Former KC mayor explains Royals’ ballpark site change
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Kansas City’s former mayor, Sly James, is being paid by the Chiefs and the Royals to try and help get Jackson County Question 1 passed April 2.
In our interview with James Wednesday, he said one of the reasons the East Village wasn’t picked for the Royals new stadium site was the cost of rebuilding the highway interchange downtown would have been too expensive for the state.
“Number two, the fact that it was brought up that by doing that and building an entertainment district around it, you’re actually competing with Power and Light, and that doesn’t help,” James said that day.
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James added the East Village site is further east of transportation like the KC Streetcar, while the East Crossroads ballpark location the Royals ended up picking was closer to it.
FOX4 showed part of our interview with James to Chartreuse Saloon Owner Jill Cockson Friday. Cockson’s business would have to move if the Royals end up building their new ballpark in the East Crossroads. She’d like to know what Power & Light’s developer, The Cordish Companies, has to say about the Royals’ site change in February of this year.
“What does makes sense is what he said about Cordish,” Cockson said of that part of James’ interview. “They’re very careful. I’m surprised he even said the word because I’m noticing that they are hesitant to say ‘Cordish.'”
FOX4 reached out to a spokeswoman for Cordish and a spokeswoman for Mayor Quinton Lucas via email Friday afternoon. We did not hear back from either person.
“Cordish wants to capture all of the revenue,” Cockson said. “They can’t have it both ways. They can’t say that this is being done to support the local economy, the local businesses, the entrepreneurs in this neighborhood, and also say that their goal is really to bottleneck everybody into Cordish to help support that investment.”
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James says the situation with Power & Light is complicated.
“I think one of the things that’s really great is that having that stadium down there will supplement Power & Light in a way that people thought a basketball or hockey team would have in the area that didn’t get there,” he said Wednesday.
The city confirms to FOX4 that its annual subsidy to Cordish is $15 million.
