transcript

Speaker 1:
[00:00] The only real obvious negative thing I can say right now about the Royals' plans down at Crown Center is what took you so damn long?

Speaker 2:
[00:12] Geez!

Speaker 1:
[00:15] I mean, I know you have to wait for good things, but I'm watching yesterday and listening to KCMO, where of course Keatsman had the press conference with John Sherman and Don Hall and Mayor Lucas doing his victory lap and the whole deal. And I'm like, this is a great moment for Kansas City. This is a fantastic idea for that part of Kansas City. But I can't help but wonder why it took us seven years to get here. I just kept sitting there and thinking to myself, why did this take so long? When did the light bulb go off? At some point, whenever somebody writes the book about Kansas City in this stadium saga that's been going on for far too long, someone will honestly answer that question. As to what took us nearly six years to get to this point, where the Royals had that light bulb go off and say, what if we tie in two of the crown jewels in Kansas City, the National World War I Museum and Union Station, to what was at one point a crown jewel in Crown Center, no pun intended, and fit in a ballpark there between two guys, John Sherman and Don Hall, who seem to be longtime friends. I was chuckling to myself as John Sherman's doing this press conference yesterday, and he's waxing poetic about Don Hall. And that's great. I mean, these guys obviously are very important and valuable figures for Kansas City. And regardless of how you feel about the Royals, the baseball team itself, how it's playing, how the stadium's gone, there is no doubt that John Sherman loves this community. And he was always steadfast on keeping this team in Kansas City. And he never, at least not publicly, threatened to move this team anywhere. And despite the fact that there were many PR screw ups along the way, they never broke out that card. And I have an immense amount of respect for John Sherman and the leadership in the Royals never breaking out that card. As so many owners in multiple different sports over the years in cities all across the country have done time and time again. But this stood out to me as I was listening yesterday and I just couldn't help but laugh where I'm like, guys, how did this take so long?

Speaker 3:
[02:46] We're very excited to partner with Don Hall and the Hallmark Organization. Don and I have worked together on issues important to this city for decades. His family's civic and philanthropic leadership is legendary. Kansas City is fortunate to have families like the Halls committed to our long-term success and sustainability. They have been giving back to this city for many decades in education, the arts, health care, social services, and they've done it throughout the region. Don, thank you. Your leadership is incredible. One of the most generous and prominent families in the history of our city.

Speaker 1:
[03:26] Like, all those things are true. But as I'm listening to John Sherman talk about how, hey, you know, we've been buddies forever and we've worked on projects together. And, you know, when it comes to philanthropic work in Kansas City, no one's better than Don Hall. And I'm just I'm laughing at myself. I'm like, you telling me that we might have saved ourselves three years of commentary and content in this town? Had somebody thought about this a thousand days ago? I don't know. I mean, Mark, is that something that as you were listening yesterday, you were thinking to yourself as this press conference went on?

Speaker 3:
[04:04] A little bit. I was thinking, you know, the crossroads probably have been good. You know, they're kind of going through their list of what they could have done. And then he's like, oh, this just dropped into our pocket.

Speaker 1:
[04:13] Well, and you're right. I want to hear from maybe Don Hall. Maybe the timing wasn't right for Crown Center, right? I mean, that could be part of the equation as well. We don't know. But to even think that the East Village, the original site, was a better option than this, is comical. Crossroads to Mark's point, I understand trying to tie in T-Mobile, Power and Light together with a baseball stadium, especially if you were going to get that big park to tie it all together as well. That would have made a lot of sense. I still think that certainly had a lot of potential.

Speaker 3:
[04:47] They also still had to get the money from Missouri and the city, so that was part of it too.

