This Podcast Is... Uncalled For - Do You WANT to be Oakland?!

Episode Date: June 28, 2024

This is Mike's response to the failed stadium vote in early April 2024.

Hi, I'm Mike Chernivsky, and your listen to this podcast is Un Called For. all right everybody welcome to another episode of the podcast and uh yeah today you're getting angry mike today um this is in response to uh the uh ballot measure that as it was recording failed a week ago to correct a 50 year old wrong okay I'm of course talking about the stadium votes

in Jackson County and before I read this article on what should happen next to the people who voted no on this it depends on how

and why you voted no if you vote to know if you vote to know because you don't want to extend an already existing sales tax and you don't feel that government money should go to billionaires okay I get it unfortunately that's the way it is in the states in the states a sports scene it's one of the more despicable aspects of it I think and I get it from that standpoint um if if uh if uh you think that's putting a ballpark in an underutilized portion of a very large arts district

okay i i get it if you disagree with uh displacing small business my understanding is they were going to help those people anyway but uh if that's are okay that's a valid arguments but to say that sports and arts don't mix uh hello uh this podcast is a good example of sports and arts

uh finding a way to coexist okay the two can coexist putting a ballpark in the middle of an arts gesture again on a six block plot of land where not much arts activity is taking place or any activity at all well I think you kind of misunderstands the scope and really the

location of all what all is actually taking place all because mostly the arts activity that takes place in that district happens south and west of that specific site. If your complaint is about parking, the amount of stupid in you is just so fucking vast. I can't, I just can't.

During the public meetings that this team, which by the way, those public meetings happened over a year ago okay so you had over a year to learn about this to make your voices heard and you did you probably did nothing all right you probably didn't go to these meetings so but at these meetings they said you know there's plenty of there's more than enough parking downtown okay so you could easily park and walk to the ballpark if you live downtown you don't even have to drive you just walk all right um the uh site in question was two fucking blocks from a streetcar stop and that streetcar is being

extended as we speak it's going to be done next year well so you could park on the plaza up main streets up to that stop get off and just walk the two blocks and then repeat the same trip and it's not just a ballpark that would have gone up it's also a ballpark district

you know restaurants and bars and stuff like that that after the game we could just stop at one of them chill out for a bit and if you're seriously concerned about traffic shall have been a way for traffic to die down. But no, but no, you chose to ignore it.

If you voted against it because you think there's nothing wrong with Kaufman, then you are really fucking stupid. I can't help you. Go to hell. All right. That anger out of the way we are going to now turn our attention to a opinion piece written by dave heling consistent star full disclosure i've worked indirectly with dave during my

time at uh intern at kCPt and i did uh i did meet him once uh while i was studying at juco uh fellow west grad by the way so so this is the article the title is here's how the royals and chiefs can get it right on the next stadium subsidies vote dated

April 7, 24 the votes are in and they have been counted all sites have retreated to the corner some bitter others aesthetic the stadium's question which has sucked the air from the community for months has been settled at least for now. For some, the issue has been

settled forever. Probably 40% of local voters oppose any taxpayer subsidies for sports facilities for any reason at any time. It's a legitimate and defensible argument. This column isn't for them. Nothing I can say or anyone else can say will convey. them some people that sports teams are community assets and deserve some sort of community support they will always

vote no fine and that's a good point that's a good point aside from a handful of companies like the company I work for you're probably not going to have the name of the city attached

to it and And furthermore, if you're a sports fan, you open the sports page every single day during any given season. You're going to see the names of cities. Those teams are more than just sports teams or billionaires, toys, everyone. But they are indeed community assets. And that shows every single time you open a sports page. Okay.

because your name is out there. So others, though, may still be willing to consider alternatives that are more carefully tailored to meet the community's interests, which include a low-tax burden, more widely shared, and benefits for everyone, not just sports fans. Perhaps both teams are willing to, are still willing to listen. I think such a path is still available, but it will take an effort by all sides to think more broadly about how this issue might be addressed

and an acceptance of new paradigms for old problems. Here's an outline. Excuse me. As always, details matter. Statutes may have to change mechanisms addressed. But in broad strokes, there are answers for the clubs and the politicians. So let's start with the Royals and downtown baseball. Step one, end the relationship with Jackson County and negotiate directly with the city.

