This Podcast Is... Uncalled For - First Steps to Downtown Baseball

Episode Date: May 4, 2026

It's finally happening!! Part 1 is about the Kansas City city council okaying $600 million to develop Washington Square Park and Crown Center as a ballpark district for the Royals. Part 2 is about the official team announcement that the Royals are, indeed, moving Downtown - to Crown Center! Expect the new ballpark to be open by 2031.

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Just press play When I'm a sharp opinion Hello everybody so welcome A Special edition of the podcast today. I'll actually be released in the audio in May sometime to give this a little more time. Time to settle in. And also for logistical purposes,

I stopped two weeks of the official fan lounge to do. And I frankly took up a way too much space with episode 200. So this will have to wait a while. And that's okay. But this is definitely going on in May as part of season 11. But so

I think we're far enough along in season 10. I can cross upon it the two seasons with stuff. But let's talk about what this is all about. And that is where a lot closer to downtown baseball, finally, after 20 years of this, man.

So let's first go to Safari. Put this over the shoulder because I like that so much. All right. So I'm going to start. start with Google All right Kansas City Council approved a framework on April 16,

2026 to advance negotiations for a new $1.9 billion downtown ballpark for the Royals at Washington Square Park. This proposal falls to rejection in the previous site in the Crossroads District

by voters in 2024. I did a whole episode about that. Do we want to be Oakland? So here's the overview from the Google AI, but we'll read a couple

articles about it as well. So the location is in around Washington Square Park. Okay, just north of Crown Center east of unit station and we'll show you that map it a little bit. Side expansion.

The football will expand from the park's current 4.8 acres to approximately 11.6 by incorporating the vacant Blue Cross Blue Shield building and its parking line. Funding. The state's proposal includes $600 million in public funding. So that's just Kansas City, $600 million. And I think the Royal said they would contribute about a billion. So, and this is going back to when they first floated the idea. They said, yeah, we're looking at close to a $2 billion project and Will Foots the, yeah,

one billion for the complex itself. The other billion for the. the for the actual stadium. So by kind of doesn't mean their their ballpark village

concept. And we'll get to that a little bit more as we go along with this. So 600 million in public funding primarily through city-backed bonds paid

off by taxes on new economic activity in the district. So similar to how the streetcar is funded, it's funded by districts along the streetcar route. And we will definitely talk about that in a little bit. And construction is started to begin first quarter of 2027 with a goal of opening day 2030. Important to point out, that's Coffman Stadium they have there,

at least there through 2013 1 so maybe 2013 1 they actually opened this but so we'll we'll see what happens

in the coming years but that is great current legal status so this was yesterday they did the final votes to approve this the state council voted 11 to 1 to 1

so one abstention and one one no vote and and Mr. Willett I know you're the one no votes here resign resign because you don't give a shit about the city

clearly but this votes directs the city manager of Mario Vasquez to negotiate a formal term sheet, lease and development agreements with

with all parties, including the Royals, of course. Team commitment, while the Royals have expressed gratitude for the city's progress, they have not yet publicly commented on the specific site or the financing plan. If I were the Royals, I'd go ahead. Well, that's part of what the city manager's

going to be working on. in the next few weeks and months. But still really exciting times here. Yeah, public opposition, otherwise being idiots. All right. So despite the council's approval, the pan plan faces back, pushback from community groups like Casey tenants

regarding use of public funds. And some advocates are already discussing a petition drives a force a public vote on the project. This was not the way they did this, they did in a way that it could avoid a public vote because they saw what happened two years ago. Do we want to be Oakland and lose all of our teams? I was saying moot's points for the Chiefs.

That's a little bit nuanced because it does involve crossing a state line. But do we want to be Oakland and lose all of our major teams. I would argue, I would hope not, but these are very vocal people. And

frankly, a lot of them might be just willfully ignorant, all right? Which is a kind way of saying stupid. A lot of them are probably of the Aware World of a Park

variety, which we will address here in this presentation. A lot of them are likely, there's nothing wrong with Kaufman variety. If you're in that camp, go fuck yourself. And when's the last time you actually been to Kaufman? Okay. It's well over 50 years old, too expensive to to bring up to code

and there's fucking nothing around it. Yeah, arrow heads right behind it. But in terms of economic development, that site has never developed in such way. Probably because it's not downtown.

It's barely in Kansas City proper because you have independence to them. the northeast and you have Raytown to the southeast and all that so so and there's really nothing going on there I always joke about the Taco Bell across six lanes of traffic and but that's true you know but there's really not much else there you put it downtown and you're more likely to get business going and we're talking about

Yeah, current center is in better days too. And the current center, I would consider the southern edge of downtown, really. And as from current center, you'll get the really nice views of our city, skyline, everything. I'll show you the map in a little bit. But I ain't signing the petition. I encourage anyone who's listening to not sign the petition. But hey, there's the map right there. I'll show you the street map as well.

