Downtown Baseball Stadium

[TheUrbanRoo]

I'm surprised it's been 6 weeks and we haven't heard a thing from the Royals yet. Even the Chiefs have said something.

[brooksidebadgers]

I just looked up attendance out of curiosity. Cardinals rank 6th in MLB with average of 37k. Royals are averaging 15k per game and rank 28th in the MLB for attendance.

https://www.espn.com/mlb/attendance

Their reporting of attendance is laughable...been that way for years and twitter has been all over it.

[dukuboy1]

my hope is they are taking their time and really putting together something exciting & substantial in details so that when they publicly announce something it will be definitive and able to move the conversation forward. I think they learned from the previous shit show that you should only speak when well prepared and have the answers & details that people will want. I'll take their silence optimistically that they learned this lesson and are diligently putting together something that will be an excellent proposal.

Of course I have no idea and they may have been goofing off this whole time. But my optimism says they got embarrassed last time and looking to save some face with a dynamite plan.

[GRID]

I just looked up attendance out of curiosity. Cardinals rank 6th in MLB with average of 37k. Royals are averaging 15k per game and rank 28th in the MLB for attendance.

https://www.espn.com/mlb/attendance

Their reporting of attendance is laughable...been that way for years and twitter has been all over it.

What's wrong with it? I mean some cities like Miami have been known to inflate attendance by giving away free tickets etc, but I don't think any other teams have done that. The only thing people mention is that "announced" attendance is not butts in the seats. No-shows count in the numbers. The Royals are generally in the bottom 5 and the Cards are generally in the top 5. The Royals got all the way to 10th in attendance in 2015 but attendance dropped like a rock in the following years.

Cards have a huge season ticket base and tickets sold count toward attendance numbers, not just who actually shows up. The Cards have seen a drop in walk up crowds and single game tickets this year. A little more than I would have thought. But I think it would take many consecutive bad years for the Cards season ticket base to start to erode.

I hope a new stadium can get weekday and day game crowds up a little in KC. That along with some additional season ticket holders. So even on not great weather days or years when the team is losing a lot, they can still say they sold 15-18k tickets. These weekday crowds of 10k kill the Royals.

[KC_Ari]

Because we like to argue about baseball stadiums!

"Why Every City Wants a Wrigley Field"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNBg0paLxKI

[TheUrbanRoo]

Because we like to argue about baseball stadiums!

"Why Every City Wants a Wrigley Field"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNBg0paLxKI

I truly believe new Royals crossroads stadium would be the closest thing we've seen to a Wrigley in all of MLB. It would be the only stadium (other than Fenway) where the whole thing is surrounded by buildings and active uses like the 670 park. Literally every other stadium has some giant-ass highway or railtracks on one side of it. This one would be incredible right up there next to Wrigley. Would be game-changing.

[langosta]

Because we like to argue about baseball stadiums!

"Why Every City Wants a Wrigley Field"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNBg0paLxKI

I truly believe new Royals crossroads stadium would be the closest thing we've seen to a Wrigley in all of MLB. It would be the only stadium (other than Fenway) where the whole thing is surrounded by buildings and active uses like the 670 park. Literally every other stadium has some giant-ass highway or railtracks on one side of it. This one would be incredible right up there next to Wrigley. Would be game-changing.

Agree

[GRID]

Because we like to argue about baseball stadiums!

"Why Every City Wants a Wrigley Field"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNBg0paLxKI

I truly believe new Royals crossroads stadium would be the closest thing we've seen to a Wrigley in all of MLB. It would be the only stadium (other than Fenway) where the whole thing is surrounded by buildings and active uses like the 670 park. Literally every other stadium has some giant-ass highway or railtracks on one side of it. This one would be incredible right up there next to Wrigley. Would be game-changing.

Would have been amazing for sure. Seems like the crossroads location is likely dead now. I think it has zero chance of coming back. Hopefully they come up with something as exciting as that was. As neat as that idea was, most people in KC just didn't seem impressed and just have no interest in the the Royals going downtown. I hope they can come up with something that does not require a vote.

Is the NKC site back to being an option? Surprised this topic has gone so quiet.

[TheUrbanRoo]

I think if the council or whoever is gonna push this thing thru without a public vote, better do it this year while the Royals prob go to the playoffs.

