Here is a day after Christmas treat for you. The Landmark’s Chris Kamler, our Rambling Moron columnist on page 3 for the past 14 years, will be covering for Kevin Kietzman on Friday, Dec. 26 from 10-11 a.m. on KCMO 95.7 FM/710 AM.
“It’ll be the day after Travis Kelce’s likely last home game, and that hour will blow by fast,” Kamler says. Tune in.
I am currently in a non-sexual relationship with Queen Anne’s cordial cherries. It’s not our first fling. Queen Anne’s cherries and I get together every holiday season. The dark chocolate cordial cherries are fine but the milk chocolate cordial cherries are superb. I must emphasize the brand has to be Queen Anne’s. The cheaper imitation brands will leave you disappointed, don’t ask me how I know.
So the Chiefs will be moving across state lines, with a new football stadium to be built in Kansas. In Wyandotte County. Near Legends, to be exact. A new practice facility and team headquarters will be built in Olathe. The official announcement was made Monday afternoon. It will take five years or so for the stadium to be constructed, with projected opening date being in time for the 2031 NFL season.
As you may have already noticed, some folks–on each side of the state line–have strong feelings about this. It doesn’t tug at my heartstrings in that fashion. They’re still the Kansas City Chiefs, they’re still here in our metro area, they’ll just be playing in a stadium on the other side of the state line. Does the stadium location switch affect your fandom? Will this impact your desire to go to games? I’d be curious to hear.
If attending Chiefs games is important to you, a lot of us who live in Platte County will actually be considerably closer to the stadium now. I haven’t been to a Chiefs home game since 2013, so it’s not like I’ll be jonesing to jump in the car every Sunday, even with the attraction of a new stadium being about an 18 minute trip from my driveway. To me, the NFL watching experience is much better on television than it is at any stadium. That’s a fact many of us, especially those of us who aren’t quite as young as we used to be, have come to accept.
For those who do attend Chiefs games, I would expect a smoother game day traffic experience, for one thing. Also, expect higher ticket prices and less tailgating.
And, if you’re lamenting the move and looking for a bright side, a domed stadium will mean the Kansas City area will get the chance to host a Super Bowl, a college football bowl game, a Final Four, more big-time concerts, and the list goes on.
Haven’t heard much conversation on this yet but can you imagine the revenue hit the coffers of the City of Kansas City, Mo. are going to take when the stadium move is complete in 2031? As a result of this move, the city’s one percent earnings tax will no longer be able to milk a whole lot of dollars from athletes who perform their “work” inside the city.
Buckle up, City of Kansas City taxpayers. At some point they’ll come looking for ways to make up that major loss of revenue.
Plenty of blame to go around for the move, if you’re looking for scapegoats. Deserved or not, former Jackson County executive Frank White and current KC Mayor Quinton Lucas will get plenty of blame. White deserves more than Lucas, in my opinion. But if you’re into the blame game, don’t forget to cast an eye toward Missouri Gov. Mike Parson, an often dysfunctional Missouri state legislature that spends too much time trying to expand funding for private schools and overriding voter-approved mandates, even current Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe. None of them stepped in early enough or with enough financial creativity to keep Kansas from stealing the Chiefs.
Will the same thing happen with the Royals? I’d love to see the new Royals stadium end up in North Kansas City, which our man Guy Speckman predicted a long time ago (he correctly predicted the Chiefs’ move to Legends). Some speculation that is picking up steam is that a new Royals stadium will end up in Johnson County, Kan. Stay tuned, because folks in Nashville, Tenn. are licking their chops for a chance to land the Royals if a new stadium issue here doesn’t get resolved.
I guess the moral of this story is that you need to read your Landmark every week to stay ahead of things like this.
If you’re scoring at home, the Chiefs’ move to Kansas is the third time the state of Missouri has lost an NFL franchise. The St. Louis football Cardinals moved to Phoenix in 1988 (that’s one). That’s the franchise you currently know as the Arizona Cardinals. Then St. Louis regained a team in 1995 when the Los Angeles Rams moved to St. Louis. But in 2016, the Rams left St. Louis and returned to Los Angeles (that’s two). Now the Chiefs are leaving for Kansas (that’s three).
The drawings, renderings and whatnot of what a future Downtown Platte City might look like are pretty impressive (see front page story).
Keep in mind, the grant the city/county received was only for the study/plan to be developed. The grant is not for any physical improvements to be made. Getting a plan in place and drawings done is the easier step. The more challenging process will be finding funding to assist in hopefully someday making the plan a reality.
Anyway, you can’t get funding without first having a plan. At least now there is a tentative plan on paper. Baby steps.
Merry Christmas to all Landmark readers and advertisers. Thank you for inviting us into your homes each week. Not literally, of course, though that would be fun too, if you ever feel up to hosting us and the chaos we would bring.
We wouldn’t and couldn’t do what we do without you folks. Thank you for your patronage, thank you for your business and most of all thank you for reading.
We have a good time doing what we do, and we can’t thank you enough for being along for the ride.
(Find Foley dreaming of a milk chocolate Christmas with Queen Anne’s cordial cherries. Email ivan@plattecountylandmark.com)
