The Kansas City Royals’ downtown ballpark plan is back on the calendar.
The Finance, Governance, and Public Safety Committee will take up the team’s funding and rezoning proposals on Tuesday, Aug. 18, after the discussion was pushed back from an Aug. 11 meeting. The earlier date fell through because committee members didn’t have enough time to go through the details of the agreements, which arrived the night before.
The project calls for the Royals to build their new ballpark on the south side of Crown Center at 26th and Gillham. But the proposal is already facing pushback from Missouri Workers Power, a division of the Missouri Workers Center or Stand-Up KC, which is calling for a public vote before city funding is committed.
Under that push, the City Council would need to act by Aug. 31. If it does not, the issue goes to voters as is.
Former FOX4 and Kansas City Star reporter Dave Helling said Friday that the timing around the ballot question is still unsettled. The final certification date for this year’s November ballot is Aug. 25, but he said there is talk that the real cutoff could be Sept. 8.
“But there’s now discussion that the hard deadline is actually September 8th,” he said to us. “That discussion is taking place in the context of what the courts decide on the redistricting petition effort, and so it’s possible that the committee could go, if the council takes no action, the committee could go to a judge and say, ‘No you need to force this on the November ballot.’ We’ll see.”
Tuesday’s committee meeting is set for 9:30 a.m. on floor 26 of City Hall, an hour earlier than usual. Andrea Bough, the at-large councilwoman, chairs the committee. Mayor Quinton Lucas, who is a cosponsor of the plan with Bough and At-Large Councilman Kevin O’Neill, serves as vice chair.
Helling is also the first guest on Sunday’s episode of 4 The People, where he’ll discuss the stadium plan and the indictment of Jackson County, Mo., Executive Phil LeVota. Park University associate professor of political science Matt Harris is the second guest, talking about campaign contributions to candidates in some of the biggest November races in the area.
The show begins at 10 a.m. Sunday.
In Other News...
Caglianone Is Becoming The Royals Lineup Force They Needed
Since the start of August, Jac Caglianone has started to look less like a promising bat and more like a middle-of-the-order problem for opposing pitchers. The Royals have gotten a hit from him in every game he has played this month, a run that has included a 12-game hitting streak and six multihit outings, the kind of steady production Kansas City has been chasing as it tries to lengthen its lineup.
That latest surge showed up again at Angel Stadium, where Caglianone went 3-for-4 with a career-high five RBIs in the Royals 7-6 win, highlighted by a two-run homer off a left-hander. He has been driving the ball with authority all month, hitting .446 with five homers and 18 RBIs in 49 plate appearances, and the question now is less about whether he belongs in the lineup than how much more damage he can keep doing as the games get bigger. [Read more 🡒]
Royals Cannot Ignore This Lineup Need If They Want To Contend
The Royals have spent much of this season sorting through where the roster still falls short of a true contender, and second base has become one of the clearest spots on the checklist. Michael Massey has handled the position most of the year and has taken a step forward from last season, but the overall production still looks like something Kansas City will have to address if it wants to move beyond simply staying in the mix.
Pitching will get plenty of offseason attention, but the middle infield cannot be treated as a minor detail. The Royals need more certainty and more impact at second base than they have gotten so far, which leaves the front office weighing how aggressive it wants to be in finding an upgrade and how to best manage Massey's role as the roster gets reshaped for a more serious push. [Read more 🡒]