KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Dozens of people showed up to a private meeting at New Life CityChurch Tuesday evening, as business owners hoped to learn more about the Royals plans to build their new ballpark in the East Crossroads and move away from Kauffman Stadium.
Royals leadership was invited to Tuesday’s meeting, but there was no word whether they attended.
“The Royals will be my next-door neighbor essentially. I’ll be able to wave at them while they’re playing baseball,” Madison Flitch & Madison Stitch Owner John Pryor said in an interview Tuesday afternoon, before the meeting began.
“I’ll say ‘hi’ to the right fielder.”
The building his family owns where his businesses are is on 16th Street, just east of Locust Street. He’s not in the footprint for the Royals new stadium. The team announced last week its preference to build their new ballpark in the East Crossroads, at the site of the old Kansas City Star Press Pavilion.
The boundary of the ballpark would be Truman Road on the north, 17th Street on the south, Grand Boulevard on the west and Locust Street on the east.
“Infrastructure studies haven’t really been done underneath my building or the neighborhood buildings, so think about issues around water pipes, sewer,” Pryor continued. “Will the city come in and say, ‘Well, we need to update it all for the ballpark, so we’re going to eminent domain your building.’”
Pryor also lives in Jackson County. Right now, he plans to vote ‘no’ in the April 2nd election. Voters countywide will be able to decide whether sales tax money will continue to go not only to the Royals, but also to the Kansas City Chiefs.
The Royals plan to use that money to help build their new stadium. The Chiefs have said they want a renovation to GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium, where they currently play.
“I will vote for it,” New Life CityChurch Lead pastor and Jackson County resident Troy Campbell said in an interview with FOX4 Tuesday afternoon before the meeting began as well.
Campbell said he’s excited for the ballpark.
“Our church is excited for it,” he said. “We are about community, and I’m very excited just as we’ve thought about the potential of visiting teams coming here and getting to have maybe a longer conversation with somebody from St. Louis or Minnesota that we wouldn’t get to meet otherwise.”
Campbell’s church is not in the footprint of the new ballpark either, and he thinks there are a lot of good things happening in the neighborhood right now.
“At the same time, from what I’ve heard, this is going to push some people to a different location, and that could be a difficult thing,” Campbell continued.
Through the Missouri Ethics Commission, it also became public the Chiefs have now donated $500,000 to The Committee to Keep the Chiefs and Royals in Jackson County. Its donation came just eight days after the Royals donated the exact same amount.