Speaker 1:
[04:53] That's a good point. Yes, they had to get that element as well. They got all that yesterday. But it was one of those days where I also heard John Sherman just breathe a sigh of relief. Listen, nobody, when he started that listening tour, I want to say that was the winter of 22, 21 maybe. Nobody could have anticipated this process playing out the way it did. Nobody. And I heard a guy who first off was very proud to keep this team in Kansas City, Missouri. It's why as much as I liked the location up in Clay County and thought it had a lot of potential, as much as I know there was a push to get them out to Overland Park, which I thought was a boondoggle of an idea, John Sherman genuinely seemed to have pride in the fact that this team would be staying not just in Missouri, but in Kansas City. And maybe there was also a little bit of a dig at the Chiefs and all that as well. I got that sense. I'm not trying to put words in anybody's mouth, but I got the sense of pride that this team is staying in Kansas City. This team is staying where it belongs. And we are proud to roll out this vision. That is, frankly, I think, going to work out very well for everybody involved. Now, that being said, as I posted yesterday on X, and it's also up on my Instagram page at Pete Mundo. You can follow me and see it there. Do I have concerns about this? No doubt about it. I have concerns. Ingress egress. Parking. I know the mayor is going to come on the show this morning and say there's a billion, billion parking spaces. I think it's really nine thousand. Okay. If you're getting out of a concert at T-Mobile and you're on that top floor of a parking garage, ask yourself how easy that is. Okay. There are still legitimate things to question. Parking is one of them. Ingress egress is another. $600 million from the city taxpayer. Absolutely. Yeah. That's a concern. Hundreds of millions of dollars from the state. All those are legitimate things to question. And I'll continue to question every single one of them. I'm not going to sit here with pom poms, even though I do think that yesterday's rollout was well done. I thought it was classy. I thought everybody involved came off pretty darn well. And I think the vision for Kansas City and that part of Kansas City can be a real magnet. But yeah, there are still questions and there should be. But it's also undeniable that Kansas City struck a much better deal with the Royals compared to what the state of Kansas did with the Kansas City Chiefs. And it's not even close. We found out yesterday that Kansas City is going to get about $2 billion in private investment from the Royals and a hallmark on top of obviously the stadium. So all in, you're pushing about three, $3.5 billion when all of a sudden done beyond the public element of this. And Kansas is getting about one to $1.3 billion in private investment for the state kicking in $2 billion on that project. You tell me who got a better deal here? Especially when Kansas was bringing in a team that they already got to benefit from plenty by being associated and affiliated with the state of Missouri and Kansas City without having a single burden of cost attached to it. Who got the better deal? Kansas City by a mile. The Kansas City money is already revenues generated by the city, so I would and will continue to criticize the fact that they are shifting around some general fund revenues and they are creating a gap that does need to be made up from somewhere. It's also fair to wonder what this great entertainment district is going to do to Power and Light, what it's going to do to the Plaza, which both of those locations are already heavily subsidized as is. Are we robbing Peter to pay Paul? Because we're not changing the amount of entertainment dollars in the metro. We're potentially just shifting them around. Those are all things that are fair to question and fair to ask. What does it do to Power and Light, which already loses money for the city every single year? But let's not forget, over in Kansas, they made the decision to divert future sales tax revenues for over 300 square miles to pay off a stadium that will have little to no impact on most of the area that has to divert its sales tax revenues from, that would have otherwise gone to the state coffers and instead will go to a stadium. And by the way, most of that 300 square miles would have either grown organically or if nothing else would have increased its bottom line for the state of Kansas due to inflation. That would have happened. So if you're looking at who got the better deal here, there's no doubt that Kansas City in the state of Missouri got a better deal with a baseball team at a much cheaper cost with a baseball team that gives you 81 nights a year. And if you're going to play, which I don't love, but if you're going to play the Voodoo Economic Development Maths shell game, I will take this Royals deal every single day of the week and twice on Sunday. In a perfect world, these deals don't happen. I get it. You get people that scream the billionaires should build their own stadium. I agree with the sentiment, by the way, like I'm not against the sentiment. But it's never done. And what I've said for months on this, whether it's the Chiefs or the Royals, is just don't get screwed. Okay? Realize you do have some leverage. Realize you do have a great city and a great metropolitan area where these teams have decades, decades of built-in fandom that they don't want to lose either. And use that to your advantage. Put together a fair deal for everybody. Kansas City, Missouri, as much as I'm still going to question it, appears to have done a much better job of that than what the state of Kansas did. 913-408-7957. What are the biggest concerns you have right now as we sit here on a Thursday morning and react and see the renderings and the plans for the Royals down at Crown Center? The big concerns, the big questions. We're going to welcome you in on what is going to be a busy Thursday morning here on KCMO Talk Radio. We'll have Mayor Lucas at 730. Governor Mike Kehoe will be here at 8 o'clock. 913-408-7957, Pete Mundo on KCMO.

Speaker 3:
[11:55] Together we will rethink, reimagine, redefine, and redevelop Crown Center in an 85-acre-plus setting here that will instantly become the largest sports anchored downtown development of its kind. And as Don has said, it will advance the purpose of the Crown Center neighborhood, a place where people gather, connect, celebrate milestones, and create lifelong memories.

Speaker 1:
[12:25] That was John Sherman yesterday at the press conference 10 o'clock down at Crown Center to announce the Royals are moving to Crown Center in a stadium that will face north from the southeast portion of Crown Center right now, which we told you about yesterday morning, and will be part of a redevelopment and reimagining of the entire area, and will become, I believe, a great magnet for the Kansas City region as a whole. It makes sense, Crown Center is tired, this project will be very much wired, and I'm excited to see how it plays out. Now, when you look at some of the reaction from you at 913-408-7957, Pete, this big of an undertaking takes years to put together. No one else thought it up but them. There should not be any complaints. That's on the text line at 913-408-7957. Well, I certainly think it took months to put together, but we did get that last-minute change, where the assumption was that the ballpark was going to be at Washington Square Park, which always seemed like a very tight area to fit a baseball stadium. And now you're going to have it in a place that makes a lot more sense, that will, I believe, work much better for the entire region, and clearly is something that Hallmark and the Royals are going to be involved with and partnered with together, which is great. The more people you have, the more companies that you have, working together for the betterment of Kansas City, the better off everybody is going to be. The more skin in the game you have for major corporations, the better off everybody is going to be. You already are building in to a part of Kansas City that obviously gets a ton of foot traffic. Now, listen, I was not here, obviously, in the prime of Crown Center, going back decades now. In the nearly ten years I've been here, Crown Center's kind of been tired. I could probably count on one, maybe two, probably two hands how many times I've actually spent time in Crown Center. Like, can you think of the times, Mark, that you've been in Crown Center in the last five years and what they've been for?

