The Kansas City Royals continue to push forward on one of the worst organized ballpark plans ever put together
A few months ago, I wrote a story on the Kansas City Royals and their crazy ways of trying to convince taxpayers to give them a billion dollars through an increased sales tax (for a new ballpark). As I said in the story, the Royals decided that the best way to do this was by making sure that residents were “confused about every detail of their potential ballpark.” Rather than finish important deals months before the vote on the new sales tax, the Royals were completing them “just a week or two…
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The Kansas City Royals owner keeps promising to be transparent in the future yet never seems to follow through
The survey asked questions about the ballpark being located in downtown, near downtown, Clay County/North Kansas City and Johnson County/Overland Park. The Royals claim that this survey is meant to “optimize fans experiences” in their new ballpark. Whatever that means. In addition to the survey, Sherman released a statement where he claimed that the Royals were “constantly engaging and listening to” their fans. Really? Maybe Sherman can answer the fan who told KSHB that when he received the…
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St. Louis City SC owners do not need or want public money…just the many millions of taxpayer dollars they get every year
Washington University in St. Louis wrote a piece titled “Stadiums don’t have to be a drain on taxpayer dollars − 4 lessons from St. Louis”. This article was pushed to any outlet willing to publish it. Here it is retitled “St. Louis MLS Stadium Offers Alternative to Taxpayer-Funded Sports Venues.” Here are the authors pushing the article in local newspaper comment sections titled “How to build a stadium and keep taxpayers happy.” I have to read this article and understand how these Saints owners…
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“Business groups” in Kansas City push local officials to build the Royals a new ballpark…without disclosing the Royals connections to the groups
When the Kansas City Royals tried to garner some support for the sales tax vote last year, they paid a company, Jones Lang LaSalle, a Chicago-based real estate company, to write and release an economic impact report on a potential ballpark. But, it didn't take long for problems to come out of this idea. The Royals paid Jones Lang LaSalle to write this report without caring or realizing that Jones Lang LaSalle had no experience with economic impact reports for ballparks or even sports venues.…
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The Minnesota Twins want to stay put for decades to come…in exchange for taxpayer money on a yearly basis
The Minnesota Twins love playing in Minnesota. Team representatives talked to local media this week and brought up their desire to play in the state for “decades to come”. In fact, the team wants to put pen to paper to stay at their current ballpark until 2059! In return, the team doesn't want anything big or flashy. They just want a lot of taxpayer money given to them every single year. No big deal.
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Ohio State Politician slips in language to a bill at 1am so that the Bengals can save almost $10 million dollars in taxes
The new stadium has brought virtually nothing economically back to the city and therefore the stadium debt continues to account for more than almost 20% of Hamilton County's yearly budget. Did I mention that the lease agreement says that the stadium must be in a state-of-the-art condition? This means that every few years, Mike Brown will demand any number of new toys for his stadium, like a new scoreboard, and taxpayers are mandated to pay for them. Whenever this subject gets brought up, the…
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After being told that a Final Four would bring trillions to the area, the city of Glendale accepts that they made almost nothing off it
Last year, Glendale, Arizona was told that it could make $270 million dollars in economic impact from hosting a Final Four event in 2024. This year, some groups mentioned the possibility of the state making an impact between $250-$300 million from the Final Four. Others believed it was possibly for the state to bring in over $400 million dollars. The 2017 Final Four in Arizona brought the state $324.5 million dollars of economic benefits. Where did that money go?
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The Kansas City Royals screwed themselves yet still blame everyone else
The Kansas City Royals held off on telling the public about the location of their new ballpark until just months before the sales tax election. This meant that when the team did announce the location, the people who live in or around the area of this proposed ballpark were likely to be quite shocked. The Royals proposed a new ballpark on a big piece of land that at the moment had “as many as two dozen businesses and organizations” currently operating and open. They would need to be removed.
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St. Louis MLS owners required no “direct taxes” in 2019…now they are increasing the sales tax rate to 12.7%
The ownership group of St. Louis FC is increasing the sales tax rate to almost 13%. If the city board approves a new sales tax district near the stadium, then the sales tax rate will increase 1% because the team was recently forced to pay “extraordinary costs” to fix their field. The stadium land contained “contaminated groundwater” that was quite a pain to fix and replace. The team claims to have numerous and expensive costs to fix the field. Yet, they have not been asked to detail any of the…
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The Kansas City Royals ask taxpayers to give them $1 billion. Then ask for additional $700 million…maybe more?
The Kansas City Royals must love keeping secrets. After announcing to everyone in 2022 that they were leaving their current ballpark, it took two years for them to finally tell us where the new one would be built. But anything else? Good luck. Things got so bad last year that the team owner had to write a public letter telling everyone to relax and just wait for the new ballpark to be announced. Months later, we still know very little. This week, KRPS did a fantastic story detailing the…
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