Sports gambling is now legal in Missouri despite what you read in the pages of The Landmark. Well, to be clear, it’s only legal for one Missourian, right now. That man? The mayor of North Kansas City, Bryant DeLong.
Mayor DeLong might not be a name you know anything about, but he has pushed all in at the bargaining table trying to pull off the most unlikely victory. That victory? Pulling off a coup and stealing the Kansas City Royals away from Jackson County – bringing them to his city of only 4,500 where an abandoned bowling alley now stands – the stakes couldn’t be any higher.
Picture this: a shiny new stadium rising up in North Kansas City, surrounded by newly-built casinos, apartments, and hotels, with the “North” Kansas City Royals as its proud tenants. It might seem like a pipe dream, but Mayor DeLong is dead serious about making it happen.
Of course, there are a few obstacles in his way, not the least of which is funding, tax breaks, and the optics of the Kansas City Royals being in North Kansas City. By all accounts, NKC is being used only as a negotiation piece to lower the cost of moving to the East Village in Downtown Kansas City – long assumed to be the location-in-waiting for Kauffman Stadium 2.0.
But the scrappy mayor has some persuasive arguments on his side. For starters, North Kansas City is just a stone’s throw away from downtown Kansas City, making it a convenient location for fans and players alike. They have plenty of space and an infrastructure that has benefitted from funding from a casino and Cerner Corporation paying taxes into it for 30 years now.
But the real trump card in Mayor DeLong’s hand is the fact that North Kansas City is now a hub for sports gambling in Missouri. With the Supreme Court’s 2018 decision to strike down a federal ban on sports gambling, many states have been rushing to legalize the practice. Missouri was a little slower to get on board, but now that it’s legal, North Kansas City has wasted no time in establishing itself as a gambling destination – once eventually legalized in Missouri, like it is across the river in Kansas. With the Royals struggling to compete in the American League Central, they could use all the help they can get.
In the meantime, Royals fans can sit back and enjoy the spectacle. After all, it’s not every day that a small-town mayor tries to steal a Major League team away from a big city. Who knows – if Mayor DeLong pulls this off, maybe other small towns will start trying to lure teams away from their home cities. Hey, it worked for the Vegas Raiders, right? And, let’s face it, this might be the only thing that entertains us about the Royals this year based on the early returns.
One thing is certain, Mayor DeLong is holding quite a few aces and has a steady poker face. Let’s see if the Royals call or fold.
(Follow Chris Kamler on Twitter as @TheFakeNed)