBQ

Post by brewcrew1000 »

It never really seemed like a KC Tradition to me. I felt like its always been a "Who u know" event that didn't give a shit about the public or community but if know people in the Royal then its probably amazing.
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KCPowercat
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Re: American Royal BBQ

Post by KCPowercat »

It works pretty well at the speedway except transportation sucks and it feels too clean. Nice big space for teams though
shinatoo
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Re: American Royal BBQ

Post by shinatoo »

brewcrew1000 wrote: Sun Sep 16, 2018 10:20 am It never really seemed like a KC Tradition to me. I felt like its always been a "Who u know" event that didn't give a shit about the public or community but if know people in the Royal then its probably amazing.

Exactly. Now you can just get a ticket and walk in to the general area. (Could you do that before?) Also, 487 teams cooking out there. I doub't they could accomidate that many in the west bottoms. Judges area was so full they had to put tables outside.


Only thing I don't like was about the venue was walking into the infield. Odd angle of steps going down to the track, and the track is a pretty good slope. No issues for me, but a lot of that crowd wouldn't qualify as "healthy and fit". Noted many that had to stop and rest on the way out. Can't imagine what it was like for the drunks.

Probably would be easier on everyone to have it in one of the parking fields, but there is so much infrastructure already setup in the track infield, I'm sure it's hard to pass up.

Overlall would prefer to have it closer to downtown, but it's outgrown it's space, and this is as good of place as any.

TL:DR: If you are into the party aspect it certainly has diminished, if you're into the compitition it's a much better venue.
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normalthings
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Re: American Royal BBQ

Post by normalthings »

I'd heard the event becomes more and more about private tents over the years. Additionally, I think there may have been a second flatter entrance towards the back left.
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KCPowercat
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Re: American Royal BBQ

Post by KCPowercat »

It did seem more corporate than ever...even the smaller parties were generally a vendor of something.
shinatoo
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Re: American Royal BBQ

Post by shinatoo »

normalthings wrote: Mon Sep 17, 2018 7:44 am I'd heard the event becomes more and more about private tents over the years. Additionally, I think there may have been a second flatter entrance towards the back left.
Not sure how you make the entrance flatter since the entire track is banked. There is a tunnel that they were running a tram through that was free for everyone. I think I would position the main entrance and parking around the tunnel in the future.
bobbyhawks
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Re: American Royal BBQ

Post by bobbyhawks »

shinatoo wrote: Mon Sep 17, 2018 6:38 am
brewcrew1000 wrote: Sun Sep 16, 2018 10:20 am It never really seemed like a KC Tradition to me. I felt like its always been a "Who u know" event that didn't give a shit about the public or community but if know people in the Royal then its probably amazing.

Exactly. Now you can just get a ticket and walk in to the general area. (Could you do that before?) Also, 487 teams cooking out there. I doub't they could accomidate that many in the west bottoms. Judges area was so full they had to put tables outside.


Only thing I don't like was about the venue was walking into the infield. Odd angle of steps going down to the track, and the track is a pretty good slope. No issues for me, but a lot of that crowd wouldn't qualify as "healthy and fit". Noted many that had to stop and rest on the way out. Can't imagine what it was like for the drunks.

Probably would be easier on everyone to have it in one of the parking fields, but there is so much infrastructure already setup in the track infield, I'm sure it's hard to pass up.

Overlall would prefer to have it closer to downtown, but it's outgrown it's space, and this is as good of place as any.

TL:DR: If you are into the party aspect it certainly has diminished, if you're into the compitition it's a much better venue.
I'm pretty sure there were well over 500 competitors in the last year at Kemper. Also, you've been able to get a ticket and just walk in to the general area for many many years.
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normalthings
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Re: American Royal BBQ

Post by normalthings »

shinatoo wrote: Mon Sep 17, 2018 9:32 am
normalthings wrote: Mon Sep 17, 2018 7:44 am I'd heard the event becomes more and more about private tents over the years. Additionally, I think there may have been a second flatter entrance towards the back left.
Not sure how you make the entrance flatter since the entire track is banked. There is a tunnel that they were running a tram through that was free for everyone. I think I would position the main entrance and parking around the tunnel in the future.
I think the team may have been the other entrance that I was talking about.
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normalthings
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Re: American Royal BBQ

Post by normalthings »

KCPowercat wrote: Mon Sep 17, 2018 8:25 am It did seem more corporate than ever...even the smaller parties were generally a vendor of something.
Yea I didn’t really get why you’d go except for 1. being a sponsor or 2. Knowing a competitor.
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KCPowercat
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Re: American Royal BBQ

Post by KCPowercat »

They did sell tickets this year that had a tasting element... But yeah pretty boring event if you aren't invited to a party.
flyingember
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Re: American Royal BBQ

Post by flyingember »

I went by one year on a Saturday to see it, they didn't ticket every entrance for some reason.

It was absolutely dead. Not even parties going on. There was so much room to actually have something going on.
One entire parking garage in the area was empty so it's not like they were short of parking.
bobbyhawks
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Re: American Royal BBQ

Post by bobbyhawks »

flyingember wrote: Mon Sep 17, 2018 11:52 am I went by one year on a Saturday to see it, they didn't ticket every entrance for some reason.

It was absolutely dead. Not even parties going on. There was so much room to actually have something going on.
One entire parking garage in the area was empty so it's not like they were short of parking.
Friday night was the main party night. Saturday was def. not the night to go if you wanted to see a lively atmosphere.
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Cratedigger
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Re: American Royal BBQ

Post by Cratedigger »

Maybe old news to some, but I didn’t realize the American royal was building a $200+ million facility out by the speedway

Just received $3 million in Kansas BASE funds

https://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity ... -list.html
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