City officials remain vague on plans for possible Royals victory parade
With the Royals now up 2-0 in the World Series, there’s already talk of a victory parade.
But good luck getting the folks at City Hall to discuss the planning process for a parade that might never happen.
“Parade? What parade?” is all one hears when city officials are pressed for particulars.
“We don’t want to jinx anything by discussing anything about it,” city spokesman Chris Hernandez said Wednesday morning in the afterglow of the Royals’ late-inning win of Game 1. “Everyone’s job right now is to cheer for the Royals.”
We will stipulate to that, although curiosity still beckons.
Assuming there is a parade, where, pray tell, will it be? Might it proceed from north to south along Grand Boulevard in downtown Kansas City, just as it did in 1985 when Grand Avenue had yet to achieve boulevard status?
Hernandez wouldn’t confirm that — although that’s the word businesses along Grand are hearing.
And as for what sort of preparations are being made for such an eventuality, and who specifically is ramrodding the project?
Again, pfft.
“It’s not going to be difficult to pull together,” Hernandez said, and stopped himself before saying much more.
But he acknowledged that a team of people at City Hall, the Police Department and the Office of Emergency Management has become adept at planning big events on a dime since the lead-up to baseball’s All-Star Game in Kansas City three years ago.
Also, last year at this time, some will recall, the Royals were also in the World Series. And there was some talk behind closed doors then of a parade being held until an other-worldly pitcher by the name of Madison Kyle Bumgarner (check with Fox’s Joe Buck for the particulars) spoiled Kansas City’s plans for the victory celebration that never came.
Even now, Hernandez is reluctant to discuss much about that non-parade because, you know, the jinx.
“It’s going to be fun to see what happens,” he said.
Both in the Series and during the parade that will surely follow sometime next week, if the Royals can win two more games.
With luck, it will differ in one important respect from the parade celebrating the team’s championship season 30 years ago, when newspaper confetti balled up underneath cars in the procession and caught fire.
The fire part, we mean.
This story was originally published October 29, 2015 at 4:25 PM with the headline "City officials remain vague on plans for possible Royals victory parade."