I don't even think I need to ask if anyone is for this tax cause it doesn't matter since it isn't going to pass. I've been following it a little bit, picking stuff up from sports radio and from talking to my mom, so can you guys confirm this... Wyandotte isn't even on board? Apparently also Jackson County just proposed the bill without talking to Johnson County first assuming they were cool with it. Huh? Were they not listening when Johnson County stated last time we tried this... "We're not doing this unless we get something out of it as well (soccer stadium). You already got your freebie in Bi-state I." I was confused about why the proposal was now only for Truman Sports complex and that's it, well now we know. If our last option is to renovate Kaufman stadium to keep the Royals, then ok, do it, cause if they leave baseball will never come back to KC, ever. But for god's sake, BUILD A NEW DAMN STADIUM DOWNTOWN! It makes absolutely no sense to pump hundreds of millions of dollars to extend the life of a stadium 10-15 years. It will just go up with all the other failures this city has created. If we have the money, we can build the biggest and most badass stadium the world has ever seen cause you know all the sports architecture companies this city has will be crawling all over each other to build this and build it right because that will look really bad if you create a failure in your own hometown. Brian Macrae was on 810 the other day saying that the technolody is now available that you can create a domed baseball/football stadium and not those round pieces of crap like 3 rivers. I dunno if what he's saying is true, but if it is, go for it. Build a retractable roof dome downtown. It's times like this when I'm confused as hell as to how this city passed the airport and Truman Sports complex at the same time, we can't do anything right.
I hate to be pessimistic, but.. Lucid This city is doomed with the backwards thinking of today's leaders, who have abandoned any hope of reviving the central core of the city.... face it we will have only a loose affilation of suburbs tied together by rubber and cement, with nothing permenent in the center. Maybe they should just level the downtown area and make a farm, and grow corn, and bring the tourists to town to city a working farm. Kansas City mindset is nothing but a Big Des Moines or a Big Wichita. If they had the chance to build the arch in Kansas City today, it would never get built, and most likely the people pushing for it would be run out of town. Without a centralized core, and a centralized transportation system, that has worked for many citys, Denver, Portland, St Louis, I don't see much different here from Wichita. I agree that a downtown stadium is a no brainer, at least for baseball. If it's tied to centralized transport system, like in ST Louis, Portland, Denver, etc. I think you would see a gradual growth of the city center. Until that day, I will hold my breath, Lucid.
I 100% agree with you. These bi-state tax issues have really brought out the incompetence of this city. It's been said before, if the Royals leave, we are just a big Des Moines. Having the NFL doesn't make you major league, look at Jacksonville and the lack of a team in LA, having major league baseball makes you a "major league" city (kind of a no-brainer actually). The reason for the renovations to Kauffman rather than a new stadium is because that Shields chick (anyone know what her title is) says "oh... it will take 8 years to buy the land, aquire the land, get the permits to build the stadium, then to build the stadium, and by that point the Royals will be gone." Two problems, if that is true... great ******************ing foresight you incompetent hacks. Maybe you should have thought about this 8 years ago if that problem was that apparent then we wouldn't be dealing with it now. But I find that hard to believe that first off it would take 8 years to accomplish something that needs to be done as quickly as possible, and secondly, that the Royals would leave is they knew they were getting a stadium in a few years. Supa-Des Moines here we come.
The baseball perspective If anything is approved for the Royals the city better darn sure make sure that the deal is with Major League Baseball and not just the Kansas City Royals. We agree to build it and the Royals are "scheduled to appear" there for the next 25 years doesn't mean it's locked in and the city could be on it's arse. If the deal is just with the Royals then MLB might just contract the team and expand a new one somewhere else a year later to keep it looking as if they just moved the team. Heck even moving them and changing the clubs name could clear MLB from any responsibilities and here we'd sit with an empty stadium. If you doubt this then just ask yourself why someone like Prince changed his name to that stupid sign. It wasn't just about artistic signifigance. See also George Clinton and the P-Funk Allstars and their other band which is the same members just using a different name for legal manuvering when it comes to contracts. Baseball is screwed until a cap comes in place. The Royals are currently trading their decent players for cash and hoping to find some farm club guys good enough to play. The Royals are basically now a good AAA club that the big teams recruit from. We had one of the lowest payrolls of any team last year, lost over 100 games, and what do we do, we're cutting an additional 10 million off the payroll for this year so that we get more revenue sharing money. This is the only way to survive and this is what we get to look forward to as long as baseball stays with the same commissioner. That's not going to change as Selig is one of their own. To do anything for baseball right now is throwing away money. Stadium enhancement aint gonna change squat. Attendance will continue to decline due to poor performance and in a few years MLB will want to manuver to "realign" the club somewhere else. The Royals don't make KC a major league town by any means... more like an appology or an overlooked game on the schedule at this point...