Speaker 3:
[14:41] Yeah, NFL Draft, maybe going down there for one Christmas thing.

Speaker 1:
[14:47] Yeah.

Speaker 3:
[14:48] Field trip.

Speaker 1:
[14:48] Yeah.

Speaker 3:
[14:49] That's about it.

Speaker 1:
[14:50] I mean, I'm trying to think in the last couple of years, I was not even down there for the draft. There was some real estate conference last year I got invited to that I went to it for, and I met someone down there for a beer about two years ago. He was staying down there as part of some trip. Oh, you know what? It was somebody involved with a radio broadcast for the Baltimore Ravens. So an old sports radio buddy of mine, he was staying down there at the Westin. We got a beer. That's the last two memories I have in the last two years. I spent a total of like seven dollars, probably.

Speaker 3:
[15:18] To your point, whenever I was a kid, when people would come to town, we'd go down to Crown Center, especially in the summertime, the fountains would be up.

Speaker 4:
[15:24] You'd run around in the fountains.

Speaker 3:
[15:25] You'd have a good time and then you'd go home.

Speaker 1:
[15:27] Yeah. Yeah. I mean, but that's not you. You're not bringing your kids down to do anything. Yeah, exactly. That's not happening. So it does set up Crown Center as a whole to now feed an entire new generation. I mean, John's got the day off because I know John would be talking about this if he was here. Kevin's talked about it on the air. The way that they viewed Crown Center as a kid is different than most people today view Crown Center. Like I come at it from the perspective of I'm raising my children here, despite having not been raised here myself, and I'm like, what would I bring my kids to Crown Center for right now? Like maybe around Christmas time, but even that kind of feels like a headache with my kids being so young.

Speaker 3:
[16:11] Even with Fritz's, they have one in Shawnee now.

Speaker 1:
[16:13] Yeah, that's a good point. That's a very good point. So I just don't feel compelled to do it. So creating a development that is not just about 81 baseball games a year, although that is a tremendous base. And I do think a very important part of the story is just really scratching the surface as to what the plans are going to be here, which works out for everybody and can be a big win for the taxpayers in Kansas City over the long haul in a way that other projects just have not been and will not be. And that, by the way, includes, I would say, the Kansas City Chiefs project out in Kansas. There are only so many things that you're going to be able to do in the Chiefs Stadium that they're going to build out there. I mean, the list of things you can do is pretty small when you think about a seventy thousand seat stadium. There's only a handful of concerts that can fill a venue like that. You've got football, maybe you get a final for one day, and even that's not going to be part of a recurring rotation or anything of that nature. So you kind of just have to sit there and hope that it works out. Right now, this stadium, much better deal and much better bet top to bottom. There is no doubt about it. 913-408-7957, that's the text line, that's the studio line on KCMO. Let's head out to Topeka. That's where John is this morning on KCMO. What's up, John?

Speaker 5:
[17:46] Good morning, Pete. I was sitting there listening to some talk about, you know, the crown outside, you know, in the outfield, you know, making the crown for the scoreboard and such. And I was sitting there thinking, why don't they just make the whole stadium look like a giant crown? Like the crown of the city, crown center, the Royals. If they make the entire stadium look like a giant crown, like you're walking into the something Royal and it would be, you know, 30 or 40 years now you're walking into this thing, still looking like, yeah, you know what I'm saying? It would be awesome. But and then multi-use, you know, for not just 81 games, but, you know, for concerts and other things or venues or whatever. And like right now, they're in the stage where they can think about all this and make it work well for the next 40, 50 years for downtown Kansas City and really put a spotlight on it. And then, like I said, you know, the whole stadium looking like a giant crown. You know, what do you know? Like, hey, where do we need to go? Well, look for the giant crown and go from there.

Speaker 1:
[18:47] Well, you know, the good thing we do have Google Maps these days, so we don't have to worry about that. But I get your point. And it's well taken there, John. And here's what I would say. I'm not an engineer at all. But the idea of tying all that together is really cool for Kansas City. You're right. And I like what the potential is there. There's no doubt about it. So I'm sensing a lot of excitement. I'm also sensing an enormous amount of relief. And that's okay as well. That is very much acceptable, too, because I feel that I'm feeling that relief as we sit here on a Thursday morning. News is coming up in a minute. 913-408-7957 is how you join us right here on KCMO Talk Radio. I can't tell you how many people texted me yesterday towards the end of Kevin's show when Mayor Lucas took the mic and they're like, oh, man, Mayor Lucas, that guy is just doing his happy dance. He is just, oh, gosh, he's the happiest guy in Kansas City. Well, let's be honest, it's been a rough stretch for him. So, yeah, he needed something to celebrate. There's no doubt about it. And as the mayor of Kansas City, he will be on the show, by the way, coming up one hour from now, right here on ninetyfive7FM, so you can always stream us on our KCMO Talk Radio app as well or right on the iHeart app. He needed a win. Now, this does not, I don't think, change his legacy. The stadium is going to be remembered mostly for what John Sherman did and the Hall family did to make this location happen. That's who's going to be mostly remembered. Sadly, for Quentin Lucas, he still will be more remembered as the guy who was the mayor when they lost the Chiefs, not the guy who was the mayor when they kept the Royals. Because that's just how legacies work. Like, that's not a political opinion. That's not me trying to take a dig. It's just a fact. You get remembered sometimes for the negative more than the positive. So people are going to think back on Mayor Lucas and be like, oh yeah, he was the guy who was the mayor when they lost the Chiefs. They won't say he was the guy who retained the Royals. Because that's not how these conversations go. And that's not intended to be a knock. It's just a reality in the way the people converse. But had he lost both the teams, well, I mean, forget it. Close up shop, call it a day. You know, he could just leave next week and probably would be best for everybody. So at least he got this win in what has been a rough stretch on many fronts. So that's why he was relieved as much as anybody yesterday. And he sounded relieved as well. This was the mayor yesterday talking about the Royals going to Crown Center in a private public partnership that's going to be taking place with Hallmark, Kansas City, Missouri, and the state of Missouri.