The Royals have blamed Jackson County Executive Frank White's intransigence for the failure to conclude state negotiations more quickly and openly. The team may or may not be right, but the workaround is clear. Stop negotiating with White or the county and open talks with City Hall. Pause. So this is the same Frank White, who's number 20, is retired with the Royals. A legend with the team. Help them win a World Series.

that he opposed this tax and I think actively worked against it is pretty telling if I were petty and in John Sherman's position I would unretired number 20 right away but that's just me that's just my thinking contrast that with Mayor Lucas okay Mayor Lucas

I will give you a little bit of blame for pushing the star building on everyone not even

two months before the vote even though we heard this whole time it's either going to be East Village or North KC again I think East Village is the better site because there's fucking nothing there and I do put a little blame on you for

pushing for that East Crossroads site but it sounds like you're willing to work with the teams here so so I give you applause for that sir all right the team's relationship with the county is an accident of history and not fundamentally

required kansas city on the other hand has a direct interest in its downtown and how a stadium might work in its center a stadium a citywide 316 cent sales tax for 40 years will likely raise half of the funds for a billion dollar stadium as a reminder the royals did say their project would be about two billion over half of which they would finance themselves

and roughly about 50-50 ballpark in the surrounding ballpark district all right the royals should promise to match

that spending dollar for dollar state contributions can be counted and special concession sales taxes can be collected Northlanders who were excluded

from the first votes but now would have to be included in this boat if it is a citywide thing Northlanders may complain but downtown city would be more convenient for them and a bond issue may include spending for

Northland sports amenities as well. Current leases could be a sticking point. In a worst case scenario, the royals might have to delay and move to downtown until 20131. That said, it takes

years to get stadium built. Just like it takes years to get a streetcar line put in. all right years of planning and as well as the actual

construction so there's that next point let's the people pick the site I don't know if this is a guy to yet but I will go ahead and read this

again the Rawls won a downtown ballpark if they bobbled but they bobbled to the exact location angering business owners and neighborhood leaders why should the team pick the site

let city hall appoint a group to steady access land availability costs parking disruption and other issues hold public meetings then let the public through their elected representatives choose the precise downtown

location sites could include East Village 18th and fine the west side near the Lowe's Hotel or somewhere else the city could select a location by the end of 2024 it could include it should include a broad public community benefits agreement again if you let the people decide

well, some idiots are going to say, oh, there's nothing well the cuff, man, why I can't see we keep it there? Aside from, it's 50 years old, the location sucks. It's

extremely difficult to get in and out of if you're telling me otherwise and you're fucking lying or you haven't been there a while. And there's no restaurant within reasonable walking distance.

All right. Got a walker at sea of parking lots and cross six lanes of tracks to get to a fucking taco bell? No, not an option. Again, of these sites that were listed, okay, East Village makes the most sense because there's nothing there.

18th of mine and I disagree with. Yes, there's a baseball development in that district, but it's like downtown adjacent. I struggle to even call that downtown proper. Westside near the Lowe's, what site is he referring to? Because that's like right across the street from Bartle Hall. and still a very, very new space I have yet to see it myself. I digress.

Okay, next up, make the city a partner in the team's success. David Glass, and timeout, if you're going to blame anyone for the current problems, don't blame, don't necessarily blame Sherman. He only owns the team, not. very long as opposed to the Jackoff who had been on the team for a while Mr. Glass

so first of all Walmart exec I should tell you a lot and yeah was a cheapo who when this came up 20 years ago chose to do nothing

to address it just throw more money into the bullets wound that is Kaufman and do nothing to address the actual team's needs. Again, baseball needs to be downtown. And this is a darn time that you hear this, I hate the words, but this small market bullshit where teams in smaller communities

could not compete with the Yankees and the Dodgers and all that. Well, we know it's bullshit now, but no one bought it more than David fucking Glass. The fact that they got to two World Series in 14 and 15 is pure luck.

