This is Mike's response to the failed stadium vote in early April 2024.
This Podcast Is... Uncalled For
Do You WANT to be Oakland?!
Hi, I'm Mike Czerniewski and you are listening to this podcast is "Uncalled for." [MUSIC] All right, everybody, welcome to another episode of the podcast and yeah, today you're getting angry Mike today. This is in response to the ballot measure that as this recording failed a week ago to correct a 50-year-old wrong. Okay, I'm of course talking about the stadium votes in Jackson County and before I read this article on what should happen next to the people who voted no on this, it depends on how and why you voted no. If you voted no because you don't want to extend an already existing sales tax and you don't feel that government's money should go to billionaires, okay, I get it, unfortunately that's the way it is in the states, in the states of sports scene, it's one of the more despicable aspects of it I think and I get it from that standpoint. If you think that's putting a ballpark in an underutilized portion of a very large arts district, okay, I get it. If you disagree with displacing small businesses my understanding is they were going to help those people anyway, but if that's, okay, that's a valid arguments but to say that sports and arts don't mix, hello, this podcast is a good example of sports and arts finding a way to coexist, okay, the two can coexist putting a ballpark in the movement, arts district again on a six block plot of land where not much arts activity is taking place or any activity at all, well, I think you kind of misunderstand the scope and really the location of all what all is actually taking place, all right, because mostly arts activity that takes place in that districts happens south and west of that specific site. If your complaints is about sparking, the amount of stupid in you is just so fucking vast, I can't, I just can't, you know, during the public meetings that this team, which by the way those public meetings happened over a year ago, okay. So yet over a year to learn about this, to make your voices heard and you did, you probably did nothing, all right, you probably didn't even go to these meetings, so, but at these meetings they said, you know, there's plenty of, there's more than enough parking downtown, okay, so you could easily park and walk to the ballpark. If you live downtown, you don't even have to drive, you just walk, all right. The site in question was two fucking blocks from a streetcar stop and that streetcar is being extended as we speak, it's going to be done next year, well, so you could park on the plaza, take a streetcar up main streets up to that stop, get off and just walk the two blocks and then repeat the same trip and it's not just a ballpark that would have gone up, it's also ballpark district, you know, restaurants and bars and stuff like that. And after the game, we could just stop at one of them, chill out for a bit and if you're seriously concerned about traffic, chill out for a bit, wait for traffic to die down. But no, but no, you just ignore it. If you voted against it because you think there's nothing wrong with Kaufman, then you are really fucking stupid, I can't help you, go to hell. All right, that anger out of the way, we are going to now turn our attention to an opinion piece written by Dave Helling, Kansas Star, full disclosure, I've worked indirectly with Dave during my time at entering a KCPT and I did, I didn't meet him once while I was staying at JUCO, I fell in West Greg. So this is the article, the title is, "Here's how the royals and chiefs can get it right on the next stadium subsidies vote," dated April 7, 2024. The votes are in and have been counted. All sites have retreated to the corner, some bitter, others ecstatic. The stadium's question which has sucked the air from the community for months has been settled at least for now. For some, the issue has been settled forever, probably 40% of local voters oppose any taxpayer subsidies for sports facilities for any reason at any time, it's a legitimate and defensible argument. This column isn't for them. Nothing I can say or anyone else can say will convince them, some people, that sports teams are community assets and deserve some sort of community support, they will always vote no. Fine. And that's a good point, aside from a handful of companies like the company I work for, you're probably not going to have the name of the city attached to it. And furthermore, if you're a sports fan, you open a sports page every single day during any given season, you're going to see the names of cities, that those teams are more than just sports teams or billionaires, choice everyone, but they are indeed community assets. And that shows every single time you open a sports page. Okay, because your name is out there. So others though, may still be willing to consider alternatives that are more carefully tailored to meet the community's interests, which include a low tax burden, more widely shared and benefits for everyone, not just sports fans. Perhaps both teams are willing to, are still willing to listen. I think such a path is still available, but it will take an effort by all sides to think more broadly about how this issue