Speaker 4:
[21:43] The new Royal Stadium and baseball district at Crown Center will bring twenty thousand jobs in the construction trades, providing work in the accessible core of our city, on transit lines, with proximity to every corner of our region and every demographic, to our electricians, our ironworkers, carpenters, laborers and more. The stadium, which Brooks tells me provides one thousand jobs each game day, perhaps even more, will continue to employ union service workers, and importantly in connection with this job, if you care about our workers, you care about their jobs staying right here in Kansas City, Missouri. And that is what we've been able to guarantee today.

Speaker 1:
[22:22] Alright, so they always hype up the construction jobs numbers, that always happens. By the way, I looked it up this morning, the Bureau of Labor Statistics had this. There's about sixty thousand construction jobs around the Kansas City Metro. The chiefs are saying that their project will take twenty thousand jobs. The Royals are saying their project will take twenty thousand jobs. These jobs will be happening simultaneously. So if you need some electrical work done or some plumbing work done, my suggestion would be to get it done now because come next year, you ain't getting a single plumber or an electrician or anybody out to your house because they're all going to be down at a ballpark, either in a field in Wyandotte County or down by Crown Center. There's not going to be any work left for the rest of us. I mean, anyone who knows how to put together a light bulb is going to be called downtown or out to Wyandotte County. And by the way, you can probably make some damn good money doing it. If I could do anything with my hands, I might consider just walking away from this and saying, you know what? I'm going to go be an electrician on one of these jobs. I'll figure it out. But I'm so unskilled at those things, I just can't do it. So that means you're stuck with me behind the microphone. Let's go to Steve. He's in KCK. What's up, Steve?

Speaker 5:
[23:44] Good morning, Pete.

Speaker 2:
[23:46] You know, I bet John Sherman is one heck of a Texas Hold'em player. He has got the ultimate poker face. I would love to know what these guys knew and when they knew it. When did they pull up this scheme? And I say this because last year I spent a little time as a chauffeur driver. So I worked a couple of weddings there at that church. I picked up, dropped off a couple of executives.

Speaker 1:
[24:10] You're talking about the church on the southeast corner there. Yes.

Speaker 2:
[24:15] Yes.

Speaker 1:
[24:15] Right by Crownsville.

Speaker 2:
[24:16] There's a little parking. Yeah. And there's a parking space back there where I could hang out and I could wait. And it's been dead back there for over a year. And maybe COVID had something to do with it, but there's been no real push to develop. And so like Don Hall, he's a big winner out of this too, you know, because in a roundabout way, he's getting some of that money, you know, to develop.

Speaker 1:
[24:35] Of course. I mean, the halls are making out like bandits too. I mean, let's be honest, commercial real estate is not what it used to be. That place has been tired for a very long time. So yeah, I mean, the halls are going to do very well as well. There's no doubt about it.

Speaker 2:
[24:52] Well played. I mean, just well played. Bravo guys. I mean, these guys are heck of poker players, man. I would not call their bluff.

Speaker 1:
[25:02] Well, you know, you can never.

Speaker 2:
[25:05] I'd like to know what they know when they know it. And you know, just how long did they have this planned?

Speaker 1:
[25:11] Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 2:
[25:12] I bet it's been at least a year.

Speaker 1:
[25:14] Yep. You bet. Thank you very much there, Steve. I don't know. I can't even begin to guess how long this thing has been cooked up. But I think it did work out very well for Kansas City, and it worked out very well, obviously, for these teams. There's no doubt about that. That's how you join us here on KCMO Talk Radio. Let's go to Mark. He is, according to my notes here, from Lenexa, but streaming from Iowa. What's going on there, Mark?

Speaker 5:
[25:49] Good morning. I've just been listening all morning, streaming up here in Iowa, doing a little work today. And I listened yesterday and I got a sense it's kind of a corporate bailout for Hallmark, which is kind of a dying company and it's great for them. And it'll be a great development down there. But as you talk about, I think, you know, it's just really going to draw business from Brookside or, you know, other bars in the area that people might meet before the game. And there will be no more tailgating, I guarantee that.

