New Baseball Stadium or Not ?? (Omaha: news , metro, good)

[star_gazer]

Animation of the downtown stadium at here... Omaha Stadium Proposal - Videos

[kdbrich]

yay, a 24k seat bell cow. it's too small for a real team, too big for the royals...will sit empty 50 weeks of the year.

all so fahey can have his legacy.

[star_gazer]

While I was a proponent of a 'right sized' minor league park downtown... with the NCAA taking 'ownership' of Rosenblatt... I'll gladly take a new downtown ballpark over Rosenblatt alone. The Royals will end up playing there... a deal will be worked out... just as they had one to play in the lackluster Johnny.

In the end... the stadium will still look empty... however at least it will have amenities around it. My wife and I will be able to have a nice dinner in the Old Market and take a leisurely walk over the the ball game... enjoy the skyline view. I have no doubt the attendance will see a boost as well... not enough to give the stadium the minor league atmosphere the Royals deserve, but more than it ever had at Rosenblatt.

[kdbrich]

Maybe if KC was serious about actually fielding a good team, or didn't jump the best prospects from AA to the majors, thereby skipping Omaha, I'd say they "deserve" a good minor league atmosphere.

[mattpoulsen]

Minor league baseball attendance isn't really about the teams or the players. Its more about entertainment. Its about Fireworks night, Family night, T-shirt night or Thirsty Thursday.

By having a downtown location there will be many more entertainment options than existed in Rosenblatt.

As far as the AA jumping to the MLB, there isn't much KC can do about that. They simply can't compete with the big market teams...KC is essentially a farm team for the 5 or 6 huge market teams. Its a matter of the MLB not having a salary cap.

[kdbrich]

I'll agree with you about the salary cap. I'm a Cardinals fan, though...and they seem to make do just fine with about the same size of market.

I think it would do well for KC if they'd let some of their top prospects spend even a couple of weeks in Omaha. Especially a local kid like Gordon.

And I'm not sure driving downtown is what families really want. Personally, I don't know that I'd want to head downtown. If it's about entertainment and families, then build in the middle of a corn field with easy interstate access out west.

[Jason4225]

Originally Posted by kdbrich

I'll agree with you about the salary cap. I'm a Cardinals fan, though...and they seem to make do just fine with about the same size of market.

Actually St. Louis is a considerably larger market. The greater St. Louis area is the 18th largest in the nation, while the greater K.C. area is 29th. That is quite a difference for the potential of the two teams. Granted, KC needs to spend more money that they receive from revenue sharing, but they will never be able to compete on a regular basis with the current setup in MLB.

And I'm not sure driving downtown is what families really want. Personally, I don't know that I'd want to head downtown. If it's about entertainment and families, then build in the middle of a corn field with easy interstate access out west.

I don't think they are looking to get the families downtown. The new stadium is being built primarily for the CWS, everything else is secondary. They need to have hotels, entertainment, and the road infrastructure to support the CWS and downtown is the only place that fits the bill.

Minor league baseball is about entertainment and families, plus it needs to be an intimate atmosphere. Ideally for the Royals, if they stay in Omaha, would be a smaller ballpark of about 6000-8000 seats in West Omaha or another surrounding area.

It would be unfortunate if the Royals left Omaha, but it wouldn't negatively impact the city financially like losing the CWS would.

[mattpoulsen]

Yeah, the Cardinals market is much bigger than KC's. The Cardinals team is one of the big 5 or 6 I was talking about. Just looked at the salaries paid by the teams and you'll see a marked difference between the elite, the middle pack, and the effectively farm teams (KC, Minnesota, and etc.).

[ehenningsen]

Why would anyone want to have a AAA team in a suburb when they could be in the middle of billions of dollars of corporate/housing/retail/entertainment construction?

[Jason4225]

Originally Posted by ehenningsen

Why would anyone want to have a AAA team in a suburb when they could be in the middle of billions of dollars of corporate/housing/retail/entertainment construction?

Ideally the Royals would like to have a smaller stadium because the huge stadium that the CWS will require can hurt the experience that the Royals are trying to create. I'm sure that the Royals would be happy to be in the downtown stadium even if it was too large if they could still make a good profit from it (depends on who controls the advertising). I think many people would love going to a game then heading to the Old Market or other downtown areas. Plus, they could try to attract the growing population downtown. In the end it depends on if both sides can make compromises that the other can deal with.