The other day I asked in a post about the missing Populous report about Kauffman Stadium. I still don’t have the full Populous study, but I do have a slide deck presentation based on the study that Populous was presenting in 2022. I am confident that this is the deck that KCUR references in its November 2023 story.
The Populous slide deck (available here) is dedicated to the problems facing Kauffman Stadium, including the infamous Alkali-Silica Reaction (ASR) or “concrete cancer.” The deck indicates that when this appears, it must be replaced. The report also highlights problems facing several parts of the stadium and concludes “the age of the building systems and outdated technology will force replacement of major mechanical, plumbing and electrical systems as their service life expires.”
The final slide lists the renovation cost estimate as $1.072 billion. That is more than the new ballpark cost estimate of $1.005 billion. These estimates suggest that a financially prudent decision would be to build a new park.
But wait . . .
On page 9 of the term sheet the Royals presented to Clay County on September 28, 2023, the cost of a new ballpark in North Kansas City is listed at $1.277 billion. That’s 27 percent higher than the Populous estimate of $1.005 billion. That increase may be due to inflation, which would also affect the cost of repairing the K. We don’t know the projected costs of the plan to build a stadium in the Crossroads district that voters rejected on April 2 because no one will tell us. We also don’t know the cost estimates of building in the East Village.
Unfortunately, there is so much we don’t know about these proposals. The Star reports that the city manager is now in talks with both the Chiefs and the Royals and that a public vote may not be necessary. It would be a shame if the lesson that new stadium proponents learn from the April 2 vote is that the public should be even less informed and involved in how the city spends tax dollars.