Speaker 1:
[26:23] Well, there's no doubt about it. The tailgate scene is going to look a lot different. And by the way, since you're up there in Iowa, do you see any idiots out wandering around?

Speaker 5:
[26:34] No, actually, there are, I am looking, but there's a beautiful sunrise coming up over there.

Speaker 1:
[26:39] Yeah, it might be a little early for them. You're right. Here's what I would say. And thanks for listening, Mark, while you're on the road. I appreciate that. The tailgating scene will very much change. You're right about that. It will be a much different look when you talk about tailgating. You know, just sitting in a parking garage, squeezed in like a sardine, trying to tailgate before a game, it's not the same as being out there at Truman Sports Complex and having everything else. But that was part of the goal here. Part of the goal was to figure out for the Royals how to drive revenues away from just the stadium. If they can get you into a handful of bars beforehand, have a couple of drinks, they make some money off of that. That's what they want. It doesn't mean everyone's going to do it. It doesn't mean you have to do it. But it will be an option for you that currently does not exist. They feel like in the economics of Major League Baseball, they need to be out there figuring out other revenue streams because there's no salary cap, because the local TV deal for the Yankees is astronomically higher than it can ever be for Kansas City. The economics of the sport are screwed up. Now, as for a, you know, you want to call it a bailout for Hallmark? I mean, there's no doubt that they have seen a decline in their core business over the last, I mean, several years. There's no doubt about that. All right. I don't know if I'd call it a bailout or if I would say this is Hallmark realizing we've got to reimagine what Crown Center is, that yes, is good for them, but also can be good for Kansas City and this is one way they decided to do it. And considering you do have two billion dollars in private investment going into the project, I'm not sure I would make it as black and white as calling this thing a just a pure bailout. Where do you want me to go here? Give me an option there. You like to do? You like maybe someone on the construction? Mark go ahead. You're on KCMO.

Speaker 2:
[28:44] Good morning, Pete. With the twenty thousand workers to build this new stadium in Kansas, twenty thousand to build new stadium with the Royals, how many construction workers are going to be left around town to build all these apartments?

Speaker 1:
[29:02] No, you're right. I know you're saying it's somewhat tongue in cheek, but you're right. Like I said, I saw and I don't know how accurate, but I saw it from Bureau of Labor Statistics. We've got about sixty thousand construction jobs in the metro. Thank you, Mark. And, you know, we're going to have forty thousand going to the Chief Stadium and the Royal Stadium combined. I just the math ain't mathin. Now I know some people have called in the mark and texted in. They've said that a lot of these folks will come from out of town. Okay, cool. That's great. John and Independence, what's up, John?

Speaker 2:
[29:31] I think this is really good news for Kansas City. I'm thinking down the road after the stadium is built, like tying it all in just like some sort of like a Christmas event. Like, can you picture the like the stadium with the Christmas lights all over it and like ground center and all that? I hope area will be just so festive if they were able to pull something off like that, I think.

Speaker 1:
[29:53] Well, listen, Union Station is already a great time to, you know, be down there for Christmas. It's beautiful. You're right about that.

Speaker 2:
[29:59] And if you can, it's all right next to each other.

Speaker 1:
[30:01] Yeah.

Speaker 2:
[30:02] Which would be really cool. But I can just see a brand new stadium, like just all kind of with the festive Christmas thing. And that's just part of the allure of Kansas City's, just everything about the city itself. You know, that'd be nice to see something like that.

Speaker 1:
[30:19] I agree. Absolutely. I mean, that could become a bigger deal than maybe, you know, the Christmas lights down on the plaza could be. I don't know. It depends what they've got lined up, but you're right. There's definitely, I think, a vision there. It works. It fits a lot of really important things together, and it can be a huge win for the entire region. There's no doubt about it. So not everybody was happy about the Royals announcement yesterday. There was a group called Missouri Workers Center that put out a statement yesterday saying that they are not happy with the announcement. Now, I think it's a great vision for that part of Kansas City. I still have many questions. I mean, I'm not going to sit here and just, you know, wave my Royals pom-poms all day. I think it has amazing potential. There still are questions that are lingering. But the reality is it looks like on paper what we've got is two billion dollars in private investment for about one billion dollars between the state and the city of Kansas City, Missouri. And especially when you compare that to the chiefs who, I mean, they're putting in a billion dollars while the state of Kansas throws in two billion. I'll take that Royals deal as a taxpayer every day of the week and twice on Sunday. So from just a pure public private investment perspective, the Royals deal is much better. Some of you might say that's the tallest midget argument. Whatever the reality is, there is always a public element to these deals. I've tried to balance that living in reality, understanding how these deals actually go, while also being fairly critical when I think the politicians deserve it. And there's no doubt the Kansas politicians deserve it much more than the Missouri and the Kansas City politicians do, even though they both do deserve some criticism overall. But the vision here is very good. It will be beneficial, I believe, for Kansas City as a whole. But this group, Missouri Workers Center, put out a post yesterday on social media saying, today's announcement by the Royals confirms what working people in the city have feared. Billionaire John Sherman and his allies on city council intend to move full speed ahead with a one point nine billion dollar stadium project at Crown Center, funded in significant part by six hundred million dollars in public bonds and tax increment financing with no vote of the people. Missouri Workers Center is actively exploring all legal and political options available to Kansas City residents to force a public vote on any effort to publicly finance this project. Moreover, we want to ensure that any use of Washington Square Park, a public park that belongs to all of us, requires a vote of the people. You're really going to act like anybody goes to Washington Square Park outside of seven homeless guys looking for a place to nap? Are you kidding me?

