We thought talk of a new downtown Kansas City Royals ballpark was dead, but proponents still push for one — in defiance of fans who still love Kauffman Stadium.
Kansas City has always been a great baseball town, and the 2014 World Series — where the upstart Royals contended until the last inning of the matchup with the San Francisco Giants — should reverberate at venerable Kauffman Stadium for years to come. But that’s not stopping some business leaders in Kansas City to revive the plan for a downtown ballpark contemplated before Jefferson County led the charge for a $225 million renovation five years ago. (By the way, that renovation was truly successful: Kauffman Stadium is now one of the top ballparks in all of Major League Baseball.) The renovation also bound the team to Kauffman Stadium through 2031, so all this talk about a new downtown ballpark may be purely academic — especially without the support of team owner David Glass.
Still, the talk was loud enough for the Kansas City Star to ask readers to rank their feelings on a new downtown ballpark. And while the poll was not scientific — like all Web-based polls — we’re guessing the truth is pretty close to what Star readers revealed:
Here are results from the unscientific poll, which attracted more than 5,250 votes, to this question: “Should taxpayers build a downtown stadium for the Royals?”
- Strongly agree — 26 percent
- Agree — 9 percent
- Disagree — 14 percent
- Absolutely not — 51 percent
All in all, 65 percent of the respondents opposed a new downtown ballpark.
It does seem insane to want to build a new downtown ballpark when there’s a great ballpark already in Kansas City. Yes. we are usually proponents of downtown ballparks, but those are in situations where there’s a blank slate. In Kansas City, where Royals fans already enjoy an updated and historic Kauffman Stadium, it makes little sense to abandon what’s already great. It’s a solution in search of a problem.