Downtown Baseball Stadium

[KCPowercat]

A little outreach would have went a long way with those business owners. Again it was the Royals who said they wanted to be transparent, until they weren't.

[DColeKC]

Fair enough.

[im2kull]

The other opposition groups essentially have zero funding but they’re loud.

FYSA KCT's latest financial filings show they have a few million dollars in cash assets.

Don't make the same mistake others make in failing to recognize this. They're not from humble beginnings, and they're certainly not a small town, grass-roots organization at their core.

[im2kull]

If the vote fails (and I think it probably will unless there is a last minute marketing miracle), I think it will be time to rise up against KC Tenants. The amount of damage they are doing to the future of KC is starting to become unimaginable.

What actual damage have they done again? I mean I'm obviously pro dev but they have valid points they bring up.

I'll take on any wagers of this vote failing.

I'm glad you asked. I'm keeping track, so lets look at the receipts. KC Tenants (In large part due to the ignorance of others who consistently minimize them and fail to recognize their legitimate political and social reach) has:

Stalled or cancelled 19 projects comprising 172 vertical floors of construction, eliminating 4,400 proposed units of housing, 1,200 hotel rooms, and $3,721,900,000 worth of development.

This can be expected to grow exponentially with pending Royals EC failure.

[bricknose]

I'm glad you asked. I'm keeping track, so lets look at the receipts. KC Tenants (In large part due to the ignorance of others who consistently minimize them and fail to recognize their legitimate political and social reach) has:

Stalled or cancelled 19 projects comprising 172 vertical floors of construction, eliminating 4,400 proposed units of housing, 1,200 hotel rooms, and $3,721,900,000 worth of development.

This can be expected to grow exponentially with pending Royals EC failure.

And how many units of affordable housing have they successfully caused to be created, since that is their #1 issue?

[kcjak]

Why isn't there a concentrated push to counter misperceptions about parking? Or that some of the revenue from the hotel/conference center would go into the team payroll instead of the owner's pockets? Or the benefit of reducing subsidies to the P&L? Or that taking the streetcar could result in free parking?
Maybe it's out there and I'm just not seeing it, but right now there's a pretty significant wave of conspiracies, mistruths and people afraid they'll have to walk forever and pay $40-$50 to park in a dark, dangerous corner of a parking garage that will take hours to exit.

[bricknose]

Speaking of mistruths and misinformation, the KC Star has many articles that express the opinions of KC
Tenants, and each time, I find myself searching for the rebuttal portion of the article, but I don’t find one.

The Royals need to respond and push back on allegations. They should have done so since last week. I can understand a pause in more fanfare given the parade shooting, but not responding to KCT’s claims makes it seem like those claims are accurate.

[Anthony_Hugo98]

Why isn't there a concentrated push to counter misperceptions about parking? Or that some of the revenue from the hotel/conference center would go into the team payroll instead of the owner's pockets? Or the benefit of reducing subsidies to the P&L? Or that taking the streetcar could result in free parking?
Maybe it's out there and I'm just not seeing it, but right now there's a pretty significant wave of conspiracies, mistruths and people afraid they'll have to walk forever and pay $40-$50 to park in a dark, dangerous corner of a parking garage that will take hours to exit.

I’m fucking trying, it’s just really hard to reply to peoples comments on social media in enough of an amount to make any discernible change.

[KCPowercat]

If the vote fails (and I think it probably will unless there is a last minute marketing miracle), I think it will be time to rise up against KC Tenants. The amount of damage they are doing to the future of KC is starting to become unimaginable.

What actual damage have they done again? I mean I'm obviously pro dev but they have valid points they bring up.

I'll take on any wagers of this vote failing.

I'm glad you asked. I'm keeping track, so lets look at the receipts. KC Tenants (In large part due to the ignorance of others who consistently minimize them and fail to recognize their legitimate political and social reach) has:

Stalled or cancelled 19 projects comprising 172 vertical floors of construction, eliminating 4,400 proposed units of housing, 1,200 hotel rooms, and $3,721,900,000 worth of development.

This can be expected to grow exponentially with pending Royals EC failure.

You are giving them entirely too much credit. I'd guess 15 of those projects failed anyways.

[dnweava]

Why isn't there a concentrated push to counter misperceptions about parking?

and now news just came out that parking at Current KC's stadium will be $68 per game just added more fuel on the fire for everyone freaking out about downtown parking.

The Chiefs need to come out and make this election about them, they need to take the heat off the Royals because they seemingly can't stop the bleeding.