[Imarealperson]

The least terrible thing would be putting the Royals in Downtown KCK. Downtown KC is where it needs to be though. The worst thing would be going to Legends or moving out altogether. I’m still confident they’ll work to get into Downtown. This season‘s performance will aid them in that regard.

No, there would be people that would get all upset about gentrifying the Stop and Rob gas stations, etc. there may also be an old abandoned one story dilapidated they’d have to tear down. God knows we can’t have that.

[DColeKC]

Because we like to argue about baseball stadiums!

"Why Every City Wants a Wrigley Field"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNBg0paLxKI

I watched this over the weekend too. Creepy how youtube knows our interests so well.

What struck me was the parking when comparing Comiskey to Wrigley. We were so close to our own Wrigley like situation but so many residents are happy being a fly-over city.

[shinatoo]

Because we like to argue about baseball stadiums!

"Why Every City Wants a Wrigley Field"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNBg0paLxKI

I watched this over the weekend too. Creepy how youtube knows our interests so well.

What struck me was the parking when comparing Comiskey to Wrigley. We were so close to our own Wrigley like situation but so many residents are happy being a fly-over city.

I don't understand why you are pushing the narrative that we want to be a "fly-over city," when the research all shows we just didn't want to accept a shit plan. Are you saying that if we take whatever the teams give us and with a smile and "yes sir, may I please have another" would put us on the vanguard of coastal modernity?

Seems to me that would just make us ignorant rubes.

The majority of the county supports the teams, but that doesn't mean we have to take what they give us with cult-like obedience. There has to be room for compromise in a healthy relationship.

[DColeKC]

Because we like to argue about baseball stadiums!

"Why Every City Wants a Wrigley Field"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNBg0paLxKI

I watched this over the weekend too. Creepy how youtube knows our interests so well.

What struck me was the parking when comparing Comiskey to Wrigley. We were so close to our own Wrigley like situation but so many residents are happy being a fly-over city.

I don't understand why you are pushing the narrative that we want to be a "fly-over city," when the research all shows we just didn't want to accept a shit plan. Are you saying that if we take whatever the teams give us and with a smile and "yes sir, may I please have another" would put us on the vanguard of coastal modernity?

Seems to me that would just make us ignorant rubes.

The majority of the county supports the teams, but that doesn't mean we have to take what they give us with cult-like obedience. There has to be room for compromise in a healthy relationship.

My comment is more about the negative pushback I saw via comments online during the process. Those people lack the big picture vision to ever be anything but a cowtown. For many, the plan could have been dialed in yet they'd still oppose it because there would have been no sea of surface parking or oh, how in the world would we possibly deal with traffic downtown amongst those big skyscrapers. Anything truly consequences for this cities future is an uphill battle due to the mentality of so many that don't want our city to grow. They don't want our popularity to rise and they don't want new people moving here. They want things to stay the same and if that means going downhill, so be it. They're not bright enough to realize we need progress and big new tax backed projects to prevent our region from certain demise.

[GRID]

Because we like to argue about baseball stadiums!

"Why Every City Wants a Wrigley Field"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNBg0paLxKI


Seems to me that would just make us ignorant rubes.

Based on what 90% of the fans say about a downtown stadium. Yeah.

KC is so much more than this community or people that live downtown. People that truly want a downtown stadium are a very small part of the population of greater KC. The only way people will actually vote for it is if they are convinced KC will lose the team otherwise. And even then, a large portion will still say no.

The vote played out exactly how I thought it would based on people I talk to all over the metro and all comments I have read across every social media platform. Even those die hard royals fans that run channels on Youtube or special royals pages on reddit, facebook etc were all generally against the idea and so were most of the comments. People would say stuff that told me they were totally clueless about what downtown KC was like or what downtown stadiums are like in other cities. It just blows my mind how people can live in a city and be so clueless about the city they live in. Most fans are in places like Olathe and Blue Springs. They just jumped on the "kill the crossroads" bandwagon because it fit their agenda of no downtown stadium. Most don't know the first thing about the Crossroads. I spend more time and money in the crossroads district every year than 95 percent of Metro KC people.

This issue is not the "loud" people that always post the same anti city shit on social media, mostly on local news channels platforms etc It was the majority of the metro KC population. The Chiefs stadium was a terrible plan, yet if that were not a part of the vote, it would have failed by at least another ten points.

