February 12, 2005
Royals: We're staying put
The Kansas City Royals made it official yesterday, as owners declared they're not interested in moving to a new downtown stadium, and instead will stay put at Kauffman Stadium at least through the end of their current lease in 2014. "Our fans are overwhelmingly supporting us staying at Kauffman Stadium in the near future," said team president Dan Glass, son of team owner David Glass. "Most of the support for a downtown ballpark has come from people with a stake in downtown, not necessarily our fans." Added Royals VP Mark Gorris: "It just became clear that we were going to have a major division in the community by going forward."
A team of ninja assassins has been dispatched from MLB's executive offices to deal with the problem.
Interesting. I wonder if this has an ramifications for the Kansas City Wizards ?
Wow! I was shocked and pleasantly surprised to open my Kansas City Star newspaper Saturday morning to see the miracle of all miracle headlines: an owner choosing not to pursue a new stadium. In my own town, no less. Mr. Glass has recognized and respected the feelings of the fans, instead of listening to special interest groups dangling money. Kansas City has alot going on downtown, we'll be just fine!
No one outside of the Downtown Council really wanted a new stadium, but it kept gaining momentum anyway because no one was listening. Three cheers for Mr. Glass for putting this to rest until closer to the actual end of their lease (2015).
Take heart, it happened once and I now believe it can happen anywhere reasonable people take a moment to listen. The precedent has been set.
John, I wish I could see the rosy side of this as you do. Frankly, this is about an owner who saw that he would be on the hook for some outlay toward a new stadium (reportedly as much as $80M) and instead decided that the cheaper way out was to stay put.
By putting this to bed now, he will stop the county or city from throwing away $400M. For that, I am glad.
What is more troubling is why the leases for the Sports Complex are $80M short. Now the county will have to come up with money to cover that shortage that should have already been in place according to the lease. the mismanagement of these leases is criminal.
The decision by the Royals to stay at the Truman Sports Complex was the best decision for the entire metropolitan region. Mr. Dan Glass understands and knows that building a new stadium will not improve baseball’s business model. When he states the need for baseball to improve revenue sharing and he is telling everyone that the Royals main problem is not the stadium but the product that he is being forced to sell.
The NY Yankees are spending $64 million on their starting pitching rotation while KC is spending just $38.5 million on the entire team. This is a disaster. Every time someone brings up building a new stadium the question should be asked what is MLB doing to be competitive. MLB has to have a salary cap and fair revenue sharing so all teams can compete. Until small markets can be competitive NO new stadium. The business model that MLB embraces is collective stupidity while the NFL embraces a business model of collective greed. This allows everyone to make money small and large markets.
