Downtown stadium news (2024)

81Hawk said... (original post) There is a very decent chance a downtown ballpark might result in lower attendance than at The K. The motivation by the Royals is their desire to ea...

mzimme14 said... (original post) I would definitely attend more games at a downtown ballpark. I don't want to make the trek to one of the crappiest parts of town, with nothin...

Our firm tickets often go unused during the week. They won't once the new stadium gets here. Looking at KC Current packages as well.

Downtown has obviously come a long way in the last 15 years, but I think between downtown sports tenants and the underrated capping of 670 that there's still a lot of improvement coming this way. The Draft at the end of the month is going to be crazy busy and that's nothing compared to what's coming in 2026.

81Hawk said... (original post) Not to mention it will be a pain in the azz to get in/out of downtown.

81Hawk said... (original post) There is a very decent chance a downtown ballpark might result in lower attendance than at The K. The motivation by the Royals is their desire to ea...

This sounds like the old airport argument. The lift this provides to downtown is undeniable.

kansasdynasty said... (original post) https://fox4kc.com/sports/royals/kc-committee-advances-land-purchase-at-possible-royals-stadium-site/amp/Looks like they’re zeroing in on Eas...

81Hawk said... (original post) There is a very decent chance a downtown ballpark might result in lower attendance than at The K. The motivation by the Royals is their desire to ea...

81Hawk said... (original post) There is a very decent chance a downtown ballpark might result in lower attendance than at The K. The motivation by the Royals is their desire to ea...

Just curious why you feel this would result in lower attendance?

I think the opposite--baseball purists will go no matter what. (if you build it...)

The downtown will draw in the casual and accidental fans, especially in the dying demographic of 20-30yr olds who traditionally aren't baseball purists. Bachelor parties, reuinions, even couples trips suddenly would mix in a Royals game (or, more importantly, pick KC as a destination) because the location. Send the girls to P&L, send the boys to baseball game...it's a win-win. The K doesn't get what I'd call "accidental walk-up" ticket sales. No one is in the area on a sunny day and says "let's go get a ticket", but that would happen at Power and Light a bunch.

atrain081 said... (original post) This sounds like the old airport argument. The lift this provides to downtown is undeniable.

The old airport was a piece of schitt-the K is not. The "lift" you speak to assumes significant numbers of people will opt to hit the bars and the restaurants in big numbers before and after games. Demand for commercial office space DT is in the toilet and this won't change that reality much at all.

This is about the Royals wanting a cut on surrounding business revenues.

81Hawk said... (original post) There is a very decent chance a downtown ballpark might result in lower attendance than at The K. The motivation by the Royals is their desire to ea...

pgrtr92 said... (original post) Just curious why you feel this would result in lower attendance?I think the opposite--baseball purists will go no matter what. (if you build it...)...

You can mock and disagree with people who question the move if you want-but it's pretty clear it could result in lower attendance after the initial bump. You have a lot of fans who enjoy going to the K and one aspect of that is indeed convenience. There is literally zero mass transit from the burbs to downtown and the time required to get downtown from the burbs, to get into/out of the stadium will be significantly longer. And again, ticket prices, concession prices, parking hassles and pricing all enter into the equation.

Let's also remember we are talking about a sport that is experiencing declining attendance and tv ratings and unless the Royals can ever get consistently competitive, you're talking about a scenario that is anything but certain to see increasing attendance.

Move the same product downtown at an increased price and hassle-there's nothing certain about the success of that scenario at ll

81Hawk said... (original post) There is a very decent chance a downtown ballpark might result in lower attendance than at The K. The motivation by the Royals is their desire to ea...

81Hawk said... (original post) There is a very decent chance a downtown ballpark might result in lower attendance than at The K. The motivation by the Royals is their desire to ea...

It is pretty obvious the Royals owner wants the entertainment center built and envisions being the partner who gets all the profit.

81Hawk said... (original post) You can mock and disagree with people who question the move if you want-but it's pretty clear it could result in lower attendance after the ini...

I'm not mocking--was a geniune question. Apologies if it sounded otherwise.

I agree that there's declining attendance, which I even stated in my response as a reason that this move makes some sense.

To me the location greatly outweighs your sense of convenience for parking. I don't live in KC but my kids do so for me I'm in a car regardless. In all my visits to them it's usually "let's find something to do" and they've never suggested a royals game. Ever. But they've BOTH 100% said "this will be awesome because when you come to town we can grab dinner in Crossroads and walk over to a Royals game"

They're both huge sports fans. They both played competitive softball/baseball so they should be the demo to visit the K--but they don't. They don't care that there are 55,000 spots to park. It's in Raytown and when you're below 30 and you live in Crossroads/Downtown/North/etc....Raytown might as well be Springfield, Mo. They aren't going.

You sound like a baseball purist. Maybe you'll still go, maybe you won't. My gut is that the Royals have faith that the losses from the purists who dislike the downtown will be outweighed by the influx of gen-z or gen-x who dislike the current spot.

81Hawk said... (original post) You can mock and disagree with people who question the move if you want-but it's pretty clear it could result in lower attendance after the ini...

There is transit from the burbs to downtown. There is not transit from JO to downtown because JO refused to allow it because they didn’t want a certain ‘element’ to have access to JO. There’s also not transit from JO to Kauffman stadium.

People from JO find a way to make it to the T-Mobile Center on weeknights all of the time. There will be no issue here. Your comments here are shortsighted, against all reasonable concerns, and have been proven wrong everywhere there is a MLB team downtown. So that’s a lot like the KCI arguments.

81Hawk said... (original post) There is a very decent chance a downtown ballpark might result in lower attendance than at The K. The motivation by the Royals is their desire to ea...

Have you been to a downtown stadium in any other cities? The overall experience blows away the sterile parking lot of the K. I've been to a bunch of downtown venues and every time I have wished that KC had something like it.

CrimsonNBlue said... (original post) Let me guess, something something PARKING?!

Think of the traffic! Sprint Center traffic is a nightmare, think of this 81 times a year! Rabble rabble rabble. And it's always people who don't live or work downtown

pgrtr92 said... (original post) I'm not mocking--was a geniune question. Apologies if it sounded otherwise. I agree that there's declining attendance, which I even state...

alfonsecasextradigit said... (original post) Have you been to a downtown stadium in any other cities? The overall experience blows away the sterile parking lot of the K. I've ...