K.C. mayor on new Royals stadium: city already spending too much on downtown redevelopment, go hit up states instead

The push for a new downtown Kansas City Royals stadium that nobody actually seems to be pushing for except maybe downtown business interests has reached the “ask the mayor what he’s going to do” phase, and here’s what Mayor Quinton Lucas has to say:

A new downtown stadium could cost upwards of $700 million, and Kansas City taxpayers have already ponied up big tax incentives for other downtown development, Lucas said.

“They’re subsidizing on dead obligations, $13 million a year for the Power & Light District,” Lucas said. “We have to incentivize every parking garage that Cordage builds, and then connect with luxury housing. That’s about $20 million a pop.”

This is true! The Power & Light District, which has been touted as a model of downtown revitalization in pretty much every city where downtown interests are looking for revitalization, has also been a massive money suck as a result of $295 million in city bonds that were supposed to be paid off by new tax revenues that then didn’t materialize. So it’s perfectly reasonable for Mayor Lucas to respond fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.

Let’s see what else the mayor had to say, according to KMBZ radio:

Lucas has not totally ruled out the possibility of a downtown stadium. He says he’s willing to talk with the new owners about other financing options, such as a bi-state plan.

“I’d like to hear from the ownership group what type of money they’re putting in, and frankly from the the entire region, the type of investment that I think we’re going to make region wide,” Lucas said.

Oh, so actually Lucas is saying fool me twice, and I will send you to go fool the states of Missouri and Kansas, instead. This would make pretty much exactly zero sense for the states — any new economic activity in downtown K.C. is going to come at the expense of spending somewhere else in the bistate region, unless you really think lots more people are going to drive down to Royals games from Omaha if the stadium is downtown instead of out in the suburbs surrounded by giant parking lots — but makes tons of sense if you’re a city mayor looking to placate downtown business interests while pushing the costs off onto somebody else’s plate. This whole multiple levels of government thing may have more pitfalls than the strangely behatted ducks would have you believe.

Other Recent Posts:

Share this post:

5 comments on “K.C. mayor on new Royals stadium: city already spending too much on downtown redevelopment, go hit up states instead

  1. “…not totally ruling out the possibility…”

    Yes, yes, I am familiar with that. I have, for example, not totally ruled out the possibility of marrying Julia Roberts at some point. She and her husband no doubt feel differently, but that is an externality as far as I am concerned…

  2. Not sure why Kansas (the state) would want to give money to a baseball team that plays in Missouri and were the Power and Light District is in MO. Your local geography lesson provided by google maps.

    1. “Bi-state,” that’s what he said. Unless he meant, I dunno, Illinois and Montana? Liquid and gaseous?

  3. Kansas City downtown boosters have the imagination of San Jose,CA and the money of the Clampetts, pre-oil strike.

    Wonderful city with plenty to do, but the place is just too small to be putting up mega-stadiums in the “downtown.” There are plenty of more important things to do with available funds, and the city should do them.

  4. One positive about the Royals moving downtown would be with the Royals going retro and back to drawing 12,000 people a night, there would be less traffic than for a Jayhawk game or Miley Cyrus concert at the Sprint Center

Comments are closed.