You go to places like stadium chasers on facebook or stadium ranking videos and it's the KC people that all think Kauffman is a top 3 or 5 stadium. Most people that have been to them all rank it around 14-18. I read comments all the time with out of town people saying Kauffman is nice but a replacement is due. They say it's a terrible location and a dated stadium overall and the KC people go nuts. "we don't want a new stadium!!!"

KC has to find a way to do this without a vote. Another no vote could really open up the team to serios relocation options and KC may run out of time trying to compete with those offers.

[TheUrbanRoo]

KC Biz journal is reporting that Port KC partnering with Royals to get this done may be an option.

Finally some news.

[Highlander]

KC Biz journal is reporting that Port KC partnering with Royals to get this done may be an option.

Finally some news.

If this happens, there may still be a vote that is citizen initiated although not sure how that works with the Port Authority (e.g., the initiatives that killed some projects in KCMO in the past). Getting something on the ballot doesn't take a huge effort with low voter turnouts these days. The Royals will most likely still need to run an education campaign to get their fanbase on their side - and should regardless of whether it comes to a vote or not.

[WoodDraw]

It’s okay, they said they were going to invest over a billion dollars. I’m sure they can just draw from that

[shinatoo]

Because we like to argue about baseball stadiums!

"Why Every City Wants a Wrigley Field"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNBg0paLxKI


Seems to me that would just make us ignorant rubes.

Based on what 90% of the fans say about a downtown stadium. Yeah.

KC is so much more than this community or people that live downtown. People that truly want a downtown stadium are a very small part of the population of greater KC. The only way people will actually vote for it is if they are convinced KC will lose the team otherwise. And even then, a large portion will still say no.

The vote played out exactly how I thought it would based on people I talk to all over the metro and all comments I have read across every social media platform. Even those die hard royals fans that run channels on Youtube or special royals pages on reddit, facebook etc were all generally against the idea and so were most of the comments. People would say stuff that told me they were totally clueless about what downtown KC was like or what downtown stadiums are like in other cities. It just blows my mind how people can live in a city and be so clueless about the city they live in. Most fans are in places like Olathe and Blue Springs. They just jumped on the "kill the crossroads" bandwagon because it fit their agenda of no downtown stadium. Most don't know the first thing about the Crossroads. I spend more time and money in the crossroads district every year than 95 percent of Metro KC people.

This issue is not the "loud" people that always post the same anti city shit on social media, mostly on local news channels platforms etc It was the majority of the metro KC population. The Chiefs stadium was a terrible plan, yet if that were not a part of the vote, it would have failed by at least another ten points.

You go to places like stadium chasers on facebook or stadium ranking videos and it's the KC people that all think Kauffman is a top 3 or 5 stadium. Most people that have been to them all rank it around 14-18. I read comments all the time with out of town people saying Kauffman is nice but a replacement is due. They say it's a terrible location and a dated stadium overall and the KC people go nuts. "we don't want a new stadium!!!"

KC has to find a way to do this without a vote. Another no vote could really open up the team to serios relocation options and KC may run out of time trying to compete with those offers.

90% of the fans don't want a downtown stadium and 44% of the voters voted for a downtown stadium. Doesn't add up. You give too much credence to social media. "Anti" people are always the loudest.

[GRID]

I didn't say 90% opposed a downtown stadium, I said a majority. That first sentence was actually referring to social media where it might actually be closer to 90% against, although I know that's not the case. But yeah, I would say 80-90% of social media comments are anti downtown stadium. In real life it's "most". Somewhere north of 60% I'm guessing.

Not sure why people are in denial on this. It's pretty obvious that most people in KC do not want a new stadium and if they actually had a choice, they would choose to stay at Kauffman. A good portion of those that know they really don't have a choice are reluctantly supporting a new stadium because they know it's the only option.

Most people in the KC area do not want to the Royals to leave Kauffman. You will have a very difficult time convincing me otherwise.

This could change over the coming months/years as the threat of the Royals leaving KCMO becomes more and more real.

[WoodDraw]

It’s because you’re doing the NYT at a diner post every time. Are you right, are you wrong? I don't fucking know.

It's just exhausting to read. The point has been made. Do you want to belabor it until it has a cow?