The Royals are heading to the Crossroads

After a period of indecision, the Royals have finally picked a site for their new home.

Landing in the center of Super Bowl Euphoria, the Royals picked quite the moment to unveil their proposed site for a new stadium. To no one’s surprise, they moved a few blocks south from their initial location in the East Village. The new yard will be built across the highway from the T-Mobile Center in the Crossroads. The catchphrase location will be at “the corner of Truman and Grand.”

Not surprisingly, it was an event full of sizzle. The renderings look expectedly great. The team is fantastically optimistic they will be “good neighbors” as they seek to buy out current landowners where they want to build. The goal is to break ground as soon as possible with the goal for the first pitch to be thrown on Opening Day in 2028.

Still missing…the steak. As in, the details. Details such as how much public money they’re going to collect off the extension of the sales tax. Or how exactly they’re going to acquire that land. (Besides using their charm.) Or how the leases are going to work for the locations both old and new.

To be fair, there was a bit more decisiveness from the team than we’ve seen throughout this process. They seem to finally know what they want to do. Royals Chairman and CEO John Sherman kicked things off with a lengthy statement.

“We are thrilled to announce our plans to contribute community dynamics, an incredible fan and stadium experience and long-term growth to the Crossroads. A neighborhood ballpark home for the Royals, that will stand strong for the next 50 years, here in Jackson County. And we’re happy and excited to build that new home without costing taxpayers a penny more. In fact, the proposal voters will consider on April 2 will be the exact same tax, but a much better deal.”

“The Chiefs and the Royals are asking the people of Jackson County to continue our partnership and we know we have to earn and win every single vote. I am not a politician, but I’m going to be in the community, talking about our project. I want to hear from you and I believe it’s important you hear from me during this campaign and you know how committed I am to making sure the Chiefs and the Royals remain at home here in Jackson County.”

There are several buzzy words in just that portion of his statement that I want to point out. “A neighborhood ballpark” is one of them. Small business owners currently located on the site may disagree, but the Crossroads is doing just fine without the Royals. Would a ballpark enhance the area? I think there would be some disagreement on that question. Had the Royals chosen the East Village, a site without much development at all, they would be the pioneers so to speak in that neighborhood. If you build it, they will come. In the Crossroads, the Royals are elbowing their way into an already vibrant community. When that happens, I don’t think you can expect the welcoming committee to be cheering them on.

Of course, there’s the “partnership” that Sherman likes to extoll. And the new one that I heard was “exact same tax, but a much better deal.” That’s a smart way to position what they’re trying to do. It’s an ever-so-slight, but important, pivot from earlier messaging.

The Royals continue to insist there isn’t a new tax that will be levied to pay for this stadium. It’s an extension of an existing tax. But…isn’t that tax supposed to expire in 2031? That means the initial tax, on the ballot back in 2006 was for 25 years. The Royals are asking for an additional 40 years of this particular sales tax. Fine. It may not be a “new” tax, but it’s quite a thing to push it another 40 years.

As for this being a “much better deal” for the taxpayers, as Sherman avers, I guess that’s in the eye of the beholder. The truly annoying thing about the whole process is nobody will say how much the Royals are going to pull from this tax for their stadium. We keep hearing the ownership group will commit around $1 billion to the ballpark and the area. We’re hearing that it will cost around $2 billion. So taxpayers are on the hook for…$1 billion? Obviously, the Royals aren’t saying that, math be damned. That’s all well and good, but the taxpayers have a right to know what’s expected of them. Right now, they’re out in the cold. Don’t sweat the details, the Royals are still saying. Still! After all this time. Trust them.

Earl Santee, the CEO of Populus, the sports architecture firm from Kansas City, was next on the dias. It seems his job is to insult the intelligence of the fan.

“Renovating The K going forward is just not feasible. It’s not realistic. Since 2007 we had an independent structural engineer come in and look at The K and he identified the initial phase what we call ASR…It causes the concrete to fail at some point. Now, all that means is in 40 years it may fail. But it’s going to fail at some point. So the ability to maintain the current structure is not really feasible.”

ASR is alkali-silica reaction, otherwise known as “concrete cancer.” This is a very real concern in structures built with concrete that has to do with the composition of the material along with exposure to water. If ASR develops, there’s truly no fix…no cure, if you will. My question though: If ASR is present at Kauffman Stadium and that’s the main reason to vacate the structure, what is going on across the parking lot at Arrowhead? If it’s not feasible to wrap or patch the affected areas to prolong the lifespan of the concrete at The K, why are the Chiefs content to renovate Arrowhead?

Besides, tomorrow to 40 years is a helluva span of time. Dunno. I’m not an engineer, and while it’s certainly possible the concrete will fail someday, it sure doesn’t sound like this is a pressing issue at the moment. It really feels like this is a ginned-up reason to abandon a stadium that many find to be a great place to watch a game.

Santee did make some points that I found interesting. He noted that “connectivity to the community” is important in selecting a site for the ballpark. That…makes sense to me. One of the reasons I never warmed to the East Village site was because it seemed on the edge of the downtown area. And, as I mentioned on numerous occasions, a ballpark there would likely be aligned to look out at…another highway. The site just didn’t feel right.