But this is Washington Square Park. We have Main Street right here. Grand Boulevard right here. This is Pershing Road. Union Station is right here. This is Pan Valley Park with the Liberty Memorial right there. And this whole thing, in fact, this whole thing. is a crown center

but it does because grand center does extend to the office towers right across grand yeah I need to show you the other map and the the higher heights it's a sharton now

the infamous former high would you like to see specific funding background or more details oh we don't need to you don't need to but let's check out

to our NPR station because I think they've done the best reporting on this completely free of as free of bias as possible so so

Kansas City Council passes this plan for new Royal Stadium downtown the team still needs to agree yes that's why I said this is the first step. The team disagree in the state of Missouri

needs to get on board. Jackson County is free to get on board if they want but I don't think they have to. So this photo right here this is Washington Square Park looking

south. Over here you see the skywalk. This connects Union Station to Crown Center. That is Crown Center and that's specifically that's the Western Crown Center right across the streets in fact I used to work security there right here is a Korean War Memorial which can that can easily be moved and there's plenty of space at Penn Valley Park known just

Cady Corner to this to put it and there's the statue of Washington or right here too, but this is the site. So the same will now start to finalize ballpark deal with the Royals, even though the team has not announced to Washington Square Park as its preferred location. If I were to the Royals, I'd go and take this

deal because I don't think you're going to find a better deal anywhere else in the metro, plus it's downtown, but like you've been advocating for. It's not in the middle of the fucking suburbs where people don't want it. and it's not and uh grant not north kc i think you probably have a shot there

more land in north kc just because a lot of it is run down industrial and i think but but this is as good as it's going to get for his so i would take it so case he'll be able to hook for about 600 million of the 1.5 1.9 billion So, Kansas has approved the plan to finance a new Royal Stadium in Washington Square Park. City Council approved the plan on Thursday, packed with community leaders who oppose the deal, and others who supported it. While the council approved the plan, both cheers and cheers erupted from the crown. members of the building trade unions who would likely gain work from constructing the stadium

thanked the city council so there you go. Jobs, even though they're temporary. Jobs even though they're temporary. And these are two groups that can go fuck themselves. Members of Stand Up KC and Missouri Workers Center are low-wage worker advocacy groups told the council they

wouldn't forget this at the bout box. That's why they can go fuck themselves because this is a threat to something that frankly has needed to happen in our city for two decades. I'm glad it's finally happening. I'm glad we're taking the first steps to make it happen

but that team should be downtown, period. That's true. 20 years ago it's even more true today. So, Ballpark expected cost $1.9 billion. The rest of the price tag could come from the

Royals and other public entities like the state of Missouri. Even though the state council passed it, it does not make any final decisions on what the final stadium subsidy would look like. And yeah, state money. Council member, Eric Bunch,

one of ten sponsors of the ordinance. Big public transit guy, by the way. said institutions like Union Station, Chamber Commerce, and Crossroads Community Ed Association supported the plan.

The CCA opposed the 2024 plan, which would have been right across the highway from Sprint Center on the site to the former KC Star printing press, which I think would have been a good site

as well. But too many people get stupid about it and they're still stupid about it because that photo was specific

to that particular site. It said nothing about Washington Square Park. Okay. We already had public fun. You had public fun on that specific site. I don't want to hear it no more.

All right. So quoting bunch, This is a process that didn't go very well a while back. And a big part of that was the location. I think this is a win-win to seek reactivation of a park. And honestly, a surface parking lot that's subterranean that is providing minimum value to the 4th District. We have a location that I think is a good one that a lot of people have gone behind.

We did not see that support two years ago. The ordinance passed by the council does not finalize. the stand plan with the royals because they still have to get on board with it of course, but it does direct same manager Mario Vasquez to negotiate a term sheet, lease, and development increment with the royals. It also directs Vasquez to apply for a tax increment financing deal. Also as TIF. They will use new sales and earnings tax revenue on a it's be determined stadium district to pay off the 600 million state bank bonds to pay for the project. So in Kansas they used something called star bonds. That's basically the same thing. Just a different terminology to lure the chiefs over.

And the chief site, by the way, would be they're looking at two specific sites. One for the stadium. That would be in Windyye County just west of the Legends area, Village West, and the race trek, just off the street from Conrado. So that's where the stadium would go. The Shrink facility would actually go here in Olathe at the corner of Conch Boulevard and Ridgeview, which is right now it's currently a farm and as a result their tax industry includes

Olathe Lanexa Shawnee and pretty much all of Wynedai County so KCCBiner Springs Edwardsville they don't pay into it so this I could see very similar to how they do the street car

just text that specific that specific district. So right here, there's another shot of Washington Square part. This is the George Washington statue. Look at the corner of Grand and Pershing. See more of that skywalk. This skywalk connects the West End and the mall to the office tower that you see here.

