Downtown Baseball Stadium

[bspecht]

Final votes in JaxCo.



Final KCMO.

[TheUrbanRoo]

Also....BLAME THE CHIEFS. They're the ones with all the pull in this town and did NOTHING to win this thing. Nothing but a fucking grass field.

[bricknose]

Final votes in JaxCo.

Nice voter turnout. I wonder if the numbers will be anything similar in August when there is a ballot initiative to prevent future ballot initiatives.

[Metro]

Also....BLAME THE CHIEFS. They're the ones with all the pull in this town and did NOTHING to win this thing. Nothing but a fucking grass field.

Did you go to any of the public engagement things? The Royals reps were objectively awful

[chingon]

It’s not doomerism, the Royals didn’t want this to pass. They wanted an excuse to move. Kansas will throw every dollar from Garden City to Mission Hills at the Chiefs. This was generationally stupid.

The Royals want to be downtown badly. They didn't try and fuck this up on purpose.

Downtown Nashville maybe

[ericwyner]

It’s not doomerism, the Royals didn’t want this to pass. They wanted an excuse to move. Kansas will throw every dollar from Garden City to Mission Hills at the Chiefs. This was generationally stupid.

The Royals want to be downtown badly. They didn't try and fuck this up on purpose.

Downtown Nashville maybe

do they wanna pay a stadium? what about the Nashville Tennants?

[chingon]

Some Nashville will.

[AllThingsKC]

Even KCMO hates KCMO.

[TheUrbanRoo]

I think Chiefs end up in Kansas now

[DColeKC]

It’s not doomerism, the Royals didn’t want this to pass. They wanted an excuse to move. Kansas will throw every dollar from Garden City to Mission Hills at the Chiefs. This was generationally stupid.

The Royals want to be downtown badly. They didn't try and fuck this up on purpose.

Downtown Nashville maybe

I've got to spend a good amount of time around John Sherman during this whole thing. Almost all of it with small groups in private settings with no media. That man doesn't want to be the guy who took the Royals out of the market. He's not in this to raise the value of the team and dump it for a big profit.

Downtown Nashville may happen, but it would be because every door was closed in his face here around KC.

[DColeKC]

I think Chiefs end up in Kansas now

That's not happening. Not for 25 years and even at that point, I'd say it's a long shot.

[Sani]

Does he realize how badly they fucked this up and understand what he needs to do to win back support from people, though?

[Metro]

Does he realize how badly they fucked this up and understand what he needs to do to win back support from people, though?

No. Like I said the whole Royals outreach to the community was absolutely out of touch

[TheUrbanRoo]

Does he realize how badly they fucked this up and understand what he needs to do to win back support from people, though?

No. Like I said the whole Royals outreach to the community was absolutely out of touch

This result was so lopsided I'm not sure even a good campaign could've won it.

Find a way to do this without a vote. That's all I can say.

[Highlander]

I am not surprised by the outcome. Love or hate social media, the margin of yes/no is about the same as I saw on social media. I thought from the time the Royals decided on East Crossroads to the time of the vote was far too short of duration to sort out all the details let alone a successful campaign and the Royals ultimately landed on a very cliched promotional campaign focusing on athletes promoting the Yes vote with almost no information other than keep the teams in Jackson County. Very poorly done. It will be interesting to see what the Royal's next move is considering they have stated clearly that they do not intend to be at TSC in the future. They now have some pretty limited options.

At the same time, I was really disappointed in KC's lack of vision. The amount of misinformation, class warfare and "save the crossroads" nonsense was a bit too much to take (at least what I saw on social media and local media as well). People vastly overestimate how deep the Royals ownership's pockets are - they simply cannot afford to build a stadium on their own. On the scale necessary to retain a MLB or NFL franchise, there is always going to have to be a significant public investment in a small market city. The fact that one owner is a billionaire is irrelevant; the project even dwarfs his considerable means. As I said earlier, the vote was up against a perfect storm of suburban MAGA types who hate blue cities and blue city social justice warriors who hate "regressive taxes" and Missouri libertarians who hate any public/private joint venture - all of whom probably think the Royals will be in Kansas City for perpetuity regardless of the outcome and future outcomes. It's tough to win when you have significant representation from the right and left against you. So now hopefully instead of a celebration, there will be a "how do we salvage this" moment from the winners (and losers alike).

[beautyfromashes]

Arrogance lost this vote. I voted for it but I had to hold my nose because it was bad from the beginning. You can't just waltz into the Crossroads saying you're going to close major roads and bulldoze whole sections of buildings without some bit of humility. And the Chiefs plan gave nothing real to the average fan. It was an extra parking garage, VIP entrance and suites for Taylor Swift. Tearing out regular people seats in the endzone for suites. Nothing new for the normal fan who saves to be able to go to a game as a Christmas present every year.

Both teams need to eat crow with their efforts. They should have waited until they had an actual good plan with real details instead of trying to rush this and shove it down the voters throats. I'm kind of glad it died because it shows that voters listen, and you have can't take them for granted.

[chingon]

I’m glad it died so I can stop watching baseball in a few years when they move.

[Anthony_Hugo98]

It is mildly concerning to see the amount of the “vote no” crowd who genuinely believe that no matter what happens neither team will ever leave the metro. These people are wildly ignorant or incredibly sheltered to genuinely believe that another city won’t be rolling out the red carpet should either team ask.

[TheUrbanRoo]

I think the best path forward here is the Chiefs leave for Kansas (and get a real stadium) and them leaving the state scares the shit out of Missouri voters enough to vote the Royals to stay and go downtown finally.

[mourban]

I bet a lot of eastern Jackson County voters like the status quo location. I’ll be interested to see what it looks like if KCMO cuts them out of the process next time and goes it alone.

Also, if the Chiefs end up in Kansas, I’m not sure that’s all that bad of an outcome. With the speedway and shopping out there, the stadium utilizes all that space.

I’m wondering if there’s a secret plan B in which the Chiefs may have hoped this failed in order to tee up a better stadium proposal in a few years. Get KCMO to find the Royals and the Chiefs get to keep the full 0.375% tax or get KS to give them a better offer. Their proposed upgrades to Arrowhead were so lame and uninteresting they had to have some alternative in mind when they proposed luxury boxes and an AstroTurf fan area as a good use for $800,000,000

By the way- the Jackson County voters who like the status quo are naive and are never going to get their way over the long term… that site sucks and will be nothing more than industrial warehouse space once and if both teams leave.