Of course Royals fans want more to cheer about before opening our wallets for stadium | Opinion
Kansas City Royals owner John Sherman got a lot of grief in response to his recent open letter to out-of-patience fans, once again urging the public to get excited to pony up for a shiny new stadium, location still tbd.
A common response was this tweet: “Can you have any conversation that isn’t about the stadium? Actually, address fan issues since ‘you hear us and feel our pain?’ The stadium is nobody’s pain right now. The worst team in Royals history is our pain. Not being able to watch games on TV is our pain.”
And this one: “You need to spend money to improve this team before talking about a stadium.”
So are we here to pile on? Sort of.
With the second-worst record in Major League Baseball, behind the Oakland A’s, who are moving to Las Vegas to build their new stadium, this just isn’t a great time to tap fans on the shoulder for a handout.
There was really no point to the letter, as it told us nothing we did not already know. Sherman might have already mentioned a few hundred times that he expects taxpayers to contribute $1 billion to the $2 billion development.
That he’ll dole out some more of the details in the next 30 days is not that exciting.
The letter also said some things that may or may not turn out to be true, but are unknowable at this point, like that the stadium will lead to a big economic payoff — “transformational growth here and across the region.”
It would certainly lead to more revenue for Sherman, and sure, he could invest that money in the team, but nothing’s keeping him from doing that now.
The economic impact of a new stadium is not clear.
He says the project will create more than 20,000 jobs, $1.4 billion in labor income and $2.8 billion in total economic output: The “inaugural year of the new ballpark is expected to generate some $185 million more in regional economic output than The K does today.”
Based on what? That’s not what’s happened elsewhere, which is why the Economic Liberties Project, a nonprofit that monitors corporate accountability and analyzes public subsidy deals, has said most stadium deals are “just a money pit for taxpayers.”
The success of the team and the wisdom of building a new stadium are two separate matters, of course, but the one can’t help but color how we feel about the other.
In the letter, Sherman did say he feels the pain of Royals fans, is “intensely committed to restoring the Royals to their rightful place in Major League Baseball,” and “will do what’s necessary to see that through.”
So surely he knows, too, that even a small reminder of how good it feels to win would put fans in a far more amenable mood when it comes time to vote on the subsidy he’s after.
This story was originally published July 29, 2023 at 5:02 AM.