KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Royals’ top brass gathered in the Kauffman Stadium Hall of Fame building last August, flanked in a room by renderings of two contrasting stadium projects — two finalists, they said, that would be narrowed to one in a month.
It was half a year later before they publicized their decision — a different site altogether, the proverbial Door No. 3 revealing the East Crossroads.
Six more weeks later, on Wednesday, the Royals announced that East Crossroads location will include a modification significant enough that it prompts at least a few more questions about a process in need of at least a few more answers.
Their proposed stadium, they said six days shy of an election, would now sit inside Oak Street on the east, rather than cover the street.
When will we receive an updated look at how the stadium will squeeze between Oak and Grand? Don’t know. How might this affect the proposed ballpark district along the stadium’s perimeter? Will those businesses across Oak Street now be saved from demolition? To be determined.
That’s to be determined after Jackson County citizens head to the polls Tuesday to cast their vote on a 3/8th-cent sales tax reserved for the Chiefs’ and Royals’ stadium proposals.
Seriously.
Look, I don’t want to focus strictly on one street, or only on three renderings, while they still owe us a fourth, because this stadium proposal impacts a heck of a lot more (and lacks the information on a heck of a lot more) than one road running north and south through downtown Kansas City. It’s really not even the most pressing question we still have.
But it’s just perfectly symbolic, an eleventh-hour reminder of the initial 10 hours of this Royals project:
A moving target.
Literally, once more.
The Royals’ and Chiefs’ campaigns for the 40-year sales tax have embraced a fear-inducing, take-it-or-leave-it — actually, a take-it-or-we-will-leave — message.
Which begs a simple question: Take what exactly?
The Chiefs have stayed consistent with their plans to renovate Arrowhead Stadium — we’ve long known that much — but the Royals’ pursuit of a radical change in venue has been, well, radically changing.
Plans can undergo alterations. I understand that. Each alteration to the Royals’ project, though, is followed not by long-awaited specifics, but instead by ambiguity.
