City And County Officials Need To Stiffen Their Spines With Downtown Stadium Negotiations
The Kansas City Royals made public what most people already knew: they will be exploring new stadium locations in the coming years.
And that includes downtown Kansas City, which in my opinion will more than likely be the landing place.
To be honest, I have come around to support the general idea of a downtown baseball stadium. I recently visited San Diego and stayed near Petco Park where the Padres play. While I was just a tourist, it was an electric atmosphere and more importantly for the city: people were spending money.
Money not lost in a hot ass parking lot at a tailgate. Sorry but not sorry.
That said, the public funding of sports stadiums have proven time and time again to be a poor investment for cities and states.
For a city, county, and region for that matter where there are ongoing human crises from evictions to underfunding of education to stagnant wages, a fancy downtown stadium seems like a true luxury we can’t afford.
But if we’re being realistic, a downtown stadium is going to happen. And if they decide to put the stadium in Olathe or something like that, they’re crazy but that’s besides the point.
Given that reality, our city and county elected officials and staff need to be on high alert and ready to negotiate the absolute best deal for the taxpayers and the community.
We have poured billions of public and private dollars into downtown. We shouldn’t be running scared when talks gets tough.
It worries me about how much praise the owner John Sherman and the ownership group has been and is getting. I’m sure Mr. Sherman is a nice man and his group is comprised of people who want “community impact, economic growth, and quality of life for people in this region” but all of this comes down to money.
Or as Mr. Sherman stated, “if we can make…the math [work], then it’s certainly a possibility for the future.”
IF THE MATH WORKS.
I can already tell you the math will not work in their view without significant public investment.
Kansas City figured out how to privately finance our new airport terminal. Not sure why we can’t do it with a stadium…unless the private sector views it as a bad investment and needs public dollars.
We need our elected officials and our public employees to view all conversations about the stadium, especially the financing, with a healthy, healthy smothering of skepticism.
These conversations will go on for years and will outlast many of our leaders leaving taxpayers absolutely vulnerable to some development attorney shiftiness who will be consistent figures.
In my observations, many elected officials, especially in Kansas City, have lacked a strong backbone in negotiating with private businesses and groups.
But, the most recent time when they did stiffen their spine and denied an uncalled for tax incentive extension for a business called BlueScope—they won!
BlueScope’s threats were empty and it was a big bluff.
Kansas City and Jackson County officials need to not be blinded by a popular, local ownership group and start with the position that no public funding should be included.
And then work from there.
In the meantime, I hope Mr. Sherman and his partners contemplate how demanding public tax dollars from ANY municipality, county, or state would contribute positively to “community impact” and “quality of life for people in this region.”
Everyone! Dispatches From Waldo is nominated for a Pitch Award for best local blog. Please take a minute to vote for me. I’d appreciate it!
As always, if you’d like to subscribe to more analyses, hot takes, and amateur citizen reporting about Kansas City, Missouri politics and other musings please consider subscribing.