Fifty-one percent of those polled say "absolutely not" to downtown stadium (Kansas City: home, tax)

[luzianne]

Surprising poll results for building new Royals downtown stadium | The Kansas City Star

[kcmo]

Originally Posted by luzianne

Surprising poll results for building new Royals downtown stadium | The Kansas City Star

I think very few would want to do anything "now" with the stadiums just a few years after they were renovated, including myself. Before the renovations I was 100% for a new downtown baseball stadium and renovated Arrowhead only with a retractable roof.

Again, the city and metro would have gotten so much more in return on the investment. A downtown ballpark would have taken KC's downtown rebirth to a completely different level (more on par with what many other cities are seeing) rather than the rather lackluster and slow paced rebirth that is occurring now. And a retractable roof for Arrowhead would have brought many more events to KC such as concerts and even major national/world events like the Final Four and Super Bowl. Instead the city got pretty much nothing out of spending over a half billion dollars of public money.

The topic will come up again in 10 years or so. Maybe by then KC people will have different priorities in life other than where they will park.

But yea, till then, Kauffman is a nice stadium (in a terrible location) and nearly everybody that I have spoken to that has visited KC for games has said that.

[SPonteKC]

Of course, the poll was conducted of KC Star readers, who are overwhelmingly suburban, including many Kansans, none of whom would be taxed (and none of whom currently fund any portion of the public investment in the stadia) and thus would not be eligible to vote on such a proposal anyway.

Kind of like polling everyone in the metro asking if Mission should be giving massive corporate welfare to Wlamart to relocate from 10 blocks north.

[CrownVic95]

I don't know why anyone would call these results surprising.

What do I keep telling you? Kansas City knows better.

[kcmo]

Originally Posted by CrownVic95

I don't know why anyone would call these results surprising.

What do I keep telling you? Kansas City knows better.

About what? Parking lots?

[Truly Missouri]

I wish they would do a poll about Cerner. Then it would expose just how many people hate their choice of location.

[Parkerlewis33]

Originally Posted by Truly Missouri

I wish they would do a poll about Cerner. Then it would expose just how many people hate their choice of location.

I would have thought that the ballpark numbers were skewed by the recent remodel, but I'm beginning to think that is not the case. I say this because I've only seen the remodel directly mentioned a few times in comments following poll articles. A few others commented that it's a beautiful stadium and there is no need to tear it down, while they made no mention of the remodel. I guess that could have been inferred though. Most people just seemed to question the parking situation and the difficulty of driving to a downtown location. I'm starting to believe I'm the only person in western JoCo that thinks driving downtown would be easier than driving all the way across the metro on the Interstate at rush hour. I have to check out this new Triangle. It must really have been improved? A few people made comments on behalf of a downtown stadium by stating that there would be new development downtown. Replies to these comments stated that they would rather see "them" develop around the current location. Ha ha... that's funny. I guess people don't understand that "they" is the simple market demand for a product, and if it was a viable investment it would have been done long ago. It's obviously one of the least desirable areas in the metro. It will take a huge population increase for that area to see development and it will never happen solely on behalf of the TSC. Anyway, after reading the comments I'm inclined to think a Cerner poll would look very similar to the ballpark poll. This is just the KC attitude and it's probably not going to change anytime soon without an outside force. It is the main reason I probably won't be making a suburb of KC my home anytime soon. I prefer to live in the boonies outside of a strong downtown, but I sure as heck don't want to drive to a whole new set of boonies to watch a baseball game.

[kcmo]

Originally Posted by Truly Missouri

I wish they would do a poll about Cerner. Then it would expose just how many people hate their choice of location.

Very few people in KC would even know any details about the Cerner project. Just like very few know or care about the details of any development projects in metro KC or how they effect the overall health of metro KC. What would you ask in a poll?

This is what I would ask:

Should the city of KCMO and the state of Missouri give a private company 1.75 BILLION dollars to build a walled off single use suburban office park that will do almost nothing for the area (would actually be a net loss of tax revenue for the city over 20 years) or would you rather city the city and state force said private company to use the money as a way to build a mixed use master planned COMMUNITY that would totally re-brand the Bannister Mall location and create brand new investment in all of South Kansas City?

I'll say it again. If the city and state, and ultimately the tax payers, are going to give this much money to a very profitable private company. GET SOMETHING IN RETURN.

Force them or at least try to convince them to either do as I said above and do a project that will actually improve SKC or tell them they have to go to an urban infill project if they want these kinds of incentives. There has been ZERO compromise here. This is nothing but Cerner using public money to build half of a private office park.

This Cerner deal is a terrible deal for tax payers and a massive wasted opportunity for KC (either south KC or downtown). KC will look back on the Cerner project in 10 or 15 years and label it as one of the biggest urban planning mistakes in the history of the city and one so big that it will change the entire direction of where the city is going. This Cerner project "COULD" be a game changer for KC. This project all by itself could instantly propel KC into a different league competing with cities like MSP, Denver, Charlotte and Seattle. Instead, it will do NOTHING but clean up an empty lot where a mall once stood.

It could be worse. I'm sure if the city and state did put more pressure on Cerner, they would take their ball to Kansas and get 2 billion to build the same project on a far flung farm field halfway to Lawrence.

Extremely frustrating. Cerner really could have taken KC to the next level and out of "has been" territory.

[Truly Missouri]

^ Well said.

[TabulaRasa]

Originally Posted by Parkerlewis33

I would have thought that the ballpark numbers were skewed by the recent remodel, but I'm beginning to think that is not the case. I say this because I've only seen the remodel directly mentioned a few times in comments following poll articles. A few others commented that it's a beautiful stadium and there is no need to tear it down, while they made no mention of the remodel. I guess that could have been inferred though. .

Really, it IS significantly more beautiful post-remodel than pre. I would say it's to be inferred that the renovations have endeared it more to people.