And further ends at the Hyatt. and you see this office building right here that is also part of the Crancentre. It's not attached to the skywalk but that is part of Crancentre that is right across the streets and I could see that being converted into the Ballpark District that they're looking to do as well as team offices. So yeah the Royals are not public the Royals have yet to publicly endorse the Washington Square Park location or the

city's financing plan in a statement the team said is grateful for the city's work on the plan which is a hell of a lot better than what St. Louis got with regards to Cronky. So

oh there's not a good plan teams will go bankrupt from it and St. Louis is a bad football. All right so the team's statement said we respect the process which includes the city council and

parks board consideration and that's why it doesn't require public votes because the site is owned by the parks board and they gave their they vote okay on this

choose and the city manager's presentation of a term sheet for review on negotiation with long term period we expect to include one of the largest private investments in Kansas City history. As always, our motivation is to find the best solution for our team, our fans, and our community. We're excited by the possibilities this opportunity presents for our hometown.

I agree. I agree with the team there. So dozens of residents packed City Hall chambers on Thursday to watch the vote to encourage city councilmanors to vote for or against the proposal many of those in attendance were with advocacy groups stand-up K-C fuck them Missouri Workers Center fuck them

and the city's tenants union KC tenants um how is that even a thing how can uh how is that even a thing uh

I digress I digress Because usually when you think of unions, you think of in terms of working in specific industries for specific companies. You do not think of, oh, I live here, so I need to be a

part of a union because I live here. On the subject of unions, others representing area businesses and building trade unions came out in support of the plan. The Gray Can City Chamber of Commerce KC Sports Commission

Visit KC the visitors civic council of greater Kansas City and the Kansas City Area Development Council said in a statement on Thursday

that they're encouraged by the city's funding proposal with for with monument with momentum building

this is an opportunity to move forward preserving Kansas City so you see is a major league region and world-class sports destination they said in the statement now want to pause their first thing and go back to the whole do we want to be Oakland arguments most likely you're going to hear about Kansas City through its sports

through its professional sports and even more specific through the four big ones of which we only have the NBA and Major League not the NBA NFL and Major League Baseball we had the NBA

we had the Kings before they moved to Sacramento and we did have hockey at one point the Casey Scouts who are now known as the New Jersey Devils that statue still exists

the way but a lot of people know us because of the sports scene, okay? You can make fun of the Travis and Taylor thing all you want, but that's romance puts Kansas City on the map, specifically because the chiefs are in Kansas City and Travis Kelsey plays for them.

Back in May, me, on the morning's earlier this week, some residents expressed frustration that they are, shut the fuck up all right it just went over this all right that was for one specific sites all right they you said no they moved on to another plane so shut the hell up does it pose a plan boom boom boom yeah yeah so yeah there's your will there that's why i think of the stand-up kc crowd all right you're holding back progress for something that again should have been done years ago. But they're getting it done

today. And here's the special fuck you to Mr. Willett. Councilmember Nathan Willett running for Congress. Don't vote for the guy, please. Was the only want to vote against a proposal? That's why he don't vote for him.

That's why you shouldn't vote for him. And to his credit, Councilmember Crispin Ray abstained from the vote. Okay. So so I'm personally at the little disappointed you didn't get behind it, but at the same time, you had the courage to say, I'm going to set this one out.

And I did call on Jonathan Duncan to resign as well, because he vocally, he was vocally against a proposal, but he voted in favor of it. So credit there. After amending the plan to ensure that any development agreements made with the Royals regarding the stand will go to six. Council for approval. This allows me and the residents of Kansas City and more eyes on the process.

For the Suffolk, I'm opposed to subsidizing a billionaire's private ballpark, but I'm looking for better transparency in the process, and I think I was able to achieve that. Okay, so on this, okay, I've heard this argument to, that's just the nature of sports in North America, specifically, that stadiums tends to be publicly owned. Okay, I get the frustration and all that's, but it is what it is. I would love to see these fucking cheap skates start paying for their shit looking at you, Hunt's family. But it is what it is, you know. The

It's yet to be finalized The taxing district would likely include Washington Square Park as well as Crown Center and part of the

crossroads. The city would borrow the $600 million to help finance the stadium

and ballpark districts its contribution would be paid off using revenue from the TIF district and once

the plan goes before the TIF Commission It must provide those 45 days before anything can be approved

but unlike a traditional TIF deal the city not the Royals will ultimately be on the hook

for the debt and incurs to build the stadium its stadium its running districts don't generate

enough money to pay down the debt the city will need to use its funds that would

otherwise be spent on safe services to cover the shorefall. I don't think that I don't think that's likely going to happen

but some of the situation happened before with the Paranite District Paranite District is the way it's because A