All right? Just pure fucking luck. All right, because since 18, aside from those two years that team has been garbage and a lot of the blame has to be on glass all right so anyway he purchased the royals

for 96 million in 2000 20 years later so we're going as 2024 so Sherman hasn't owned the team all that long and he sold for about a billion even accounting for operating laws

It's a pretty good profit. So let John Sherman share that money. He's already sharing ownership stakes with people, including one, Patrick Mahomes. So that's a good start. I would probably go as far as this is just a, yeah, you set up a community trust input. kind of like what they did with a horizontal pre-cranky I digress

but I digress the royals should agree to split the net profits for any future sale minus operating losses with the city the city could use that money to pay off standing bonds early and for all important public purpose

for any important public purpose like transportation street car health education or anything else and it could be hundreds of millions of dollars for public use it would establish a true partnership between the city and the community and the team and here's and there's a precedent you and coffman gave his sale profits to charity okay so here we have some solutions to get baseball downtown where it fucking belongs and where it should have been

20 years ago it should have been 50 years ago all right I am sick and tired of people making excuses for a mistake that city planners made in the 60s early 70s

okay I'm sick of it let's get that team downtown and again I challenge you to name a single team that doesn't have some sort of either downtown

arrangements or a ballpark village arrangements that is successful do you want to be Oakland I guess is the question I'm asking out because the A's

yes ironically the same A's that left KC and made the Royals possible they tried to do the actually impossible and try to do this whole thing in Oakland good luck to doing this anywhere in California by the way couldn't get done so they're following the Raiders

to Vegas so Oakland California went from how far do we want to go back because it could go back to when they had the California Golden Seals who of course don't exist anymore and discounting the fact that they are part of the Bay Area Oakland, California went from having

hosting three major sports teams to as of 2025 none all right the Raiders are in Vegas now Okay, they just played a Super Bowl at their new stadium which again

should have been built in Carson, California but I digress. A's same thing, they're on their way to Vegas, they still have to build the stadium and just this week they announced they are

so done with the Coliseum, they're so done with Oakland, they're going to play the next few years in Sacramento, which by the way is another city that stole a team from us and you have the NBA warriors who are still in the Bay Area but they're actually in San Francisco now so so yeah do you want to be Oakland that is the question I ask for everyone metro wide all right And I also remind Mr. Helling that they did have plans for Aipal Park Village in North KC as a backup.

And I remind my listeners, North KC is different from Kansas City proper. It is its own little suburb right there on the Missouri, just across the river from downtown. but completely enclaimed by KC North so so that's a possibility and you definitely don't have to deal with Jackson County at that point that's Clay County new Tony met and it is a distinct possibility so let's hope that's it's exalt all of our possibilities around downtown first before we start thinking about North

KC and once again staying where they are not an option if you still think it's an option turn this podcast off right now all right now now

now on to the football team which yes once again change the name they're what they need to do and this is a good time to slam Clark Hunt a little bit because there was a graphic that came up showing the top 10

owners in terms of wealth in the NFL the Hunt family race number two about $24 billion the only wealthier owner is within the AFC West, that would be

the Walton family owning the Denver Broncos. And they put up plans to... We're just going to put a facelift on Arrowhead and it'll only cost $800 million and we're

only going to throw in $300 million. Cheap ass. back to the article so one they can negotiate with Jackson County White has already proposed a chief's only election a separate Jackson

County 316 sent sales tax which cut the levy in half in the eastern part of the county combining that with the city's own 316 sales tax

would make for a 3.8 cent rate inside the shared Jackson County, Kansas City limits, but the team would remain, but the city wouldn't remain the fiscal home for both teams. The Chiefs could be much more clear about their overheads plans and explain what it wants to do after its lease is up in 25 years. Sharing revenue after a sale is less

possible here, the hunts will likely never sell the team. Explore the Kansas option. Missouri fans may not want to hear this, but a Kansas location would likely be as

convenient as the Truman Sports Complex, i.e. Less of a problem for football than it is for baseball. Oh, that's another bitch. Baseball, what about the tailgating? Tailgating is not really part of baseball culture. It is a big part of football culture, but it's really not a thing in baseball, so drop it.

