Downtown Baseball Stadium

[TheSmokinPun]

Probably would have been smarter to not include the rendering for something that doesn't even have a site in mind yet & is nowhere near the point of actually presenting real shots of it.

Guess they had to show something. I don't mind it though, need to fix the outfield big time but it's just a rendering.

[Rusty Irish]

Predictable reaction from the local rednecks worried about crime, traffic and tailgating. City would never get anywhere however catering to these people. Very promising news.

[GRID]

Finally some good news. Now I just need to stay far far away from KC social media for a few weeks or I might jump off a bridge.

I sometimes wonder how I even survive going to Nationals and O's games. Geez KC people stop being such rubes.

And I really hope they don't build a minor league sized park. At the very least, make it 30k. You have to have at least a 30k seat stadium. I mean come on.

Isn't Sporting KC now one of the smallest MLS stadiums in the league? Don't do that again.

[normalthings]

Finally some good news. Now I just need to stay far far away from KC social media for a few weeks or I might jump off a bridge.

I sometimes wonder how I even survive going to Nationals and O's games. Geez KC people stop being such rubes.

And I really hope they don't build a minor league sized park. At the very least, make it 30k. You have to have at least a 30k seat stadium. I mean come on.

Isn't Sporting KC now one of the smallest MLS stadiums in the league? Don't do that again.

“Have to have”. We need to build some thing that’s right size and will guarantee a good experience for years to come.

Sporting KC is in a growing league. MLB attendance and stadium sizes are going down. Build small but usually full I say

[Chris Stritzel]

This definitely looks like Pendulum a bit. Remember, they put out those concept renderings before and the roof structure on that was very similar to this. Hard to tell until we get a full stadium rendering instead of just hints, but it certainly appears that way.

If the associated developments are built at the same time as the stadium, it would likely be extremely beneficial to the neighborhood it's in and for the team itself (additional revenue generators from rent from apartments, office, and retail space).

Reading the press release, I get the assumption that this listening tour will roll into a countywide vote on the issue once a site, design, and scope are all selected. The benefits sound positive, but I think they're going to run into the problem of the suburban parts of Jackson County being opposed to the stadium going right into the heart of the "big" and "bad" city. And if they're saying the lease it up in basically 7 years, then I imagine the countywide vote would be held in 2025 (coincide with local elections in March or April of that year). We'll see though. It looks promising so far.

[GRID]

Finally some good news. Now I just need to stay far far away from KC social media for a few weeks or I might jump off a bridge.

I sometimes wonder how I even survive going to Nationals and O's games. Geez KC people stop being such rubes.

And I really hope they don't build a minor league sized park. At the very least, make it 30k. You have to have at least a 30k seat stadium. I mean come on.

Isn't Sporting KC now one of the smallest MLS stadiums in the league? Don't do that again.

“Have to have”. We need to build some thing that’s right size and will guarantee a good experience for years to come.

Sporting KC is in a growing league. MLB attendance and stadium sizes are going down. Build small but usually full I say

Smaller is fine. 28k is ridiculous. Attendance is not going down that much. If the Royals can't draw 30k on a fri or sat night, then they probably shouldn't be in KC anymore.

[DColeKC]

Understand this is a quick rendering but not a fan of the stadium at all. I'll assume like the rest on here that it's just for the press release.

Also, "near downtown" scares me but that's probably just to keep the rumor mill flying and the land acquisition pricing down.

[normalthings]

“Have to have”. We need to build some thing that’s right size and will guarantee a good experience for years to come.

Sporting KC is in a growing league. MLB attendance and stadium sizes are going down. Build small but usually full I say

Smaller is fine. 28k is ridiculous. Attendance is not going down that much. If the Royals can't draw 30k on a fri or sat night, then they probably shouldn't be in KC anymore.

I guess I have some really bad news to tell you? Friday night attendance has been dramatically below 30K. Saturday's ranging from dramatically to well below.

[beautyfromashes]

Smaller capacity saves a lot of money. Each additional seat cost grows exponentially at some point. So, you're paying much more for a bad seat built by concrete and steel on a pedestal over the cheaper seats that generate more revenue.

On the design, it feels like a design trying to build the K in an urban environment. Perhaps this is on purpose and they want people to feel comfortable that the experience isn't going to be much different from the current experience besides the parking (horror shriek!) aspect. Glad to see some progress and wonderful to hear that they want to move much sooner than the end of the lease. It does sure make that last retrofit of the K a terrible deal if they jump out years early after we gave them SO MUCH MONEY to put lipstick on a suburban pig.

[GRID]

“Have to have”. We need to build some thing that’s right size and will guarantee a good experience for years to come.

Sporting KC is in a growing league. MLB attendance and stadium sizes are going down. Build small but usually full I say

Smaller is fine. 28k is ridiculous. Attendance is not going down that much. If the Royals can't draw 30k on a fri or sat night, then they probably shouldn't be in KC anymore.

I guess I have some really bad news to tell you? Friday night attendance has been dramatically below 30K. Saturday's ranging from dramatically to well below.

Because the Royals draw like shit now. They can't even draw 30k to home opener. I would hope a downtown stadium would help fix that problem. The Royals are much worse than the league as a whole and the only teams that are really worse than KC as far as attendance are the teams with terrible stadiums. (Tampa and Oakland) or just terrible organizations (Miami).