Sprint Center doesn't have a permanent tenant or T-Mobile Center I should say and now B they intentionally

excluded a good amount of the city with their fucking dress code. I know that's no longer enforced, but I was kicked out of there because of it. So so,

so, yeah. When the city waits to, well, the city waits to finalize the TIF plan, the rest of the financing has yet to be determined. During their plan, passed last year, the San Missouri would help pay up to half

of the cost of a new stadium for the Royals. The team would also be eligible for up to 50 million in tax credits for investing in the stadiums. But on Monday in the morning, Mayor Lucas said the states is not kicking in 50% to the Royals. And once again, so that credit, the Royals did say the weeds pay for the bulk of this anyway. They certainly paid the billion for the district itself. and a good portion of the stadium but they wanted the public funding

I think they go back to the town hall I recorded because they addressed it there so after our plan passed Lucas said he expects the royals to put private investment into the

stadium ballpark district and I expects other public partners like Jackson County and Missouri to that funding as well. My goal is once we saw that failed election was that we keep our teams in Kansas City. The team we were able to lead negotiations with the Royals, it looks like we're keeping them in Kansas City. I'm proud of the work there. All right.

So this is their. This is the site that you should check out. So we love KC Baseball.com. And this is a rendering of what the ballpark could look like. I leave the team and said they want to keep the, they want to keep a couple of things that are currently like Kaufman. One, the crown-shaped scoreboard, as you can see here. and two

the famous fountains in the outfield they want that in the new ballpark as well so

so obviously just a preliminary drawing you see right here that's Union Station what's missing

here is the skywalk I I honestly think you should keep the skywall just makes crossing those major

streets that much more safer, I think. And I don't see streetcar here on Main. So this is Main Street right here where the cursor is. This is Grand Boulevard right here. These are the

existing office towers, which again, which is part of Crown Center. These three buildings are part of center and could be used for team offices and so that's a ballpark district they're

talking about I don't think I have time to go over all of this but yeah they do have some joints here so this is the first one and as you can see you have a nice view of the western auto loft building with it was the old western auto headquarters Western Army became advanced auto that sign still exists there they light up on occasion

and this ballpark which give you a great view of that sign it's pretty cool there's another one this is during the day again where's the it looks like they have a couple of plazas

and I'm not sure what these are maybe they're a ticket office is that I don't know this will see but noticeably absent any streetcar infrastructure one and any skywalk

two I would hope that they keep those well I would hope they keep the guy walk in place but they also see in the background here this is T-Mobile Center right here P&L is across the streets here

this is the Kaufman's Central Performing Arts Center and behind that is Barrow Hall and here's another just focusing on the ballpark and the

buildings across the street and you see across the street from any of those buildings that is the it's a Sheraton now but that is the infamous Hyatt Regency where the skywall collapsed and

one more and you see the Weston in the background right there. And I think that's a Liberty Memorial right there, but that looks pretty cool as well. And another thing about Washington Square Park, I think people tend to forget is that it is not many people use it.

It's honestly the only people I ever see use Washington Square Park are homeless people. All right, so that's that's how we lovekCbaseball.com. And now we get to the map. So this is the, this is the sites. This is right in the middle of Washington Square Park. See, we have Main Street right here. This is Pershing Road right here on the south side of the park.

This is Grand Boulevard to the east. Railroad tracks separating it from the crossroads district is basically this park this is the Blue Cross Blue Shield building they're talking about that could unfortunately be torn down once again I think it's a missed opportunity they could incorporate that into the construction at the new

ballpark just like they do did in San Diego and it would include this parking lot as well this is a little bit sunken into the ground that's a lot of close on level with the tracks that is with the park. The park is somewhat elevated. And there's this street, OK Street, which actually goes underneath the parking lot here and comes out here.

So it gets the underneath the lower level of Union Station into this parking lot. and that comes out here next to the Union Station parking garage so this is another bitch we hear way too much from the other side this is a unit station right here and right here is the big parking lot parking garage it's three stories and yeah you do have to pay for it

but but I guarantee your car's going to be safe in that garage. And we talked about crime center. So these three buildings across Grand are at Grand Center. It looks like these are being incorporated into the district. This could very well be where the ballpark village winds up being, and that's totally fine. Across the street from that, that is the Hyatt. Across punishing streets.

this is the Weston right here right behind the Weston attached to the Western actually is the Crown Center Mall which not a very large mall but and attached

to that mall oh yeah more parking massive parking garage there's another massive parking garage across across Grands this is another part of Crown Center you see Hallmark Visitors Center, right? Their

Crown Center is effing huge. We collectively just think of it as, you know, being the mall and everything, but it is effing huge. I said before, it's pretty much

akin to a company town for Hallmark within the urban core of Kansas City. And right next to that, this This is Hospital Hill. This is where you'll find. Yeah, Children's Mercy right here at the UMKC School of Medicine.

This is Truman Medical right here. So, yeah, you have a hospital right there. This is Penn Valley Park with the World War I Museum, at Liberty Memorial, as we colloquially call it. And right next side, that's the IRS. And across the train tracks, this is the Crossroads. districts so a lot of

repurposed and this gives me an opportunity to show you where the that site that everyone would say oh we voted it would have been right here it would have been right here so a different site altogether this big

building that's the KC Star printing press right across the street is T-Mobile center right here this is where they're putting that big giant lid to turn this turn this highway this trench into a actual tunnel

Kauffman Center is right here from performing arts and and this whole thing is Baro Hall right here is Municipal Autatorium which is actually part of Barthall Hall actually connected to Barro Hall both with a skywalk and on the underground all right so that's the I said, criminally underused. The only people I really ever see using it are the homeless, really. But let's zoom in a little bit here.

