Gordo: Sadly, Kauffman Stadium is entering the final stage of its storied run (2024)

Since the start of interleague play, Cardinals fans have enjoyed their sojourns to Kansas City to see their team face the Royals in the I-70 Series.

Kauffman Stadium is a unique ballpark with its iconic fountains and cozy configuration. The easy access and parking are much appreciated by fans coming from some distance to games.

The stadium might survive the rest of this decade, but that will likely be it. This is the sad reality for those of us old-timers who cherished its George Brett heyday.

Brett pounding line drives into the gaps, Willie Wilson streaking around the bases, Dan Quisenberry baffling hitters with submarine junk pitches, Muriel Kauffman, the owner’s animated wife, barging into the clubhouse to celebrate victories with the boys ... those were good times.

The franchise made many impressive upgrades at “The K” since the Brett Era to build a more compelling ballpark experience. Back in the day there were few bells and whistles, other than empathetic relief pitchers hosing off roasting fans in the bullpen-adjacent stands.

Ah, but time marches on. You know, progress and such.

Royals owner John Sherman wants to build a $2 billion downtown stadium and entertainment district, like the Cardinals did with Busch Stadium III and Ballpark Village.

Failing that, maybe the franchise could build a suburban complex over on the Kansas side, modeled after Truist Park in Cobb County, Georgia. The Atlanta Braves struck gold with that project.

North Kansas City made a pitch for the new ballpark just across the Missouri River. An architectural firm worked up renderings for a stadium that would straddle the Missouri-Kansas state line in the West Bottoms area, just outside downtown Kansas City.

The issue remains unresolved for a host of issues, but this much seems clear: Sherman is determined to exit Kauffman Stadium by the end of the 2030 season.

He believes the team must escape the shadow of Arrowhead Stadium and the Chiefs at the Truman Sports Complex. His goal is to build a much broader enterprise around his ballclub, as Bill DeWitt Jr. did in St. Louis.

We can’t blame him. If Sherman can pull this off, the Royals could roll into a new era while creating an exciting new attraction for Kansas City.

The Royals are one of baseball’s least-prosperous teams. The most recent Forbes study ranked it 27th in the major leagues in revenue and 28th in franchise value. Bobby Witt Jr. is doing his best to change that, but one superstar can only do so much.

Admittedly, creating a new baseball attraction that furthers downtown development would be a great long-term outcome. The team’s favored location would connect nicely to the commerce around the T-Mobile Center, albeit at the expense of the restaurants, bars and shops that transformed the Crossroads Arts District into an emerging neighborhood.

Meanwhile the best outcome for Chiefs fans would see the team renovate Arrowhead to add more premium amenities and make the gameday experience outside the stadium even better.

Tailgating is what makes the Chiefs the Chiefs. Long before Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift, the Green Bay-quality tailgating at Arrowhead became part of the region’s social fabric.

The Chiefs could maintain that tradition by staying put and making creative use of the space vacated by the Royals. Failing that, the franchise could find a giant pasture on the Kansas side to build on.

After all, Sporting Kansas City has its MLS stadium out west, adjacent to the Kansas Speedway. Many of the metropolitan area’s most affluent suburbs are on that side, so there is a natural fit.

It would be a shame to see the team move westward — especially for fans on this side of the state who have Chiefs season tickets — but political push came to shove on this issue.

In April, Jackson County votes shot down a sales tax measure that would have helped fund a new Royals stadium and stadium renovations for the Chiefs. Jackson County Executive Frank White, a former Royals star, vigorously opposed the initiative.

That election result inspired some Kansas lawmakers to discuss legislation to woo the team across the border. But political resistance exists there, too.

There’s not much taxpayer appetite for underwriting stadium projects to help billionaires make even more money. Study after study have shown that new stadiums and arenas offer a poor return on public investment.

And when you drive past the Truman Sports Complex, it is difficult to detect much economic benefit generated by sports fans for the surrounding area. A high-rise hotel looms ominously vacant and deteriorating on the other side of I-70.

There are a few motels in the area, plus a Taco Bell and Subway sandwich shop across the street. And that’s about it.

Still, the Royals and Chiefs are important to a region that lost the MLB’s Athletics in the 1960s, the NHL’s Scouts in the 1970s and the NBA’s Kings in the 1980s. We expect the city fathers to find solutions the work for the franchises and fans.

But some of us are really going to miss “The K.”