Inside Baseball: Jackson County Imagines Another Tenant For The K

First and foremost, we're forced to repeat an unpleasant truth that so many residents in Kansas City don't want acknowledge.

SORRY BUT, THE KANSAS CITY ROYALS WILL NOT STAY AT THE K FOR THE LONG TERM!!!

They might add a few years to their lease, they could tease the option of staying there in order to leverage a better deal somewhere else . . . But . . . The K is now CERTAINLY on the path to losing the tenant for which it was designed.

However . . .

Last year we reported power moves to preemptively secure the impending demolition contract. Now, it's critical that we update the conversation shifting. 

Behind the scenes, quite a few insiders imagine this as an opportunity to repurpose the facility. Already ideas about a permanent international soccer arena at Arrowhead and a convert venue, mixed-use facility at the K are starting to take hold. 

Sadly . . .

Most of these fantasies will only throw good money after bad.

And so we ask . . .

WHAT SHOULD JACKSON COUNTY DO WITH THE K WHEN THE KANSAS CITY ROYALS INEVITABLY MOVE?!?

 In order to inform the conversation, here's a bit of insight that shouldn't be overlooked . . . Check-it:

Cities and counties increasingly find themselves littered with pricey white-elephant sports venues that are costly to keep up and sometimes impossible to unload. Maintaining unused stadiums costs governments millions of dollars in maintenance and forgone property tax revenue. For those governments, it’s a vexing question, indeed: What do you do when the team walks away?

When a team ditches a venue for new digs, the city or county is often left grappling with what to do with the empty facility. Finding a new tenant can be a major challenge: Facilities designed as professional sports venues aren’t much good for anything else. For one thing, they’re enormous. The Astrodome, for example, is 18 stories tall with a 9-acre footprint; it can easily house a Boeing 777. Another major challenge with these buildings is their location. Frequently located outside of city centers — and nearly always surrounded by a sea of asphalt parking lots — stadiums would require a tenant that’s a destination unto itself. “When you try to convert things, it often costs more money than knocking them down,” says architect Peter Eisenman, who designed the Arizona Cardinals football stadium outside of Phoenix. “That kind of space is too problematic for other functions.”

Sports economist Andrew Zimbalist agrees. Most of the time, he says, the most prudent thing a city can do is raze the facility. “Usually it makes sense to blow them up and put something else in.”

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . . 

SCM: What Do You Do With An Empty Stadium or Arena?

Developing . . .