Kansas City Royals owner John Sherman wants to move out of Kauffman Stadium and into a new downtown baseball stadium in Kansas City when the lease expires in 2030. This has been a controversial issue as a recent ballot measure, Question 1 in Jackson County that would help fund it, was shot down by voters a few days ago (April 2, 2024).

For all of the Kansas City downtown ballpark proponents, here is something you should know. The best example of a small market team like the Royals that moved from the outskirts of the city into a downtown ballpark is the San Diego Padres in 2004 when they moved into Petco Park from Qualcomm Stadium.

So, what did a new downtown ballpark do for San Diego?

1) It resulted in a bump in attendance for 4 seasons. In the two seasons before the move, the Padres attendance was 12th out of 16 NL teams in 2003 and 10th out of 16 in 2002. They were back down to 12th out of 16 NL teams in 2008 and 2009 (year 5 and 6 after Petco Park opened). Source: https://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/SDP/attend.shtml

2) The average ticket price for the Padres went from $16.23 in 2003 to $21.41 in 2004 (the first year Petco Park opened). That is an increase of 31.9% the 1st season. Source: http://roadsidephotos.sabr.org/base…/earlyticketprices.htm

3) Nothing has changed for the San Diego Padres on-field success. They have not won a World Series Championship or National League (NL) Pennant in the 20 years that they have played in Petco Park. However, note that the Padres did win two NL Pennants and went to two World Series (1984 and 1998) in the 20 seasons before the move playing in Qualcomm Stadium.

Some will argue that a new downtown ballpark will greatly impact the community’s economic growth. In a research article titled “The Impact of Professional Sports Franchises and Venues on Local Economies: A Comprehensive Survey,” the authors did a comprehensive review of this impact. What were their key conclusions?

1) “Nearly all empirical studies find little to no tangible impacts of sports teams and facilities on local economic activity”

2) “The level of venue subsidies typically provided far exceeds any observed economic benefits”

Source: https://deliverypdf.ssrn.com/delivery.php…

The Bottom Line

If Royals owner John Sherman wants to move out of Kauffman Stadium and build a new downtown ballpark, that is his prerogative. Just find private funding for it like the St Louis Cardinals did when voters shot down a tax to build the new Busch Stadium. As a Kansas Citian, I don’t want to pay higher ticket prices to see the same old, same ol’ catch lightning in a bottle subpar on-field product that we have seen the vast majority of the past 30 years.

Until Major League Baseball rectifies the disparity between large market and small market teams, I don’t want our tax dollars funding a sport that I believe has become a sham. Here is the disparity between the top payroll MLB team vs the lowest. I will use the years 2024, 2014, 2004, 1994 & 1984:

2024: $245.1 million

2014: $190.8 million

2004: $156.7 million

1994: $31.3 million

1984: $7.5 million

The luxury tax has become a joke in Major League Baseball as this disparity has only widened. Major League Baseball has done nothing to successfully create a competitive balance to help smaller market teams. Here is the difference in payroll between the top and bottom spending teams in all 5 professional sports leagues:

MLB – $245.1 mil

NBA – $93.2 mil

NHL – $35.7 mil

NFL – $33.2 mil

MLS – $16.6 mil

Overall, my feeling is that there is nothing wrong with Kauffman Stadium. It is still a beautiful venue to watch baseball. It is conveniently located and easy to get to from any area of the Kansas City Metropolitan area. I also don’t buy into the “bad concrete” theory as to why we need a new stadium. Fenway Park and Wrigley Field were built decades earlier and have been saved with renovations.

I believe the only reason why Royals owner John Sherman wants a new downtown ballpark is so that he and his investment group can buy land around the new ballpark and profit from it. I fully expect that if he gets a new downtown ballpark, he will flip the Royals franchise for a profit when revenues go up during the first four years. Then profit off of businesses or leases on the property built up around the new ballpark. Once again, that is his prerogative. It makes great business sense for him, just don’t ask me for tax dollars to support it.