September 30, 2005
K.C. to fund Chiefs, stiff Royals?
A member of the Jackson County team working on new lease proposals for the Kansas City Chiefs and Royals has let slip that negotiators are considering a referendum next year to approve $300 million in renovations to the Chiefs' Arrowhead Stadium, and just $40 million for the Royals' Kauffman Stadium. That would give the Chiefs everything they asked for, and the Royals a mere fraction of their $200 million renovation request.
Royals execs, as you might imagine, were less than thrilled by the statements of county negotiator Thomas Stewart, but it actually makes some sense: NFL teams, by virtue of their lucrative national TV contract, are far easier to move than MLB franchises, which must rely on local TV revenue for income; while Kansas City is one of the smallest current baseball markets, other options such as Portland, Oregon would be even smaller. [Ed. note: Actually not so much, as several readers point out.] (And in any case Royals owner David Glass has insisted the team won't leave town.) Stewart also indicated that it helps that Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt has offered to pay $100 million toward stadium upgrades, while Glass offered to kick in just $20 million in his own megabucks; this could yet be just the opening salvo in a bitter three-way negotiation the likes of which hasn't been seen since, well, yesterday.
Just wanted to make a comment in refernce to Portland, OR being a smaller market. With regards to Metropolitan Area, (which is what matters) this is simply not true. According to the US Census Portland is the 22nd largest metro area in the country. Kansas City is number 24.The Portland/Vancouver metropolitan area, with more than two million people, is the largest market in the US without a MLB team. It is also the largest market with only one major sports franchise; in fact six smaller markets currently support two franchises and one smaller market supports three. The four markets just ahead of Portland all support three teams: Tampa, Pittsburgh, Denver and St. Louis. I really hope to see MLB in Portland soon. I think it would be a great success despite the fact we get a bad rap for being a very rainy city. We are at times but the reality is Portland has less rainfall during the baseball season than 13 other MLB cities.
Posted by Cameron South on September 30, 2005 04:29 PM
Being from K.C., I'd hate to seen the Royals leave, but I agree that Portland has as much claim to viability for baseball as several cities that currently try to support baseball and other professional sports. Besides, it seems likely that any movement would involve a team in the AL or NL Central to either the AL or NL West, to provide more geograpic balance. I hat to mention the obviously increased likelihood of winning in a division whose leader may finish sub-.500.
With regard to Lamar, could he be using the NFL fund that you refer to below for the Jets/Giants as part or all of his $100M contribution and could he in fact use that fund and be responsible for all $300M of Jackson County's prospective expenditures on Arrowhead? I've not heard anyone make that connection before. I'm wondering what the limitations on that fund are.
Posted by John Daly on September 30, 2005 04:39 PM
I stand corrected on Portland - that'll serve me right for going by memory of a Nielsens web page I hadn't looked at since, um, yesterday. In any case, though, it's still true that it's much easier to relocate NFL teams than MLB teams, so if that's what Jackson County is thinking, I can understand their reasoning.
Posted by Neil on September 30, 2005 06:02 PM
As for the NFL's "G-3" stadium fund, it's a matching fund, so conceivably Hunt could be tapping it for half of his $100 million. Though last I checked the fund was running out of money, and now the Jets and Giants are about to hit it for $300m, so I'm not sure what would be available to the Chiefs.
Posted by Neil on September 30, 2005 06:07 PM