So I talked about skywalk. So here it is that skywalk. So it comes out of the station right here. Cross Main goes down the park. Right there. And then I want the street. car stop is right here by the way and next to this first a pillar this first entry way that curves right there into goes right into the Weston and then it continues

through the Weston up some stairs over here see into this I was spelling where there is a panabran and then continues on search as this I'm spelling across the way into the Sheraton which is right here and then you have these three buildings which are probably I was going to see well you got Jimmy John's right here

but I've never seen that one using it so that's the sites now we have a Casey Star article about about the San Missouri gang in on

funding So now all eyes are on Jeff City So last summer Mike Kehoe the governor of Missouri Republican signed a bell in the law

as a massive funding package in hopes of halting the royals from moving across state of line I don't know how realistic a possibility that was because the one neighborhood they were talking about said fuck off.

So 10 months later, Kehoe's administration now faces the critical task is deciding how much money Missouri will contribute to a new stadium at New York Center. Decision could

prove pivotal on whether the rules decide to throw their full support into the plan and they haven't made a decision and that's going to be part of the process here the coming months

so I could see the states putting in a significant amount of money now now inside state funding let's go to read this

so project available by safe leaders would also almost certainly qualify in Missouri's incentives package said minimum

project costs of 500 million and say it must have a scene capacity of more than 30,000 two requirements already outlined in the city's proposal well we already said it at 1.9 billion for the whole thing so that's about a quarter of it a quarter of total total project and I would I think this is going to be slightly smaller than

Kaufman I don't know Ralph Han what the I can look that up actually so give me a sec while I look this up let's go to Wikipedia

I think this ballpark is going to wind up smaller than Kaufman and that is perfectly fine uh Coffman's

37,9003 is their uh current's uh capacity so just slightly smaller I guess probably about 5,000 smaller

I don't know I don't know if they haven't mine but we'll figure out those details as we move along but total cost cannot exceed 50% of the total project costs I believe I just said it's a back quarter

what the project would cost and that's according to Missouri law program benefits it won't last longer 30 years and contributions from local governments are also required hence the 600 million under the bill

and that's just Kansas City it doesn't include Jackson County and all hopefully Jackson County is on board with it but we'll see we'll see what happens under the bill

state incentives would be caught back if a team locates a stadium head quarters or training facility outside of Missouri. And this while makers can refuse to pay the consequences of that situation are so severe that a realistic possibility

of it happening, says the as minority leader actually, I apologize. I don't know the pronunciation, but she's from the area. Unless the Republicans succeed in eliminating the state's income tax but failed to adequately replace that revenue and end up bankrupting the state.

This is something Kansas did. All right. Brambeckistan. All right. So I don't know why you decided. I don't know why Missouri decided to follow that. It is what it is. I hope they don't actually go through with it.

I hope better heads will prevail. And yeah, so let's get this done. I'm going to share with you now. I'm going to stop share here. I'm going to share with you now some materials sent to me by that group, the We Love Casey Baseball. Okay, so we'll start with this one, zero business displacements. surrounded by buildings by other businesses

of similar scale redevelopment opportunities and 17 acres of undeveloped surface lots so so that was a major bitch of the crossroads project because it was displaced a few

small businesses in that area to be honest how many of you actually went patron to any of those businesses. All right.

Just saying here it's an underused park that only the homeless really use plus a parking lot that's not really being used because the company

moved to a new building downtown. So that's uh we got So we got that. Okay, we're on stop share on that one.

I guess we got to do these one at a time. But that's zero business placements. Number two, to go along with that bitch about, where are we going to find a place to park? It's Ryan on the streetcar line. On the Casey's streetcar line. Right, KC. predicts 5,000 to 7,000 fans,

utilize the streetcar, which has two stops connected to the Washington Square Park sites. Well, yeah, the northbound southbound platforms at Union Station. The northbound platform is actually in Washington Square Park. And that is a brand new, by brand new, I mean, it's part of the extension. Because before the extension, it would just stop. It was now the Southbound platform. at Union Station, it would turn around and run the whole length before going back and stopping again at Union Station. Now, you have the two-plow.

Then, just before the extension opened, they moved to the crossover down the street. So for a while, it would slowly leave the Union Station south and southbound. then turn around use that crossing and service the Northbound platform and does have that capacity now if they so needs to use it

but anyway with that extension it now goes all the way down to UMKC and services the plaza and Westports and Midtown and by the way the plaza was built with cars in mine.

