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Udris: Build baseball stadium Downtown

Jim Davis
Staff Writer

Kansas City's economic development leader said Tuesday that he hopes a baseball stadium will be built Downtown for the Kansas City Royals.


Andi Udris, CEO of the Economic Development Corp. of Kansas City, said a downtown location would boost the Royals' ticket sales. More downtown businesses would buy luxury boxes, he said during a speech at The Central Exchange.

Downtown also is accessible to more people throughout the area than Kauffman Stadium in Eastern Jackson County, Udris said.

"If you move the stadium Downtown, you're a 20-minute drive for everyone," he said.

The new stadium also would draw more weekend travelers from surrounding cities within a 300-mile radius who could visit a downtown entertainment district that's expected to open in the summer of 2006, he said.

Kauffman Stadium, where the Royals have played since 1972, offers no such adjacency, he said.

"There's nothing to do there," he said.

Udris said a new stadium could use parking that's used by downtown businesses during the week. About 45,000 spaces are now available or planned Downtown, he said. An additional 30,000 spaces are in and near Crown Center.

This capacity argues against building a stadium on property the city wants to develop next to Richard L. Berkley Riverfront Park, Udris said, because hardly any parking is available near that site.

Udris said a new stadium would take years to build. He also said the Kansas City Chiefs ought to remain at Arrowhead Stadium. His long-term vision could involve converting Kauffman Stadium for the Kansas City Wizards to play soccer.

I'd like to see the new stadium built over the N freeway loop and connect City Market to the Loop. The N loop needs to be capped too. We need City Market to CBD to Crossroads to be one seamless downtown that is pedestrian friendly throughout.

Crown Center would be my second choice.

ignatius wrote:We need City Market to CBD to Crossroads to be one seamless downtown that is pedestrian friendly throughout.

We need the Riverfront to the Plaza to be one seamless urban core that is pedestrian friendly throughout.

THE CITY MARKET LOcation will not provide good vistas due to the necessary positioning of the field..whereas CC location will provides great vistas of skyline, which will add to the overall experience(since our team will always suck, scenic vistas will be almost a requirement to enhance the game interest)

I hope Udris is only the first of many top public officials to come out in support of a downtown stadium. Let's get this out in the open and get the momentum started.

eliphar17 wrote:I hope Udris is only the first of many top public officials to come out in support of a downtown stadium. Let's get this out in the open and get the momentum started.

I'm starting to really wonder what is going on. It really sounds like there are some major behind the scenes work being done on this.

Thing is, that is how it has to happen in KC. Behind the scenes. Like the arena, the public would have torn any early arena proposals apart before it even had a chance to get any traction. Same wil happen with a ballpark.

This is just the beginning in a larger paradigm shift that started when usually pro-metro mayors like Peggy Dunn in Leawood and Lori Hirons in Roeland Park rightfully questioned the Bistate 2 plan hatched by a secret committee of the Chamber of Commerce.

We need to start over with a process like what was used for the FOCUS plan - lots of community forums all over the metro area. Let people feel like they have some input, and they'll be more likely support a tax even if they don't agree with all of the final details.

Then, start working on new state legislation to separate the cultural and sports components. Each one can and should stand on its own, but only if proponents put out a good plan for spending the money.

I strongly disagree with dangerboy....A downtown stadium has GOT to be done privately and behind the scenes with minimal public assistance or input....It will never fly otherwise..People at community forums like to bitch and be NIMBY and thats about it.
The concept of MLB evolving into an intensely urban "retro" (read: 1920's) entertainment experience escapes most people . Average Joe thinks the K is just fine.

Keeping baseball at the K will ultimatley doom this sport here in KC(as others have already mentioned)!

I think it should be a private-public partnership. Govt should stay out of the way, but should also not be expected to finance the project. But it should grease the wheels with tax abatements and cheap land.

If the businesses want to pay for it themselves, then fine, plan it in private. But if they want any public subsidy then it absolutely has to be discussed in public.

The failure of Bistate 2 is a huge glaring example of this. It was hatched in private, then foisted on the public with a few token public forums. It failed miserably.

I think omenapt is right. Most people in this metro area seem to lack any vision.
The public will thank the city after it's built and in use. After they see it is a good thing.

Critical_Mass wrote:I think omenapt is right. Most people in this metro area seem to lack any vision.
The public will thank the city after it's built and in use. After they see it is a good thing.

I think the point is that you have to make people feel like they're involved even if they're not. It is a strictly political move.

technically the public voice is represented by the elected city officials. I think the public should be on what's happening absolutely, but i think that would be easily done if the mayor states what the city's (i.e people of the city's) position is on what should be developed and how. If you disagree with what the mayor says then you go and bitch the mayor out.

Critical_Mass wrote:I think omenapt is right. Most people in this metro area seem to lack any vision.
The public will thank the city after it's built and in use. After they see it is a good thing.

Most metro dwellers are either unaware of what is going on DT, have given it up for dead, or plain don't care. The Power & Light development, arena and the host of ongoing and proposed developments will start turning heads and changing minds. Unfortunately, that is a few years down the road. Plan the stadium in private and go public when DT has been declared a success and people start to see it again as a destination. Hopefully, that will generate excitement for anybody but the most diehard suburbanite. Anything before that will probably fall on deaf ears.

Most everyone, even out here in rural KC, know about the Arena (although they call it a stadium )
But most don't know about the P&L District or anything else...

One of my dumb teachers went off topic and eventually said that her issue was where people would park...
That is something I hate... Rural people are too sheltered to think of anything other than parking lots...

KCDevin wrote:Most everyone, even out here in rural KC, know about the Arena (although they call it a stadium )
But most don't know about the P&L District or anything else...

One of my dumb teachers went off topic and eventually said that her issue was where people would park...
That is something I hate... Rural people are too sheltered to think of anything other than parking lots...

I get the same thing from people all the time. I'll be talking in my usual rabidly urbanistic tone, and without fail, whoever I'm talking to then asks " So where will everyone park."

Americans just can't invision a lifestyle or a place where cars aren't the f***ing organizing principle of our lives.

Tosspot wrote:

KCDevin wrote:Most everyone, even out here in rural KC, know about the Arena (although they call it a stadium )
But most don't know about the P&L District or anything else...

One of my dumb teachers went off topic and eventually said that her issue was where people would park...
That is something I hate... Rural people are too sheltered to think of anything other than parking lots...

I get the same thing from people all the time. I'll be talking in my usual rabidly urbanistic tone, and without fail, whoever I'm talking to then asks " So where will everyone park."

Americans just can't invision a lifestyle or a place where cars aren't the f***ing organizing principle of our lives.

Not an issue anyway, plenty of parking DT, just seems like less because it's not one big parking lot (well, parts of it are but that will soon change).