Time for a new stadium plan for the Chiefs and Royals’ owners.
Voters have had their say in Jackson County, Missouri and they were not impressed with the owners of the National Football League’s Kansas City Chiefs franchise and Major League Baseball’s Kansas City Royals franchise’s pitch for public money to build a Royals’ baseball stadium in downtown Kansas City and renovate the Chiefs’ present venue. It is now time for Plan B or Plan C as when voters say no to spending public money on a sports facility, there is always a fallback plan. It is going to take a while to come up with new plans but there will be a new scheme at some point. The NFL team ownership and the MLB team ownership still have years remaining on the present contracts to use the existing Jackson County, Missouri facilities so there is no imminent threat of relocation. Using a sports term, the Royals and Chiefs’ owners were trounced by the voters with 58 percent of the voters saying no to extending a local sales tax to be used for stadium building and renovation and just 40 percent saying yes. Voters may like the fact that Clark Hunt’s Chiefs franchise won the 2024 Super Bowl but it was not enough for them to reach into their pockets and give Hunt and the Royals’ main owner John Sherman money every time they purchased some item in Jackson County.
Sherman could revisit a plan that would have seen his business end up in North Kansas City. Hunt could look across the state line and seek money from Kansas to build a stadium. The Jackson County voters’ rejection could also impact Major League Baseball’s expansion plans. Commissioner Rob Manfred would not commit to adding teams until stadium issues were resolved in Oakland and St. Petersburg, Florida. Manfred now has a Kansas City stadium problem to solve.
Evan Weiner’s books are available at iTunes – https://books.apple.com/us/author/evan-weiner/id595575191
Evan can be reached at evan_weiner@hotmail.com
