KSHB 41 reporter Tod Palmer covers sports business and eastern Jackson County. He followed up on a tip colleagues received about the Historic 18th & Vine Jazz District stadium idea. Share your story idea with Tod.
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A group of legislators hoping to keep the Royals in Kansas City, Missouri, as the search for a new stadium site continues, heard a new pitch from developers about an old baseball stadium site last weekend.
Rep. Mark Sharp was among those briefed as developers took a swing at reviving the idea of a stadium just west of the Historic 18th and Vine Jazz District.
“The 18th and Vine, Truman Road area really is the heartbeat of Kansas City baseball,” Sharp said Friday during an interview in Raytown.
When the Royals began touting a downtown stadium as a home run, the club studied the site — from The Paseo west to Troost Avenue and from 18th Street north to Truman Road, including the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority offices and fleetyard.
Ultimately, Royals ownership led by Chairman and CEO John Sherman pivoted to a site in the northeast corner of the Crossroads Arts District ahead of a failed April 2024 vote on extending a 3/8-cent sales tax that funded stadium renovations and operations in Jackson County.
Now, a development group that includes renowned barbecue baron and businessman Ollie Gates wants to revive a stadium on Kansas City’s East Side.
“When we think about professional baseball in Kansas City, well, most of that history was made here in this area,” Negro Leagues Baseball Museum President Bob Kendrick said. “So, how special would it be to have a ballpark back in this area?”
The Negro Leagues were founded in 1920 at a former YMCA just south of the proposed stadium site. The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, or NLBM, which has announced plans to move to that former YMCA building and build a Marriott-branded hotel connected to it, keeps that history alive.
“There's already so much development happening at 18th and Vine,” Sharp said. “... You're going to have a brand new Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. You're also going to have a brand new hotel right there in the corner, so there's already plenty of investment being done. Then, you look at putting a brand new baseball stadium using the package that the state of Missouri passed this past session, these things go really well together.”
Kendrick agreed: “This just falls right in line with how the game and its history is connected in Kansas City.... Certainly, we feel it’s (downtown baseball) more than appropriate and would be meaningful for the long-term growth of our city, but to have it here at 18th & Vine would just raise that whole bar considerably.”
Sherman, 70, has talked about building a new stadium as a generational decision. He’s unlikely to be around for the next round of lease negotiations, so he wants to secure the Royals’ long-term future in Kansas City now.
The doomed Crossroads stadium concept was expected to reconnect that neighborhood and downtown with 18th & Vine, but this project could accomplish the same goal in reverse.
“John Sherman has made it pretty clear, I think, that he wants to have a lasting legacy on the communities here in Kansas City," Sharp said. “... This could be a very exciting time for Kansas City to look forward to using a baseball stadium, a Major League Baseball stadium, to connect those three things.”
Kendrick knows how transformative such a project could be for the East Side.
“It would change the dynamic and the landscape of this area and the East Side proper for decades to come,” he said. “... So, it's exciting to at least have these conversations. I don't know where they're going to go, but they haven't just put the stamp on and said, ‘No go,’ and, until that happens, there's always optimism. There's always hope; hope springs eternal.”
I was unable to contact the Gates family for this story, but Kendrick and Sharp confirmed his involvement in the project.
“I know how passionate he is about the East Side,” Kendrick said. “You will find no one who has been a greater advocate for the East Side in this community than Ollie Gates, and he's put his money where his mouth is.”
His backing legitimizes the concept, even if it’s still considered a long shot behind a proposal to plop a stadium in Washington Square Park and at the site of the former Blue Cross Blue Shield Kansas City headquarters east of Union Station.
“When Ollie Gates calls, I think it was only natural that John would take his call, because you understand what he means to not just the business community, but the civic community, and he really would love to see that stadium here in this area, for a lot of reasons.”
The Royals declined to comment on the 18th & Vine idea, but a team spokesman said the club continues “working hard toward the best solution for the team, fans, and community.”
After initially studying 14 sites in KCMO, the Royals whittled their choices down to two by the summer of 2023 — East Village, inside the Downtown Loop, and North Kansas City.
Ultimately, the Crossroads concept went before voters and the Kansas legislature moved to poach the Chiefs and Royals after the failed vote.
The Chiefs and Sunflower State officials announced last month that the team would build a new domed stadium and headquarters in Kansas. Both are set to open after the current lease expires in January 2031.
The Royals also were considering a move to Kansas with recent efforts focused on Aspiria, the former Sprint Center campus. The team’s ownership purchased the property’s mortgage, but there has been a lot of pushback from Overland Park residents.
Kansas Speaker of the House Dan Hawkins, a Republican from Wichita, also said the STAR Bonds offer for the baseball team to move to Kansas expired Dec. 31.
Meanwhile, a Clay County commissioner recently expressed frustration with negotiations with the Royals north of the river, while the focus south of the river remains on Washington Square Park.
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