And so you can go there. You can park for free. That's the cool thing about the plaza's that the parking is for free. And they don't give a shit about whether or now you're, they're patroning a business. And you just park and you can walk.

And walk a couple. You can walk to the plaza stop, which is huge. by the way I got a chance to see it yet it is huge you could safely park

four street cars there and everything and you want you take the street car which is also free to use

you take it up to the station stop and you're there all right so one's going to shut the fuck up about Oh, I can't find a place to park. We're clearly showing you a place you can park.

Let's stick with the whole parking thing for just a second. And I'll show you this, abundance parking. Washington Square Park site has more than 20. thousand parking spots within four within four blocks so what's on those sites well we've we've got uh oh they got the uh park garages across the streets there which have 1600 uh spots now at the uh garages they talked about

the crown shop's garage is the one current stress garage and the current center garage between the two 11,000 for the mall 18100 for the mall

excuse me and 1800 for the bigger crat center garage you have yeah the

the uh the uh... the uh... unit station 1400 are there you have 1,700 and the 2,300

Main Street's crush which I don't know how accessible that is but underneath Union Station you have 450 sites and I do hope they find a way to keep

okay streets but oh, I think it's get rid of it that's fine throughout the Crossroads District you have a couple of garages is 400, 250. The

Coffin Center Garage, 1,000 spots right there. Hallmark garage, I don't know if they're going to open that to the public, but that's 2000. They could use another

2000 right here that they could use. So, parking is not an issue at this site. Between this and the fact that you've got the street car shut the hell up about parking

alright next we come to highway access so I'm going to share that real quick so easy highway access so Washington Square Park has nine existing

interstate connections so okay so this is uh yeah this is southwest traffic way going

into 35 or going off with 35 and yeah yeah this be the South Coast trafficway exits right here on I-35 right here this is Southless Boulevard on it to from I-35 and the crossroads onto Broadway West Penway here this is Yep. And this is a, that's a little further, that's 19th or 18th street right here. You have a couple from 670 at Broadway and a grand. No, that's not correct. That's oak. That's oak.

My, my GRI is failing me. off of a 670 and then this is off of 70 this is and yeah this is true straight here number 3 right there you know 71 this is and this eventually becomes uh i 29 in the north and i 49 this south but that's way the hell south they have to get rid of a few stoplights before that can be class last interstate. I digress there's another plan in the works right now to address that.

But you have three possible exits from 71 here that can go to the site. So getting there, that's not an issue. Once again with the parking issue,

the parking non-issue, it's just a bunch of idiots who don't know how to park and are too impatient. to find a good parking spot. So we're going to share the next one. Let's go with keeping on that theme, convergence of roadways. So here are Washington Square Park.

The site has eight existing major roadways converging at the site. So let's have them all. So Main Street, number one, number two, Grand Boulevard. This is actually McGee Street. Now I'm seeing the map. So, McGee. Runs of front the

Hyatt. Number four, this is Oak. Number five, that's 22nd Street. Number six is Gillum Road. Number seven, Pershing Road. Boarding on the south. And number eight is Broadway. So,

I have ways to get to the site. And this is a site said, you know, even though no one's using the park, people use Union Station. People use Grant Center. People go to Penn Valley Park. So it's not like it's completely devoid of activity.

Back to the streetcar for saying, you know, they, after about a month or two of stats on the extension. UMKC is now the most used stop on the streetcar line. Number two is Union Station. So even though it's no longer

the terminus, a lot people still use it. All right, so there's that slide and then I think one more slide share with you. Yeah, cost savings. so let's look at that

so yeah surrounded by existing attractions Union Station right here Crown Center World One Museum and Memorial local is local Lambert Mallory Park which is the park

that the Yallarine Memorial actually sits in Penway Point it's not in this graphic but you may have seen if you've been in Kansas A entire the last couple of years

you may have seen a big Ferris wheel right next to the highway that is Penway Point restaurants, bars, hotels and more so you know yeah

restaurants and bars and hotel well right here at the Weston which will be right across the street from this site and all the cool stuff actually in the crossroads

district. So, yeah, I just want to get that out of the way. I am excited that they found a site. I'm excited that they got something to you either. I'm excited about that,

and I'm excited that sounds like the Royals would be are keenly interested in this. And I hope that to see this gets get to getting done.

Alright. So now about four or five years time, we'll be talking, talking baseball downtown Kansas City. Looking forward to it. And the site is perfect and frankly, shut the hell up about parking, shut the hell up, about Kaufman's such a nice

stadium, there's nothing wrong with it shut the hell up about that. This is happening. All right. Anyways, I think I'll do it for this time. And we'll talk again soon.

Are we just here? Like a minute ago. Anyway, well again, today is Wednesday. April 22nd. in 2026 happy Earth Day by the way to those to celebrate and uh oh yeah the the the royals uh made some news today regarding uh the ballpark so uh so last week we're talking

about washington square park which you see right here on the screen uh turns out it will not be at washington square park it'll be very close to Washington Square Park but not actually there it looks like the site so we're going to go down Grand so this is Crown Center this whole this all thing right here at Grand Center including this right here that's the the Sheraton that's the former Hyatt's horse so before I continue I will explain they did a press conference earlier today just a couple of hours ago at the time I'm recording this.