Speaker 3:
[33:20] You know who these people are, right?

Speaker 1:
[33:21] No.

Speaker 4:
[33:22] Oh, it's KC Tennis.

Speaker 3:
[33:23] They just changed their name.

Speaker 1:
[33:24] Did they change their name? I mean, it's the same people. I figured there was some overlap. I didn't realize it was like the exact same people.

Speaker 3:
[33:31] I'm pretty sure.

Speaker 4:
[33:32] I saw them at City Hall last week or two weeks ago.

Speaker 1:
[33:35] Is this like a spinoff? This is like when someone leaves the band and starts their own group.

Speaker 3:
[33:39] Yeah, exactly right.

Speaker 4:
[33:40] It's pretty much the same thing.

Speaker 1:
[33:41] There's a beef at the top, so it's like they're going out on their own.

Speaker 3:
[33:45] Something happened with KC Tennis where they had to dissolve, and now they have this group.

Speaker 1:
[33:49] They're breaking up the band? Okay. Well, on top of that, what they're apparently going to do is that they're going to have a rally on May 1st. That's a week from tomorrow. So it's next Friday. And it's May Day, International Workers Day. And they're saying that working people are rising up across Kansas City and across the country. They say no work, no school, no shopping. It's easy for them to say, I'm pretty sure they're not in school. I'm pretty sure most of them don't have real jobs. And I'm pretty sure they don't do any shopping anyway, because they got to take a shower first. OK, so it's easy to partake in a no work, no school, no shopping day when you already don't do those things. It's like John says, he hates having to partake in a protest when he's already been protesting those things. And that's what these people are doing next Friday. So here's here's their big mistake. They actually might have some people across the political aisle who would join them if it was just about public subsidies for a stadium. Because there are those of us, I'll include myself in this, who question a lot of these public subsidy deals that happen. Whether it's in Kansas or Missouri, it doesn't matter. When the government is using tax dollars to pick winners and losers, whether it's a stadium deal or a Panasonic plant or anything else that we've talked about, it's typically not good business and it's not good for the taxpayer. It's one of the few things that people on the right and the left will have some agreement on. But when they're doing this protest next Friday, and instead of just making it about the stadiums, they're also making it about, in their words, ending ICE terror and keeping families together, and a democracy that works for all of us. You guys have lost the plot here. You might have actually had something and you might have had something bipartisan if you did your dopey rally just around the idea of stadium subsidies. You would have gotten the conservatives who would have said, you know what, that's a fair point. Maybe I'll join you. But when you also make it an anti-ICE protest, well then you've you've cut your potential pool of protesters in half. So they don't even really think through this stuff. Or maybe they don't want to think through this stuff. Or maybe they just can't think through this stuff because they're not that bright. I don't know. But it's like, guys, if you actually wanted to make your protest look big next Friday in Kansas City, that's what you would do. You would just make it about the stadium. You wouldn't also make it about ICE, which, by the way, ICE, that is so February, man. That's February, January. Come on, get with the news cycle.

Speaker 3:
[36:41] I'm looking at their little information sheet you can fill out here. They're having Zoom meetings leading up to it to help you get informed about how to protest. And then they're also asking you how you want to protest.

Speaker 4:
[36:52] And like you said, there's four things on what to protest.

Speaker 3:
[36:55] And they want you to click on which one you're most excited to protest about. It's like there's way too much going on.

Speaker 1:
[37:00] There's too much here, guys. It's too much. If nothing else, have four separate protests. That's that's the play. You don't have four different groups of people protesting four different things within the same protest, because then you've got no message. If you have too many messages, you have no message. And that's what this group is going to end up doing to themselves. This Missouri Workers Center group that's going to be protesting the Royal Stadium next Friday. But then they're also weaving it into an ice stadium or an anti-ice protest. It's like, guys, you got to go back to protesting 101 and understand how this actually is supposed to work. I'm just trying to help you help yourselves here. That's all.

Speaker 3:
[37:43] And anti-data centers and they got all that in there.

Speaker 4:
[37:47] Yeah, they're doing a bunch of stuff here.

Speaker 1:
[37:48] Once again, you know, a broken clock is right twice a day. They have a reasonable point on the public financing and the data center conversation. Like, they have a point on all of these, on those two things in particular. I'll give them that in a perfect world, they're right. We don't live in a perfect world.

Speaker 4:
[38:08] Another funny one is gerrymandering. They were very happy about it yesterday, though. Yeah, well, they're angry about it.