What the East Village offered was the opportunity to build an entire district pretty much from scratch. The area is currently filled with empty fields and surface parking lots. By building in the Crossroads, several small businesses will have to be bought out to make way, but the infrastructure is, for the most part, in place. The trade-off for the Royals’ ownership is maybe they won’t get to roll out a massive entertainment ballpark village they dreamt of, but they also won’t be on the hook for large infrastructure improvements, either. It’s not exactly win-win, but they’ll feed some people to the Power and Light District which will keep some other developers happy and on board with their project. There will still be plenty of opportunity for the Royals ownership group to grab their piece of the entertainment dollar pie.

Santee also noted there are “22 different, unique ways” to access the stadium at the proposed site in the Crossroads and there’s plenty of parking to go along with that. “There are 40,000 spaces in downtown, versus the 26,000 at the sports complex,” Santee said.

If you part of that group that will complain about parking at a downtown stadium or bemoan about losing the ability to tailgate, you will get no sympathy here. None. Because here’s the deal: You will figure it out. Sure, it may be bumpy in the beginning, but you’ll survive. You will have a favorite area to park, a new pregame routine, a different way to get to the yard. And whatever you do, don’t complain about having to walk.

Where you will find my sympathies is for the small businesses in this area that will be impacted. Lives are going to be changed so the Royals can get their new shiny stadium. The plan is for the team to buy the properties and then will gift the land to the county for construction to proceed. At least that’s the idea. Given the number of different owners (I’m hearing around 100), that’s not going to be straightforward. Eminent domain is certainly going to come into play here. It has the potential to get ugly. If often does.

The Royals insist they will be “good neighbors.” Time will tell and opinions will most certainly differ on that count.

One of my initial concerns about the Crossroads site was the size of the ballpark that could be built there. According to Santee, the Royals will have 17.3 acres for the stadium and surrounding environs. That’s due to a change in scope where the land the Royals would acquire pushes east past Oak Street, going to Locust. By comparison, Target Field in Minneapolis is on just 8.5 acres.

Personally, I’m incredibly excited by the plan to cap the south part of the loop that is I-670. That project alone is going to completely transform that area of downtown. The Royals grabbing onto the coattails of that project is just smart business on their part. Dollars are already going into that area to transform the community. The Royals feel their ballpark will complement those plans. It’s like they’re getting more money without having to ask for it.

One thing that concerns me is that the Royals say there would be a seating capacity of around 34,000 to 34,500. That would make it the smallest ballpark in the majors. That distinction currently lies with Cleveland where after renovations to Progressive Field have left the capacity at 34,830.

Kauffman Stadium currently has 37,903 seats. That ranks 27th out of the 30 major league stadiums. The scarcity of seats means, once the park is open, that it’s going to cost an exorbitant amount of cash just to get in through the turnstile. When there was talk about the team moving downtown before the tax was passed for renovations in 2006, I was concerned that the average fan or average family would be priced out of the game if the team built a new stadium. I’m even more concerned about that now.

The Royals are a business. They are about maximizing revenue. They will sell tickets and they don’t care who’s buying. That’s a shame because I have a feeling there will be plenty of “premium” seats that will be snatched up by businesses and some extremely wealthy individuals. No, they’re not going to go full corporate like new Yankee Stadium, but I imagine the atmosphere will be a little…lacking.

Present at Tuesday’s announcement were President and CEO of the Kansas City Sports Commission Kathy Nelson and President of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum Bob Kendrick. Nelson is a winner. She gets things done. Kendrick is a gem, beloved in the community and around the game. They’re going to bring a considerable amount of juice to this project.

The Royals are smartly trying to figure a way to tie the Crossroads site to the museum and the 18th and Vine district. It’s an important component to the project and one that is necessary. The Royals already have a strong partnership with the museum so it’s good to see them want to increase their involvement there and in the surrounding area.

A note about the renderings: These are just someone’s idea of what the ballpark could look like. They are not blueprints and should not be mistaken as such. It’s like projections are not predictions.

Given the geography of the area, if you’re trying to catch an urban vibe, I don’t think you can beat how they’re drawing the position of the stadium. Fans on the first base side and down the right field line will have a view of the skyline. Fans on the opposite side will see the new development that will be built around the stadium.

Having said that, how the hell can you come up with a ballpark rendering for the freaking Royals and not have a crown somewhere? C’mon. This is just basic. And given the fact that this newsletter has “fountains” in the title, I’m going to demand a water spectacular that’s a bit more…spectacular. Besides, where they have the fountains will never work as it’s right in the batter’s eye. Again, the outfit that comes up with these renderings is selling the sizzle. But I’m still going to complain about the fountains as is my right.

It feels as if it took the Royals forever to get to this critical point with a lot of unforced errors along the way. On Tuesday, it felt for the first time that they finally have something of a plan. Yet there are still plenty of questions and details that they have yet to fill in. As Royals Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Brooks Sherman said at one moment in the press conference, “There’s a lot more work to be done.”

On that point, I can agree.

Election Day is in less than seven weeks.