Downtown Baseball Stadium

[TheUrbanRoo]

Q on 96.5 yesterday said the combined incentive package from the city and state should be 1.2 to 1.4 billion.

Was just about to post this as well about the package. He sounds alot more optimistic about the Royals getting done than the Chiefs.

[moderne]

Patrick Toohey said on KCPT that Clay Chastain has proposed putting stadiums at DT airport connected DT by light rail with the rail going on to MCI.

[BrisbaneKC]

Patrick Toohey said on KCPT that Clay Chastain has proposed putting stadiums at DT airport connected DT by light rail with the rail going on to MCI.

I could get behind this idea however doesn't it take years to work alongside the FAA to potentially decomission an airport? Time is of the essence sadly.

[langosta]

Patrick Toohey said on KCPT that Clay Chastain has proposed putting stadiums at DT airport connected DT by light rail with the rail going on to MCI.

I could get behind this idea however doesn't it take years to work alongside the FAA to potentially decommission an airport? Time is of the essence sadly.

You also by pass NKC who has historically supported funding LRT or Streetcar in their community.

Absolutely think this is an opportunity for the county to step up and fund LRT. Manny Abarca sounded open to a transit vote.

[dukuboy1]

Where would downtown airport go? That site is super isolated, traffic nightmare to get people in and out. Nothing around, site would be 100% ground up build. Plus you have a hard, immovable neighbor to the East with RR lot. Interesting idea but doesn’t seem very practical. Maybe if they started on a plan 20yrs ago it could be feasible to happen in the next 5

[beautyfromashes]

Patrick Toohey said on KCPT that Clay Chastain....

This is where you lost me.

[Highlander]

Where would downtown airport go? That site is super isolated, traffic nightmare to get people in and out. Nothing around, site would be 100% ground up build. Plus you have a hard, immovable neighbor to the East with RR lot. Interesting idea but doesn’t seem very practical. Maybe if they started on a plan 20yrs ago it could be feasible to happen in the next 5

Yep. US169 is the only way in and out. The surrounding area is dismal. Certainly would have wanted to back up in time and make Buck O'Neal Bridge and approaches a more pedestrian friendly point of access. I'm not sure what impact not having the downtown airport would have. Is it used by downtown corporations (the ones that are left)? It's a bad idea and no surprise it came from Chastain. If we are going to do that, just use East Village.

[langosta]

Where would downtown airport go? That site is super isolated, traffic nightmare to get people in and out. Nothing around, site would be 100% ground up build. Plus you have a hard, immovable neighbor to the East with RR lot. Interesting idea but doesn’t seem very practical. Maybe if they started on a plan 20yrs ago it could be feasible to happen in the next 5

Yep. US169 is the only way in and out. The surrounding area is dismal. Certainly would have wanted to back up in time and make Buck O'Neal Bridge and approaches a more pedestrian friendly point of access. I'm not sure what impact not having the downtown airport would have. Is it used by downtown corporations (the ones that are left)? It's a bad idea and no surprise it came from Chastain. If we are going to do that, just use East Village.

Can equally put both teams downtown or 1 in NKC and 1 downtown with LRT flowing in....

[Chris Stritzel]

No

[Rusty Irish]

Its fire fighting territory now, they need to just find a way to renovate Arrowhead and get the Royals Downtown with Kansas sitting ready with the free buckets of money. They've pissed around far too long to achieve the grand plans that could have been, the vote should have passed and the problems ironed out after that. I am still like 60% sure they can get the Royals Downtown but the Chiefs I'm way less certain of. I am not too fussed if they pick Legends over TSC, but at the same time I also don't like the balance of power in the region moving further from DT KCMO and into suburban Kansas. I also hold out slim hope for suburban rail to the Jackson County suburbs if Arrowhead remains its a perfect park and ride terminus with the stadium there and the intersection of 435/70. You are never getting rail out to Legends no matter how much STAR bond stuff they build out there. Twice as far and half the density.

[im2kull]

Patrick Toohey said on KCPT that Clay Chastain has proposed putting stadiums at DT airport connected DT by light rail with the rail going on to MCI.

I could get behind this idea however doesn't it take years to work alongside the FAA to potentially decomission an airport? Time is of the essence sadly.

Not if the runway becomes unusable

[GRID]

Terrible idea.

First off MKC is needed and if KC closes it, it would only push all that traffic to JoCo airports.

Other problems:

Closing it would require the city to pay back tens of millions of dollars in FAA grants that have been used to improve MKC over the past years.

The site is super restricted. Even if you built full blown LRT, it would not come close to moving enough fans to prevent total and complete gridlock getting to and from stadium events. Even under a best case scenario, LRT would only service a small part of the metro. It's not like here in DC where you can take many different lines from different parts of the metro. And...there is a big difference between LRT and Metro. LRT can only handle so many fans per train and in KC's case they would probably be single vehicles like the current streetcar line.

The stadiums would not be part of the urban fabric of "downtown". They would be on an island, not really walkable to anything.

The views from the stadiums would be amazing though.

[KCPowercat]

Downtown airport is one of downtowns biggest amenities. That guy is an idiot as always

[FangKC]

Jackson County legislator says fixing property tax issues is key to keeping Chiefs and Royals local

https://www.kcur.org/podcast/up-to-date ... -effort-by

[longtimelistener]

The article provides no background or elaboration on what "straighten out the property tax debacles" would be. Raise property taxes? Lower? Its certainly a debacle but hopefully the legislator offered more context on what that would mean.

Not criticizing the post, just the reporting I guess.

[BrisbaneKC]

https://x.com/KCmolzer/status/1902438727647162661

I wonder if this is anything worth reading into?

[Chris Stritzel]

I wont dive into the things I’ve been told, but I’m conceding a downtown stadium happening. I hope to be wrong and I hope for those who’ve told me things to be wrong, but it’s not looking good. A move out of the region is not under consideration.

[KCPowercat]

is this all due to the 2301 main site going back on the market?

[Chris Stritzel]

is this all due to the 2301 main site going back on the market?

There are other reasons besides that.

Some things are better kept secret, but here are three obvious things…
- The city had to scrape money together to bail out the ATA to prevent reduction in service. If they turned around and offered the Royals millions and millions of dollars to develop a stadium, that would piss off a ton more people.
- The potential firing of Brian Platt, who was involved in discussions with the Royals, means talks might be paused.
- State of Missouri is taking their time at getting something done on their end.

When you have state, county and city elected officials on the Kansas side extending a hand to the team, and you want to get something done, the choice becomes obvious.

On a smaller scale, you have Clay County certainly doing the same thing.

[rxlexi]

I wont dive into the things I’ve been told, but I’m conceding a downtown stadium happening. I hope to be wrong and I hope for those who’ve told me things to be wrong, but it’s not looking good. A move out of the region is not under consideration.

Any additional info?

Sounds like the naysayers will be proven correct - teams are getting deals "buttoned up" (Sherman talk) and heading to KS.

At least re: Royals, devastating if true. I'd guess we have to find out by at least early/mid summer...