might be addressed and an acceptance of new paradigms for old problems. Here's an outline, excuse me. This always details matter, statutes may have to change mechanisms addressed. But in broad strokes, there are answers for the clubs and the politicians. So let's start with the Royals and downtown baseball. Step one, end the relationship with Jackson County and negotiate directly with the city. The Royals have blamed Jackson County executive Frank White's intrangence for the failure to conclude staying in negotiations more quickly and openly. The team may or may not be right, but the workaround is clear. Stop negotiating with White or the county and open talks with City Hall. Pause. This is the same Frank White whose number 20 is retired with the Royals legend with the team. Help them win the World Series, alright. As he opposed this tax and I think actively worked against it is pretty telling. If I were petty and in John Sherman's position, I would unretired number 20 right away. That's just me, that's just my thinking. Contrast that with Mayor Lucas, okay, Mayor Lucas, I will give you a little bit of blame for pushing the start building on everyone, not even two months before the vote. Even though we heard this all times either going to be East Village or North KC, again I think East Village is the better site because there's nothing there and I do put a little blame on you for pushing for that East Crossroads site. But it sounds like you're willing to work with the teams here, so I give you a plus for that sir. The teams relationship with the county is an accident of history and not fundamentally required. Kansas City on the other hand has a direct interest in its downtown and how a stadium might work in its center. A stadium, a city wide, 316 cent sales tax for 40 years will likely raise half of the funds for a billion dollar stadium. As a reminder, the Royals did say their project would be about two billion, over half of which they would find themselves. And roughly about 50/50 ballpark in the surrounding ballpark district. The Royals should promise to match that spending dollar for dollar, state contributions can be counted, and special concession sales taxes can be collected. Northlanders, who were excluded from the first vote, but now would have to be included in this vote if it is a city wide thing. Northlanders may complain, but a downtown stadium would be more convenient for them, and a bond issue may include spending for Northlands, sports, and minis as well. Current leases could be a sticking point, in a worst case scenario, the Royals might have to delay and move to downtown until 2031. That said, it takes years to get stadium built. Just like it takes years to get a streetcar line put in. Years of planning and as well as the actual construction. So there's that. Those points let the people pick the site. I don't know if this is a guide yet, but I will go ahead and read this again. The Royals won a downtown ballpark, but they bobbled to the exact location, angering business owners and neighborhood leaders. Why should the team pick the site? Let City Hall appoint a group to study access, land availability, cost parking, disruption, and other issues. Hold public meetings, then let the public, through their elected representatives, choose the precise downtown location. Sites could include East Village, 18th and Fine, the West Side, near the Lowe's Hotel, or somewhere else. The City could select a location by the end of 2024. It could include, it should include a broad public community benefits agreement. Again, if you let the people decide, well, some idiots are going to say, "Oh, there's nothing really coming, I can't see we keep it there," aside from it's 50 years old. The location sucks. It's extremely difficult to get in and out of if you're telling me otherwise, and you're fucking lying, or you haven't been there in a while, and there's no restaurants within reasonable walking distance. All right, got to walk out and see if parking lots and cross six lanes of tracks, we have to a fucking Taco Bell? No, not not, again, these sites that were listed, okay, East Village makes the most sense because there's nothing there, all right, 18th and Fine, I disagree with, yes, there's a baseball development in that district, but it's like downtown adjacent, I struggle to even call that downtown, proper. Westside and it'll lose, what site is he referring to, because that's like right across the street from Bartle Hall, and still a very, very new space I have yet to see on myself, but I digress, okay, next up, make the city a partner in the team's success, David Glass and time out, if you're going to blame anyone for the current problems, don't blame, don't necessarily blame Sherman, all right, he's only owns the team, not very long, I suppose it's a jack off who had been on in the team for a while, Mr. Glass, so first of all, Walmart exec, that should tell you a lot, and yeah, it was a cheapo who when this came up 20 years ago chose to do nothing to address it, just throw more money into the bullets wound, that is Kauffman, and do nothing to address the actual team's needs, again, baseball needs to be downtown, and this is a darn time that you hear this, I hate the