Rendering of the Royals' proposed downtown baseball stadium The Royals
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As voters decide whether or not to use their tax dollars to fund a new Royals stadium in the East Crossroads neighborhood near downtown, the question of parking remains. Above all: Will there really be enough of them?
The Royals have said there will be plenty of space for fans, pointing to 40,000 parking spaces in the “greater downtown area” a 20-minute walk from the ballpark, compared to 26,000 at Kauffman Stadium.
However, according to figures revealed at the Royals' press conference to announce the site, there are only 9,000 existing multi-purpose pitches within a ten-minute walk of the new stadium. The team stated that this was the required number of seats it needed for its 35,000-seat stadium.
How did the team come up with this number? Would it still be enough if concerts or other events coincided with match days? Here's what we've learned so far.
How did the Royals decide they needed 9,000 parking spaces for games?
At the press conference in February, the team emphasized that there are 9,000 parking spaces within a 10-minute walk of the planned location.
“The beauty of the Crossroads site is that we can park all the 9,000 people we need to park here,” said Earl Santee, CEO of Populous, the design firm that hired the team. “We are not building any new parking spaces for these 9,000. And all within a 10-minute walk of the ballpark.”
When asked how they arrived at that number, Sam Mellinger, a spokesman for the Royals, said it was “based on expected vehicles with an expected average of 2.5 to 3 people per car.” He said the team also plans to have “1,500 parking spaces on site,” but did not respond to further questions when asked whether that would mean the team would build additional parking spaces, who those parking spaces would be for or how much they would cost would.
Just a few miles away, the development plan for the new KC Current stadium on the riverfront required the team to provide just 2,000 seats for its 11,500-seat capacity, according to the city. But The Current faced backlash this week from fans who learned they would have to pay more than $50 per game to get one of the seats. The team asks fans to use public transportation and rideshare options.
Tim Kellison, an associate professor in Florida State University's Department of Sport Management and an expert in urban stadium development, said restricting parking on land surrounding a baseball stadium is a good thing from a planning and environmental perspective.
“This has been a rallying cry for many environmental planners,” Kellison said. “That you don’t need these big concrete slabs like the ones surrounding the Chiefs and Royals now when they move into an area where there is already parking.”
He compared the proposed Royals stadium to Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, site of the Chiefs' Super Bowl LVIII victory on Feb. 11. Las Vegas county code requires a quarter seat per event attendee, or one seat for every four fans, meaning 16,250 seats for the 65,000-capacity stadium.
That's about the same ratio as the Royals' proposed 9,000 seats nearby for 35,000 seats.
While the number of seats didn't surprise Kellison, he said it was strange for a team to build a large stadium and use already available parking spaces around the stadium, since parking is generally a good source of revenue for teams.
“I'm assuming there's more to this story, whether it's that they have plans or have looked at a study on how they're going to do this,” Kellison said. “When you rely on parking spaces that belong to other groups, I think that lack of control is unique.”
Kellison said the Atlanta Braves could represent a parallel situation after the team moved from Turner Field, which was similar to Kauffman, to Truist Park, which is 10 miles northwest of downtown. The Braves use both on-site parking and existing parking within a one-mile radius for their 41,000-seat stadium.
What if other events overlap with Royals games?
The Royals estimate there will be 40,000 game day parking spaces available throughout the downtown area, with the majority of spaces in existing parking facilities.
Asked if it was a problem that those parking lots were used for various purposes and events, the Royals' Mellinger said most were “empty at night and on weekends when most games are played.”
But if you ask Stretch, the owner of Grinders in the Crossroads, whose legal name is Jeff Rumaner, he's not so sure. He said that even without a stadium, parking around his restaurant and venue is already tight at night and on weekends, especially when there is a concert.
He's even less sure how parking would work if multiple venues, like the T-Mobile Center, the Midland Theater and the Grinders, were hosting events like a Royals game at the same time.
“They’re not the only show in town,” Stretch said. “Midland does 200 to 300 things a year, and imagine if the Kauffman Center had a symphony orchestra and then there were a few baseball players out there and now their parking spot is gone. You can’t say you have 40,000, you have to imagine the worst case scenario.”
The Downtown Neighborhood Association said it supports building mass parking for a baseball stadium that would only be used 81 days a year. Peter Carnesciali, the association's president, said in an email that existing lots “are not being used at 100%” and said he would like the Royals and the city to coordinate to make it work with existing parking.
What about public transport?
The KC Current encourages fans to use alternative forms of transportation to get to games, such as buses, the delayed streetcar extension to the riverfront, rideshares, bicycles or walking.
Limited parking was part of the women's soccer team's plan. The royals are also considering public transport.
Mellinger said the parking problems would be mitigated by “tens of thousands of people who live downtown and many more who work there,” and said the stadium is easily accessible via multiple forms of public transportation, including “33 existing bus routes.” He noted that a streetcar stop is two blocks from the site and the line will be extended to UMKC by the time the stadium opens.
Jackson County voters will decide in an April 2 election whether or not to support a 40-year, 3/8 cent sales tax to fund a new Royals stadium and renovations in Arrowhead for the Chiefs.
The Star's Mike Hendricks and Kendrick Calfee contributed to this report.
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Joseph Hernandez joined The Kansas City Star's service journalism team in 2021. A graduate of Cristo Rey Kansas City High School and Mizzou, he now covers trending topics and finds things for readers to do around the metro.