Speaker 1:
[38:14] So that's what I mean. That's another one, man. You can't be like, Oh, Missouri screwed us. And then cheer on Virginia. You just can't do it. So, man, this is, this is like when the band breaks up, but the iterations of the band as it breaks up in the new bands actually just doesn't work out for anybody, you know, and they all have to do a solo project. Yeah. No, don't give them any ideas. That's you know, KC Tenants actually had a little bit of juice. I didn't realize Mark, I guess, knew some more of the drama behind the scenes that. There was some type of breakup at the top of the food chain, and now you've got the Missouri Worker Center, kind of a spinoff of KC Tenants. That that's a tough spot for them, really tough spot. But I will say, you know, the wake of yesterday's announcement, obviously a lot of people were goofing on KC Tenants and saying, you know, you guys tried to stop this and the job finally got done. The people who are giving all the credit to this KC Tenants group for blocking the stadium, and this is the group that's, you know, very much far left, super progressive, you know, power to the people type stuff. Once again, they do have a point on the public subsidies. They do. I actually agree with them in theory. But as is always the case with groups like this, they just take it too far. And the other thing that needs to be noted here, people give them way too much credit for the vote going down in 2024. There were many people of many different backgrounds, not just woke progressive KC Tenants folks who voted no on that 3.8 cent sales tax extension going back two years ago now. There were people in Eastern Jack who just didn't want the stadium to be downtown. There were people in the crossroads who weren't really KC Tenants folks who were like, wait, we don't know what this means for us. Like there were a lot of different groups that didn't like it that voted no. Don't give all the credit to KC Tenants, please. That's rewriting history is what that is. But I do wonder if this was on the ballot, this project at Crown Center was on the ballot for the Royals in twenty-twenty-four with this vision and this plan along with Arrowhead Stadium being refurbished and extending a three-eighths cent sales tax that already existed. Is it possible that this proposal would have passed? Is it possible in Jackson County that it would have passed? I think it, let's just put it this way, if this today was on the ballot to keep Arrowhead where it is and put this Royal Stadium where it is and extend a sales tax that's already been in place for decades, there is a much better chance this would pass, I believe, in Jackson County than what happened two years ago. In part because of how that thing was rolled out, the questions surrounding it, and so much more. Mayor Lucas is twenty minutes away, we'll have Mike Kehoe, the governor, at eight o'clock, and we do have Greg Gutfeld tickets coming up one hour from now at 8.15. Do not miss it here on KCMO Talk Radio. We've got the NFL Draft happening tonight as well, that's in Pittsburgh, Chiefs have two first round picks, but there's this, there's this affair that is taking over the NFL, and there was some news on the affair, and what's next in this affair between an NFL head coach and a top, former top NFL reporter that took a strange twist yesterday, and I'm still trying to figure out what to make of it. We'll tell you those details next on KCMO. So we got the NFL Draft tonight, the Chiefs have two picks, number nine and number twenty-nine, really a critical draft this weekend. Tonight is the first round, second and third rounds tomorrow night, and then you've got the fourth through seventh rounds happening on Saturday, and really a big draft for the Chiefs. They were obviously bad last year, worse they've been in over a decade, and now they have to figure out how to basically replenish this roster, figure out the second half of Patrick Mahomes' prime, figure out what to do knowing this is the end of, you know, Travis Kelsey most likely, and you gotta replace Chris Jones eventually, and all these guys, right? So it's a big night. It doesn't feel to me like it's an NFL draft but it's getting a ton of hype. The number one pick is going to be this guy, Fernando Mendoza out of Indiana, quarterback who led them to a national championship. He's going to go to the, I almost said Oakland, but the Las Vegas Raiders. I don't know how good he's going to be. He's a boring guy. He's a Christian. He's not a showman. He's not Baker Mayfield. He's just, he's not even going to be there tonight. He's going to be with his family in Florida. So it just doesn't feel like there's a ton of juice around this draft because it's predictable and the personalities are boring. Do I have that fair? Do I have that right, Mark?

Speaker 3:
[43:22] That is very fair and it's kind of fitting that Kirk Cousins went to the Raiders because he seems like Kirk Cousins 2.0.