I would hope KC can easily get back to having many weekends a year drawing 30-32k for Fri and Sat nights. That's not a lot to ask and still way lower than what it should be. And when they say stadiums are getting smaller, they are. They are now typically around 40k when they used to be 50k and up.

Building a 28k stadium just means you have given up drawing MLB sized crowds and maybe that's were KC is now. If they do build a stadium that small, the rest of the stadium better make up for it or it will feel like a major downgrade from Kauffman. Just my opinion.

[FlippantCitizen]

I would prefer a cautiously optimistic 32k seat stadium. Agree under 30k just looks bad. 30k should be a minimum benchmark. We can downsize from Kauffman a bit but 28k (wherever GRID is getting that number??) does seem small.

[Cratedigger]

Grid name one minor league baseball stadium over 20k.
https://www.baseballpilgrimages.com/ba ... rrent.html

28k is plenty to be a “Major League” stadium. Whatever that means.

Regardless, I’d rather build it smaller and make the experience better. Sell it out, make it an event, make it mean something again.

[FlippantCitizen]

Grid name one minor league baseball stadium over 20k.
https://www.baseballpilgrimages.com/ba ... rrent.html

28k is plenty to be a “Major League” stadium. Whatever that means.

Regardless, I’d rather build it smaller and make the experience better. Sell it out, make it an event, make it mean something again.

Pretty sure 28k would put us at the smallest MLB stadium. Not by a whole lot but pretty sure it would be smallest. Shoot for approximately 30k, +/- 2k and I think we'll be just fine.

Edit: yeah, looking it up; Cleveland has the smallest ballpark in the MLB capacity-wise. 34.8k. Coming in 5k under the smallest current ballpark would be a fairly bad look. I'll stick to my guns and say 32k would be a sweet spot. Don't mind being smallest, but not by such a huge margin.

[GRID]

More like 7k smaller than the smallest. I'm just saying 28k is just too small. 32k is fine. I think 34k is the most KC can possibly average anyway and that was during the back to back WS run. But building an extra small ballpark for a MLB team just seems silly.

I also think the Royals would be making a big mistake not having at least 32k seats for when the team can draw that well. That way 25k will still feel very full, but the stadium won't feel like Omaha's college world series stadium.

[earthling]

No so sure this can fly with only 'hundreds of millions' of private investment for a $2B project, implies over $1B in public aid. And E Jack, possibly S Jack not likely to vote for Royals move even if same tax level. Won't dismiss it yet, need more details, but not looking like a great proposition so far.

[GRID]

No so sure this can fly with only 'hundreds of millions' of private investment for a $2B project, implies over $1B in public aid. And E Jack, possibly S Jack not likely to vote for Royals move even if same tax level. Won't dismiss it yet, need more details, but not looking like a great proposition so far.

I think they would if it was tied to the Chiefs staying at the sports complex.

[FlippantCitizen]

More like 7k smaller than the smallest. I'm just saying 28k is just too small. 32k is fine. I think 34k is the most KC can possibly average anyway and that was during the back to back WS run. But building an extra small ballpark for a MLB team just seems silly.

I also think the Royals would be making a big mistake not having at least 32k seats for when the team can draw that well. That way 25k will still feel very full, but the stadium won't feel like Omaha's college world series stadium.

Just curious where the 28k number comes from. Have you ever seen/heard anything from a somewhat credible source suggesting something that low? I have not.

[GRID]

More like 7k smaller than the smallest. I'm just saying 28k is just too small. 32k is fine. I think 34k is the most KC can possibly average anyway and that was during the back to back WS run. But building an extra small ballpark for a MLB team just seems silly.

I also think the Royals would be making a big mistake not having at least 32k seats for when the team can draw that well. That way 25k will still feel very full, but the stadium won't feel like Omaha's college world series stadium.

Just curious where the 28k number comes from. Have you ever seen/heard anything from a somewhat credible source suggesting something that low? I have not.

Have read and heard it several times and people here that are more connected to the process don't deny it. Plus every rendering they put out seems to indicate a small stadium with very small upper decks etc.

[KCtoBrooklyn]

Finally some good news. Now I just need to stay far far away from KC social media for a few weeks or I might jump off a bridge.

I sometimes wonder how I even survive going to Nationals and O's games. Geez KC people stop being such rubes.

And I really hope they don't build a minor league sized park. At the very least, make it 30k. You have to have at least a 30k seat stadium. I mean come on.

Isn't Sporting KC now one of the smallest MLS stadiums in the league? Don't do that again.

Children's Mercy Park is the 4th smallest stadium by official capacity, but the considerable SRO capability jumps it up a decent amount (and why they generally have attendance well over capacity). But while the stadium was being planned and built the league was averaging only around 15-16k (and the Wizards were averaging around 10k). At the time, the capacity seemed ample. But now, league wide average is in the 21-22k range (which makes me think STL will quickly regret only having 22,500 capacity, while Nashville just built a 30k stadium).

Average MLB attendance has been on the decline with the peak years in '07 and '08 averaging over 32k, down to 26.5k last year. Who knows what the future will hold, but all signs point toward a decline in interest in the league. I think 30k would be fine.

[alejandro46]

Anyways I’m very interested to understand how we are going to afford $2B for Royals, $2B for chiefs and not raise more taxes. Would love a regional initiative but just a hard sell.