words, but this small market bullshit where teams in smaller communities could not compete with the Yankees and the Dodgers and all that, well, we know it's bullshit now, but no one bought it, bought it more than David fucking Glass, the fact that they got to two World Series in 14 and 15 is pure luck, all right, just pure fucking luck, all right, since '85, aside from those two years that team has been garbage and a lot of the blame has to be on Glass, all right, so anyway, he purchased the Royals for $96 million in 2000, 20 years later, so we're going to this 2024, so Sherman hasn't owned the team all that long, man, he sold for about a billion, even accounting for operating losses, that's a pretty good profit, all right, so let John Sherman share that money, he's already sharing ownership stakes with people including one Patrick Mahomes, so that's a good start, I would probably go as far as to suggest, yeah, you set up a community trust input, kind of like what they did with a horizontal pre-crunkie, I digress, but I digress, the Royals should agree to split the net profits for any future sale minus operating losses with the city, the city could use that money to pay off standing bonds early and for all important public purpose, for any important public purpose like transportation, streetcar, health, education, or anything else, and it could be hundreds of millions of dollars for public use, it would establish a true partnership between the city and the community and the team, and there's a precedent Ewing Kauffman gave his sale profits to charity, okay, so here we have some solutions to get baseball downtown where it fucking belongs, and where it should have been 20 years ago, it should have been 50 years ago, all right, I am sick and tired of people making excuses for a mistake that city planners made in the 60s early 70s, okay, I'm sick of it, let's get that team downtown, and again, I challenge you to name a single team that doesn't have some sort of either downtown arrangements or a ballpark village arrangement, that is successful, do you want to be Oakland? I guess is the question I'm asking now because the A's, yes ironically the same A's that left KC and made the Royals possible, they tried to do the actually impossible and try to do this whole thing in Oakland, good luck doing this anywhere in California by the way, and couldn't get done so they're following the raiders to Vegas, so Oakland California went from, well, how far do we want to go back, because it could go back to when they had the California Golden Seals, who of course don't exist anymore, and discounting the fact that they are part of the Bay Area, Oakland California went from having hosten three major sports teams to as of 2025, none, all right, the raiders aren't Vegas now, okay, they just played a Super Bowl at their new stadium, which again Chippin' Built in Carson, California, but I digress, A's, same thing, they're on their way to Vegas, they still have to build the stadium, and just this week they announced they are so done with the Coliseum, they're so done with Oakland, they're gonna play the next few years in Sacramento, which by the way is another city that stole a team from us, and you know the NBA Warriors who are still in the Bay Area, but they're actually in San Francisco now, so, so yeah, do you want to be Oakland, that is the question I asked for everyone, Metro White, all right, and I also remind them Mr. Helling that they did have plans for April Park Village in North KC as a backup, and I remind my old listeners, North KC is different from Kansas City proper, it is its own little suburb right there on the Missouri, just across the river from downtown, but completely in claimed by KC North, so that's a possibility, and you definitely don't have to deal with Jackson County at that point, that's Clay County, they're telling them that, and it is a distinct possibility, so let's hope that it's exhaust all of our possibilities around downtown first before we start the event, North KC, and once again staying where they are not an option, if you still think it's an option, turn this podcast off right now, all right, now on to the football team, which yes, once again, change the name, they're what they need to do, and this is a good time to slam Clark Hunt a little bit, because there was a graphic that came up showing the top 10 owners in terms of wealth in the NFL, the Hunt family race number two, about 24 billion, the only wealthier owner is within the AFC West, that would be the Walton family owning the Denver Broncos, and they put up plans to, oh we're just going to put a facelift on Arrowhead, and it'll only cost 800 million, and we're only going to throw in 300 million, cheap ass, back to the Oracle, so one, they can negotiate with Jackson County. White has already proposed a chief's only election, that separates Jackson County 316, send sales tax, which cut the levy in half in the eastern part of the county, combining that with the city's own 316, sales tax, would make for a 3/8 cent rate inside Jackson, inside the chair of Jackson County, Kansas City limits, but the team would remain, but the city would remain the physical home for both teams. The chiefs could be much more clear