And A, the Royals entered into an agreement with Hallmark. Yeah, the Green Card Company, so that's part of it. And Tuesday agreed to build the new ballpark in Crown Center. Actually, in Crown Center, not the park. So we are now looking at the sites of the new Royal's Ballpark. So from the renderings I was able to see, and I will show those to a sec too. The boundaries would be Gillum Road, which is right here on the east side

and the pretty much the eastern edge of the whole crown center complex and looks like McGee will be the western boundary

of the ballpark portion then north would be long 25th streets right here and south would be 26th street

so this is a massive hill and from what we're from what I'm seeing from the rendering is they're going to leave the church alone but this this is hallmarks actual headquarters and this will this is the site they have chosen and leaving much of the rest of the crime center complex alone Hallmark in addition to this will be building a new headquarters elsewhere

elsewhere in Crant Center, which I guess the best way to describe Cran Center is it is Hallmark's Company Town that just happens to be within the urban core of Kansas City, Missouri. So it looks like

the Visitor's Center this and this structure these will be left alone I think this is parking actually which brings this to the shut the fuck up about

nowhere to park because I think this is a parking structure right here and I'm pretty sure this is a parking structure to the south I know for a fact let's go to the

mall portion of it underneath this right here these buildings that's parking. There's parking underneath the mall, which is right here where my mouse is.

And they are fundamentally leaving the major parts of Crown Center alone. But this, the Hallmark HQ, this will be gone. And this is where the rolls will play. So very close to some other things around this area. My first attempt to feature film The Jesus Letter was shot primarily in this neighborhood right here. We have UMKC School of Dentistry right here.

This is Truman Med and... Yeah, Truman Med and Children's Mercy are right here. So you're close to hospitals. And of course, the other sites, yeah, the Liberty Memorial, Memorial 1-1 Museum Memorial Union Station right there. Of course, there's the park once again. And, oh, yeah, it's within comfortable walking distance of two streetcar stops. The first being the Union Station stop, right here at Union Station in Washington Square Park.

and the second one is on is further down the extension is right here World War I Museum and Memorial that's the northbound and that's the southbound

so so both both within a walking distance but like I said this is a giant this is built on a giant hill so what will

what will happen is this building will be torn down and I I think they said 2027 is when they want to start to construction and then 20 oh yeah this is what the

rendering looks like so you see they compensate for the hill so this upper portion will be street level that'll be sunken into the hill but you see the park constructor right there

and right there that's Shukardi and Bacon, the law firm. Shout to my friend Charlie Eblon. We need to get you on the podcast at some points. I hear those office buildings around in the square. That's canopy there. That's the skating rink. Got the office building right there.

Right next I'm a skating rink right now. That's an extension of the mall. And that's where you'll find the aquarium. Legoland. And then there's a bridge over Grand, right there into the rest of the mall, which is right here. And that's directly connected to the Weston.

So they're building in not only a downtown area, but downtown area that's already corporately owned and developed. and as access to shopping and restaurants and everything. Not bad for our company that's known for making green cards. And shout out to Ian for posting that. So yeah, a few things, a few more things. I need you I need people to

STFU immediately about there's no place to put it downtown they found a place all right you need to SDFU about parking parking spot over here parking spot over here

I'm pretty sure this is all I think this is all parking actually right here so already surrounded by plenty of it there's parking underneath here there's parking underneath here there's parking underneath

here there's parking over here it's good and underneath here and here as well plenty of parking around so no need to bitch about it any further and you have the streetcar stops two of them within walking distance World War I Museum and Memorial and Union both within walking distance of this site and as you can also see they fundamentally leave the hospitals alone as you can see from that rendering they plan on leaving the church alone too so this would be like if if you're familiar with English football Everton NFC they recently moved into a new stadium, but their old

stadium, Goodison Park, famously had a church in one corner of the ground. And that two that occur at their big Everton supporters

fans would have their ashes buried at that church on the ground or rather even in the pitch at Gusson Park they would have their ashes buried

and everything but but yeah there's precedent for having a church on near a stadium ground there and it just happens to be in England so so yeah

it lies at 2030 there hope to be up and running uh 2031 is when they're at least at Kaufman expires. But I love this location. I love it so much. It's exactly where I think when I think downtown.

I've said before, I was saying it. Union Station, Crown Center area. It's basically at the southern edge of downtown. So, yeah. And the fact that's they're working in tandem with Hallmark on this. That's incredible as well.

And one other thing I'll bring up. So the Royals, famously, their logo resembles a crown. I had a feeling that Hallmark may have had something to do with it because Hallmark also uses the crown as their corporate logo. Turns out, turns out, yes, yes.