All right. uh so yeah it would also indirectly establish a true by-state approach to stay in construction maintenance which the community desperately needs yeah no shit um uh i would stronger advise everyone to revisit my uh episode uh free state of kansas city uh i think we need to get rid this by state bullshit and have the entire metro all five seven more generously counties just break off from Kansas and Missouri

and form their own separate state I think that would solve a lot of the issues we have around here I digress let's continue so local state support may be local tax support may be required and that's it a rough framework

to keep both clubs here with lower or and broader tax support and widely spread community benefits. In a perfect world, these options would have been considered in public five years ago, but the world isn't perfect, and they were not. There is still time. Once everyone gets a chance to relax and think, it's time

to go to work again and the Kansas site there that's often talking about as around the Legends and Village West where you already have a minor league ballpark you have sporting is out there you do have shops

and restaurants in the form of the legends and some other development around there you have a racetrack you have a casino Now, you do have some office space. Thank you, Serner. For that, the American Royal is going to be moving out there. The San San Antonio Theater is not too far away.

You know, the Renfair, not too far away either. For football. I'm going to stress again, for football, there's still plenty of space that you can build a new NFL stadium. out there and that would leave Missouri with zero NFL teams

within its borders fuck you stand cronkey for that but let's say all this goes south and that's still a very real possibility

I think that is the most likely a situation people on the line saying, well, just move the chiefs to St. Louis. The chiefs would not be welcome in St. Louis. I'm going to tell you that right now because of Clark Hunt's role in Cronkey's lies. And the fact that he was the only owner

on the L.A. committee that voted against St. Louis. All right, so that team would not be welcome there. And seriously, I would asked the to consider bring in a minority owner at some point

because they're demonstrated by just putting $300 million and into

their plants 300 million as opposed to over a billion I must be missing something here

but maybe the hunts are not as liquid as we would like to think I don't know but maybe a minority order would be

a good idea I believe you just gained a fan who's dating one of your players who's worth over a billion uh maybe gets Taylor to

sign on as a partner owner or something yeah you're not in so much confidence in your ability to run the team much longer all right so I leave you with this question do you want to be Oakland and just lose all your teams and be relegated to a second tier of relevance in our society. Do you want to be Omaha? Omaha, they're only soire into big time pro sports sharing an NBA team with us. otherwise

all minor league uh in fact the royals minor league has always been in uh Omaha do we want to become Omaha

and just being home to just nothing but minor league sports if the uh if the uh youFL does well and they're going to be looking to expand

that mean we get a team stuff's the thing about and that is not a knock at the UFL. I am a UFL fan I'm of course a Bellhawks fan for the exact same reason that everyone else is a

bell hog fan because it is a protest of what the NFL did to us in St. Louis again different situation because that involved fraud and lies I think this one just involves a cheap skate owner

so think about it thinking about do we want to stay relevance as a.S. City on the natural stage because the second we lose those teams that relevance is gone I can't see it

so rant over this podcast is on call for is host and producing edited by myself Mike Cherenewski. Our opening music is Iron Bacon by Kevin McLeod and Competech.com. Licensed under Creative Commons by attribution 4.0 license. And our outro music is on the subject of driving and transportation and all that. Severe, tire damage by Kevin McLeod and Compteck.com. Licensed under Creative Commons by attribution 4.0 license. If you are in the United States or Canada, you can call us at 816-832-5160. Leave your message or question for us, and if we like it, we will play it on the podcast. Please support the podcast and purchase our exclusive uncalled for merchandise, t-shirts, sweatshirts, mugs, stickers, and so much more. go to www.cafepress.com slash uncalled for pod. Thank you so much for listening. We will see you next time.