[DaveKCMO]

[wahoowa]

You are giving them entirely too much credit. I'd guess 15 of those projects failed anyways.

agreed

[Chris Stritzel]

Hopefully the Crossroads neighbors keep pushing for a better product. Productive discussion goes a long way and if the Royals listen, they can get Populous to update plans pretty rapidly. I wouldn’t be surprised if they revise this before the vote as a sign of goodwill and willingness to work with their potential future neighbors.

[DColeKC]

Where can we see the rough notes, or is this the summarization of those notes?

I'm not surprised on the polling and with more information in conjunction with legalized agreements to help small businesses as well as a commitment to bringing good neighbors, they can swing that "in favor" section way up quickly.

[Highlander]

The KC Current's announcement today regarding parking hasn't gone over well and it's also not doing the Royal's effort any favors even though the situations are not even remotely similar.

[KCPowercat]

Populous being local is our best asset for this stadium being done well. They don't want to put up junk in their hometown where they can go walk around other perspective clients.

[rxlexi]

I also do not see how this stadium goes up with zero parking directly connected to it. It has got to have something. I know there is plenty of parking for most people, but there needs to be one close garage for people that will pay whatever it takes to park close, and also for handicapped etc. If you don't have something very close I think you really do risk tear downs for surface lots. A garage just east of the arena just for the public would be fine and hidden away. Or maybe the "village" thing will have 1000 or so extra spaces for the public (hopefully underground).

I don't think there is any way this gets built without some limited amount of immediately adjacent structured parking, likely across Oak and beneath the "village" development, whether underground or podium style. At an absolute minimum, you would think for ADA and player/owner parking, and other VIP style immediate access.

That said, I really do like the attempt to build right up to the street on the other 3 sides, with what appear to be large welcoming pedestrian zones/entrances on the NW and SW corners, and the large pedestrian bridge structure tied directly in stadium on NE corner. I imagine the bridge could be a component that functions like the Padres park immediately north of Petco that is open to the public on non-gamedays and as a ticketed part of the stadium itself on gamedays. That is a really neat feature in San Diego.

The complaints from Jill Cockson, while perfectly legitimate as they relate to her business, don't take into account what a massive improvement and injection of capital this project is for downtown and the city as a whole. Reminds me of Stretch/Grinders years ago railing about P&L and/or Streetcar (probably both). She and the other business owners deserve respect and sympathy (and the Royals/KCMO assistance), but her position specifically is in opposition to an overall improvement to our downtown, IMO.

Agree 100% that the Royals need to be much more proactive and communicative with these folks and the public at large for all their talk about transparency. Amazing that they have allowed so much negativity to swirl around a situation that could be seen as a massive NET positive for the region.

[KCPowercat]

Agreed there has to be some sort of limited access parking in this development below the village. Another reason to keep Oak somehow open non-gameday and limited open during gamedays for that access.

[TheBigChuckbowski]

The parking is a lie. We've been handling sold out arena shows combined with sold out other events on the same days with everyone finding parking for almost 15 years.

The parking is not a "lie". Two seemingly conflicting things can be true. Downtown can have an unreasonable over-supply of parking. That is true. At the same time, street parking in the East Crossroads can be completely packed on event nights and Fridays and Saturdays, even without a baseball stadium. This is also true.

Sure, someone going to an event at T-Mobile Center that's having trouble finding parking will find a parking spot wherever they can and go to the event. Someone going to a bar that has trouble finding parking can just decide to go to a different bar.

Beyond parking, any business that doesn't cater to baseball fans that's open during the evening will be screwed by this. Look at the NFL Draft as an example, all of the big wigs were out there talking about how busy local businesses were going to be and they were going to make a killing. Whereas, the reality was that all the locals avoided downtown like the plague that weekend and anyone going to the draft spent their money inside the Draft area. It'd be the same thing, anyone not going to a Royals game isn't going to go to the Crossroads when the Royals are in town. And, even the businesses that do cater to baseball fans are going to be dead from 7-10pm while the game is happening.

These are very legitimate concerns and acting like a business owner whose business and employees are threatened shouldn't be shown a little grace is disappointing.

[im2kull]

I'm glad you asked. I'm keeping track, so lets look at the receipts. KC Tenants (In large part due to the ignorance of others who consistently minimize them and fail to recognize their legitimate political and social reach) has:

Stalled or cancelled 19 projects comprising 172 vertical floors of construction, eliminating 4,400 proposed units of housing, 1,200 hotel rooms, and $3,721,900,000 worth of development.

This can be expected to grow exponentially with pending Royals EC failure.

And how many units of affordable housing have they successfully caused to be created, since that is their #1 issue?

Zero. They haven't championed a single development project or anything with housing units. Their goal is not actually to have affordable housing, it is for social housing, and there have been zero social housing projects proposed.