Yeah, in fact, it was a Hallmark employee that created that logo. So it's kind of a full circle type thing. Ish, but, yeah, I still love it.

And an extra fuck you to the, the, Casey Tenants group They're saying Oh we're opposed to it What would you have been in favor of? And Stey at Coffman was never going to be an option So get that out of your thick fucking skulls right now

All right So this is the new sites While we're in MAP mode I'll show you a couple of other sites Here so It is So this site is a little southwest of municipal

stadium where municipal stadium stood. This is the site today. This is 22nd Street on the south and this is Brooklyn Avenue. All right. We have Lincoln Prep High School is right here. In between

and right here is where where the stadium used to be. There you'll still they'll still see a plaque there but as you can see is now housing everything um I'll zoom out a little more and show you I don't see Kaufman name anywhere on here that's because it's oh you gotta go all the way so here's Kaufman now quite the distance from so Kaufman's over here and

And the new site is way the hell over here. Way the hell over here. So this is, yeah, so there we go. Baseball's finally coming downtown. It took 20 years more than Iowa of lights, but it's going to go down. Now, since I have this out, here's Arrowhead right next to Kaufman. and I'll show you where the chief's this is going to be

for that we got to go all the way to the other intersection of it's going to be so here's a village west that's 435 that's I 70 Conrados down here actually more down here

so their site is pretty much going to be this parcel of land right here between states avenue and parallel parkway iron 18th street so I think it's going to be yeah right here Piper high school is nearby

is see here's the race track Ag Hall of Fame where they also host the they also hold the rent fare here and Sandstone is in this area to the amphitheater uh but let me show you village west

oh well so so about here is where the chief's development will be at least the staying a portion so sorry I have no idea what urb casing when it is

that is the race track there's a casino at the racetrack uh chateau avalom Atlas 9, I've heard about this place. I have not checked out yet, but Margariaville is right here. This is Sporing Park right here where Sporting KC play

right across the street from, Brasco, From, Mr. Monk, this is the Legends Mall. Right here, right here is the minor league baseball park. We do have the, they used to be called the Team Bones, but thanks to the agreement they've made with the Negro Leagues Museum, they're now

called the Monarchs. Actually, the Negro Leagues team. And while we're in this area, I've talked about the sporting fields where Santa Fe and our other amateur teams play, that's right here.

It says Compass Minerals, sporting fields. That's it right here. Just have her be right next to. This is a province hospital. Right here. So that's KCK.

And while we're talking about the local NFL team, the training facility, I'm going further south. Okay, 435, K10. The training facility that they're talking to would be. So for reference, college boulevard down here K-10

right there see there's a soccer fields already right here there's some shops restaurants but this big field right here that will be

where the chief's training facility will be in see there's not much there right now it's all farm line so yeah lots of

movement is shaking in our local sports scene. But the big thing is, we're finally getting downtown baseball. And they chose the perfect site for it. And Kudas working with one of the biggest companies in Kansas City to make it happen. So applause all around. And the critics can now shut the hell up.

because it's happening. I'll go and post the video of this now. But this I'll tack on to what we talked about last week with the city okaying it. Everything, because it all fits very nicely. And to that credit, they did say they'd finally include Washington Square Park into the bigger ballpark district, which...

I think we can now say with some certainly that includes the Crown Center Mall and all that. And I'll go ahead and add one more thing that I'm thinking about it. The Crown Center Mall also happens to have the musical theater heritage, which at one point also doubled its screenline on the third floor there. it was certainly the case last year but it is an occasional fringe venue. So how about that in July? Catch a Royals game? Go see a fringe show and you just have to do a lot of walking.

That's all. All right. And Union Station is also used as a fringe venue too with the city stage. Such some really exciting times for our city. I can't wait to see this new ballpark in a few years. And you better believe we're going to be talking about it on the pot. So I'm still doing the pot in four years. I think I will be, but you never know.

All right. We'll talk soon. This podcast is Uncalled for. It's hosted, produced, and edited by myself, Mike Chernivsky. Our opening music is the, this podcast is called for the theme, courtesy of suno.com, sUNO.com. Our hetero music for this episode is 80s action by Kevin McLeod at Incomptech.com. And it is licensed under Creative Commons by attribution 4.0 license. And our transition music is also Kevin McLeod.

It's Secret of Tiki Island by Kevin McLeod at Incomptech.com. license on a creative commons by attribution 4.0 license and congratulations to the royals on this announcement and let's go royals please support the podcast and purchase our exclusive uncalled for merchandise t-shirts sweatshirts mugs stickers and so much more go to www.com dot cafepress.com slash uncall for pod. Thank you so much for listening. We will see you next time. The one thing that I'm going to try to do is, Stephen, I'll be honest with you.

I'm going to try to get one of the orals out of the Royals locker room and one of the urinals out of the visiting locker room to put in my house. Wouldn't that be great to having that? Well, I'm going to try to get one from the Royals visiting and home and transported to my house.