‘A lot more work to do’ to sell voters on new Royals ballpark. You can say that again | Opinion

Tuesday, the Kansas City Royals confirmed their request for a publicly-owned 34,000 seat baseball stadium at Truman Road and Grand Boulevard, near the southeast corner of the downtown loop.

The decision, announced in a rambling hourlong news conference, represents an enormous political gamble. Voting starts Friday, and the location is controversial, to say the least.

And major questions about the 3/8-cent sales tax extension remain unanswered.

The ballpark would be built in what’s called the Crossroads District. It would sit on 18 acres of land now occupied by The Star’s former printing plant, as well as a collection of shops and clubs (and a church) on either side of the two-block-long green printing facility.

It’s the site just south of the T-Mobile Center. Oh: It would include capping Interstate 670, although it isn’t clear at all how that would be paid for.

The site isn’t a complete surprise. Rumors of the choice have circulated for weeks. It will, however, likely provoke fierce opposition from some business and property owners in the area, as well as baseball fans facing traffic and parking challenges in the neighborhood.

The Crossroads, opponents will say, is for small shops and bars, not ballparks and bridges and hotels.

The original site in the East Village, several blocks to the north, would have been a much easier sell to voters. The land is largely vacant and available. Traffic and parking would at least have been as manageable as the Crossroads site.

More important, the East Village proposal promised additional construction and development across the highway, into some of the most depressed areas in the central city. That commitment seems to have collapsed, making urban support for the sales tax extension more difficult to get.

Jackson Countians were always going to have to decide if downtown baseball is a good idea. Now they’ll decide if Truman and Grand is the best place to do it, which is a tougher lift.

Why the Crossroads? Don’t discount the involvement of Cordish, the company that developed and owns the Power & Light District. There’s no formal agreement with the Royals, team officials said Tuesday, but the entertainment district — also subsidized by taxpayers — is undoubtedly happy with plans for a ballpark just a few hundred yards from its front door.

The Royals promised Tuesday to negotiate in good faith with Crossroads property owners: They’ll buy the properties, they said, and give them to Jackson County for the project. They promised a “community benefits agreement” to include disadvantaged workers and companies. “We want to be, and we will be, good neighbors,” said the Royals’ Brooks Sherman.

Yet he and others at the news conference left dozens of questions unaddressed.

Voters still don’t know how much the stadium will cost. The entire project will cost $2 billion, officials said, yet local taxpayers will only provide about $300 million of that. The team’s owners will make up some of the difference, but voters have no idea what that means.

No one knows the additional cost for three more blocks of decking over I-670, either.

Earl Santee of Populous, the architects for the stadium, said renovating Kauffman Stadium is “not really feasible.” The Super Bowl-winning Kansas City Chiefs want to do exactly that — renovation — with their share of the tax, even though the stadiums are the same age. Try explaining that to voters.

New leases with both teams remain unsigned. Details of the city’s financial commitment, if any, remain hazy. Missouri and Kansas contributions are unknown. The Chiefs’ requirements are still murky.

“There’s a lot more work to do,” Brooks Sherman said, which is true, and still true after Tuesday’s announcement.

Dave Helling is a former Kansas City Star reporter, columnist and editorial board member.

This story was originally published February 13, 2024 at 5:28 PM.