about their Arrowheads plans and explain what it wants to do after Lease is up in 25 years. Sharing revenue after a sale is less possible. Here, the hunts will likely never sell the team. Explore the Kansas option. Missouri fans may not want to hear this, but a Kansas location would likely be as convenient as the Truman Sporks complex, i.e. Less of a problem for football than it is for baseball. And, oh, that's another bitch I'm hearing about. Baseball, what we're about to tailgating, tailgating is not really part of baseball culture. It is a big part of football culture, but it's really not a thing in baseball. So, drop it. So, yeah, it would also indirectly establish a true bi-state approach to staying in construction maintenance, which the community desperately needs. Yeah, no shit. I would strongly advise everyone to revisit my episode of Free State of Kansas City. I think we need to get rid of this bi-state bullshit and have the entire metro of all five. It's seven mon generously counties just break off from Kansas and Missouri and form their own separate state. I think that would solve a lot of the issues we have around here. I digress. Let's continue. So, local state support may be a local tax support member required, and that's in a rough framework to keep both clubs here with lower and broader tax support and widely spread community benefits. In a perfect world, these options would have been considered in public five years ago, but the world isn't perfect. And they were not. There is still time once everyone gets a chance to relax and think it's time to go to work again. And the Kansas site there, that's often taught as around the legends and village west, where you already have a minor league ballpark, you have a sporting is out there. You do have shops and restaurants in the form of the legends and some other development around there. You have a racetrack, you have a casino, you do have some office space. Thank you, sir. For that, the American Royal is going to be moving out there. The Santaiff of the years, not too far away. The Renfair, not too far away, either. For football, I was stressing him for football, there's still plenty of space that you can build a new NFL stadium out there. And that would leave Missouri with zero NFL teams within its borders. Fuck you, Stan Krocke. For then, but let's say all this goes south, and that's still a very real possibility. I think that is the most likely situation. People are not saying, well, just move the Chiefs to St. Louis. The Chiefs would not be welcome in St. Louis. I'm going to tell you that right now because of Clark Hunt's role in Krocke's lies. And the fact that he was the only owner on the LA committee that voted against St. Louis. That team would not be welcome there. Seriously, I would ask the hunts to consider bringing a minority owner at some point. Because they had demonstrated, but just putting 300 million into their plans, 300 million as opposed to over a billion. I must be missing some here, but maybe the hunts are not as liquid as we would like to think. Oh, but maybe a minority order would be a good idea. I believe you just gained a fan who's dating one of your players, who's worth over a billion. Oh, maybe gets tailored to sign on as a part owner or something. Yeah, you're not in so much confidence in your ability to run the team much longer. Alright, so I leave you with this question. Do you want to be Oakland and just lose all your teams and be relegated to a second tier of relevance in our society? Do you want to be Omaha? Omaha, they're only Sware into big-time pro sports, sharing an NBA team with us. Otherwise, oh, minorly. In fact, the royals, minorly, has always been in Omaha. Do we want to become Omaha and just being home to just nothing but minorly sports? If the UFL does well and they're going to be looking to expand, I mean, we get a team. No, stuff to think about. And that is not a knock at the UFL. I am a UFL fan. Of course, a Bellhawks fan. For the exact same reason that everyone else is a Bellhawk fan, because it is a protest of what the UFL did to us in St. Louis. Again, different situation because that involved a fraud and lies. Everything. This one just involves a Jeep's gate owner. So think about it. The thing about do we want to stay relevant as a city on the natural stage. Because the second we lose those teams, that relevance is gone. I guarantee it. So rants over this podcast on Call 4 is hosted producing by myself, Mike Chironevsky. Our opening music is Iron Bacon by Kevin McCloud and Computech.com licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 4.0 license. And our outro music is on the subject of driving and transportation and all that severe tire damage by Kevin McCloud and Copitech.com licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 4.0 license. If you are in the United States or Canada, you can call us at 816-832-5160. Leave your message or question for us. And if we like it, we will play it on the podcast. Please support the podcast and purchase our exclusive Uncalled for merchandise. T-shirts, sweatshirts, mugs, stickers, and so much more. Go to www.cafepress.com/uncalledforpod. Thank you so much for listening. We will see you next time. [ Silence ]