Speaker 1:
[43:29] There is. That's right. So a very good mentor in Kirk Cousins out there in Vegas. And you don't worry about a guy like Fernando Mendoza and Kirk Cousins like hitting the strip on a Tuesday night and getting into trouble like that's not going to be them, OK? So as a result, what you have, though, is a ton of attention. Going to the story with this New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel, who, of course, got to the Super Bowl last year and was the NFL Coach of the Year. And now, after he gets caught in a clearly inappropriate relationship with one of the top NFL reporters, Diana Rossini, he had this press conference the other day and he, like, quasi-apologized and he said, you know, I've had some tough conversations with my family and thanks for letting me keep it in house and we're going to handle this. Talk to the players, talk to the team, it all starts with me, blah, blah, blah, every other cliche in the book, right? So then it comes out late last night at about 11 o'clock last night, the story drops from ESPN that Mike Vrabel will not be with the Patriots on day three of the NFL draft. That's this Saturday as he seeks counseling. Now, this story has become a full-blown PR disaster by the Patriots. He just talked to the media. The Boston media is wanting no part of this. National media is picking up on it more because, let's be honest, people like a salacious scandal. And the NFL draft does not have a ton of hype around it. So, people are looking for something to talk about. And the Patriots head coach, Coach of the Year, in some kind of inappropriate relationship with one of the top NFL reporters in the sport, in Diana Rossini, let's be honest, that's going to get clicks, that's going to get talked about. But it looked like it was kind of over. And now, it's like, oh, he won't be there on day three as he seeks counseling. Does the counseling not open up on Sunday? Can it not start on Monday? Why would you miss the third day of the draft? Are the first two days of the draft too important to not go to counseling? There's just more questions coming out of this. Is his wife saying, we're going to go to counseling on Saturday, damn it, whether you like it or not? Like, I don't know. But they have screwed this thing up. If you're going to miss the draft, I mean, theoretically, if I was in Mike Vrabel's shoes, and God willing, I will never be in Mike Vrabel's shoes, but you would rather miss the Thursday of the NFL Draft where you only have one pick and you're picking at like the end of the first round versus the third day where you've got four or five picks in rounds four through seven. So from a football perspective, it makes no sense. From a PR perspective, it makes no sense. From a personal perspective, I don't get it. If you're trying to prove that your family matters more than football, I mean, I kind of respect that, although not really because you just got caught. That's the only reason this is ending because you got caught. So I don't really have a lot of respect for Mike Vrabel. But even if you're trying to insinuate, I care more about my family than football. Why wouldn't you just leave today or yesterday and go to counseling? Why would you just magically pick it on Saturday? Do they not have counseling appointments on Sunday or Monday? Do they not have them on Thursday or Friday? It just doesn't make any sense to me. And now the story breathes new life because of how this is being handled. Whoever the PR people involved with Vrabel and the Patriots and Racini, man, they are just taking these folks for a ride because they're not doing them any favors at all. Just had Governor Kehoe on the show talking about the Royals deal that of course got locked down yesterday. Crown Center is going to be the home of the team. The state's kicking in, he said, about three hundred ish million dollars, maybe four hundred on the high end. And I got to that number because, you know, he said fifteen to seventeen milli-year. We don't really know, but looking like probably most of these deals end up being about thirty years. So that's where the state is going to be at on this deal. On the text line, Pete, the governor was hating on Kansas! Exclamation point. Well, I mean, he is the governor of Missouri. I mean, and he's not wrong. I mean, think about this, right? You tell me the state just kicked in three hundred million dollars on this deal. Eighty one games a year for the Royals, which, if you want to play the Voodoo math economic development shell game, baseball is a much better bet than football is. Just logistically, it is. It's not close. And Kansas is going to redirect three hundred square miles of future sales tax revenues to pay two billion dollars for a chief stadium that only guarantees you eight, nine, maybe ten games a year. There will be more, but you're talking about base level guarantee. It's eight, nine, ten dates a year. That's it at the very base level. That's what you're getting. They should be goofing on Kansas, to be honest. Kansas sold its soul. Kansas lawmakers look like absolute utter fools. They should be tarred and feathered, figuratively speaking, of course. I mean, people are laughing at this Kansas deal. It was pathetic. It was the ultimate small state. We want to try to put ourselves on the map kind of deal that is just absolutely and utterly shameful. That's what that deal was. And everybody knew it. Now, there are some people, you know, I guess, who still try to justify it in Topeka, but I'm not hearing a lot. I don't. I hear from a lot of people in Topeka. And, you know, back in December, it was a lot more of like, hey, you don't quite get it. You know, it's actually not that bad. And I'll just say there's a lot of people who have gone radio silent on that deal. A lot of people. And because they're realizing what they did and how badly they screwed the whole thing up and how, you know, you just look at it from a pure negotiating one-on-one perspective, right? I mean, if you want to use a football analogy here, tie into the NFL draft tonight, tie into the fact that it was a football stadium, it's like you're trying to get a top cornerback or whatever, pick your position, and you're competing with other teams on this deal, right? And the best deal on the table for this cornerback, just to use that example, is, I don't know, let's say someone else has a deal out for three years and 35 million bucks, right? And you say, nope, we're going to get this player and we're going to give them a 10 year, 150 million dollar deal and that's what we're going to do. I mean, they competed against themselves at the expense of their own taxpayers. That's what they did. So I have no issue with Governor Kehoe goofing on him. I mean, as he said, good for the chiefs. But, you know, as he called it, Kansas kind of bumped its head there on that one. But he's a politician. He's got to say it like that. I don't really have to say it like that. So I'm not going to say it like that. I'm not interested in saying it like that. No, I know how. On the text line, Pete, now that we're getting a new stadium, how about a decent team? I know. I know. I know. They lost again last night to the Orioles. Too bad.

Speaker 3:
[51:14] Well, we still have four years to build up this team. Well, that's true.

Speaker 1:
[51:18] That's true. But let's be honest. How many years of Bobby Witt's prime is going to be wasted? I mean, if this season's over before Memorial Day and you got Bobby Witt. In his prime and you're throwing another year away, I'd just that's that's just frustrating, right? As a fan, it's just frustrating. So being like, hey, don't worry, we'll be good when Bobby Witt's turning 32 or whatever it is. I don't think that's really what anyone's got on their mind. Oh, my goodness. All right.