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Originally Posted by ptlyon
What we got
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That answer just doesn't work. I understand that's how you feel and its legitimate, but from a team (ie business perspective) it just doesn't work that way.
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Originally Posted by DJ's left nut
I love Arrowhead and the gameday experience. And I'm not a Jackson County taxpayer.
But I'm also realistic and Arrowhead is on borrowed time. That being the case, there's no sense in limping along here. The stadium was built in such a way that it just cannot continue to keep pace with other franchises through renovation. And if we are going to be (and should be) a crown jewel franchise for the next 10-15 years (and hell, we weren't dogfood before Mahomes), that's not tenable.
So I think I'm ready for a new stadium. And if that stadium is going to be done well, it's not going to be in Jackson County. So if that means a move to Wyandotte, I'll set my anti-Kansas bias aside because it's probably best for the Chiefs long-term.
So include me in the 'new stadium near the Legends' crowd. Or wherever it will need to go to get the kind of revenue that would make building a true state of the art stadium worthwhile for Hunt and the residents of wherever it's gonna go...
I expect that means a dome for a future SB or other events. And I hate that. So my compromise would be one where there are rules in place for when the roof can be used. I can't recall which stadium did that, but there's a baseball stadium somewhere that has it written into the lease that the roof cannot be closed on days where the weather is between X and Y degrees and there's no rain.
Would I miss the snow games? Yeah. Would I miss rain and frigid cold? No, not really. And again, that's going to mean a hell of a lot more revenue and thus more willingness by Hunt to pull out some of the stops and make this a stadium worthy of replacing an icon.
What I don't want to see is what the Cardinals did in STL. They tore down Busch II and replaced it with a generic retro ballpark that just isn't special in any way because they did it on the cheap. Man I'd hate to see that (and I worry that's what's in store for Kaufman, which is just an incredible place to catch a baseball game to this day. They're going to replace it with something that isn't as good)
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This is a really good post.
Here is my my take on all of this.
1. The public has do decide if they want a piece of the action or not. I get the argument that the tax payer shouldn't have foot the bill for a new baseball stadium downtown when they love the existing one. And why are we building stadiums for rich owners anyway.
On the other hand, by not extending an existing tax that helps fund the stadiums, both teams will explore their options and they are going to do what's in their best financial interest. While I think the Chiefs are locked into the area, baseball is a different story, what if Oklahoma City really wants a baseball team? It wouldn't surprise me at all if they would bend over backwards to build a downtown stadium. Another option would be Nashville. Both of those cities would love to bring another sports franchise to their cities, and if I were them I'd be aggressive as hell. Going to either city makes sense for both the city and team.
2. As someone mentioned here the other day the Chiefs are now in a power position. If they did decided to leave the Truman Sports complex, people will rightly point to this vote as the reason why it didn't work.
If I'm the Chiefs, I can't justify sinking hundreds of millions of dollars into facilities that they public no longer wants to support and the team doesn't own. So the only option for the Truman Sports Complex is for the county to sell it to Hunt and the Chiefs. Its a great piece of property, but you are going to sell it for pennies on the dollar (like the Snead trade) because you are getting the Hunt family to permanently stay and invst there and in return you get to property tax revenue from the property.
The Chiefs owning the Truman Sports Complex allows them to totally reimagine it. I'm sure local governments would give the team some tax incentives (TIF) to help with the cost of redevelopment. You could also give the team a sales tax rebate which would allow them to keep a chunk of the sales tax generated on the grounds for period of time.
Such incentives would encourage the team to build a new stadium, build new state of the art facilities, and probably an entertainment district (Hotels, Restaurants, and Bars), which is what I want to see done.