The Royals want to move to Crown Center

What does a meet-cute between two billionaires hatching a new business deal look like? It’s not a plot point for another saccharine Christmas movie, but a real-life scenario as the Royals and Hallmark are seemingly joining together to move the Royals to Crown Center.

The official announcement was made on Wednesday at a media event heavy on platitudes and self-congratulations and short on details. In fact, other than a few renderings that at this point are merely vapor ware (or as John Sherman says, “conceptual”), I don’t think there was a single, solid fact presented beyond that the Royals are now planning to relocate to Crown Center.

I have a lot of questions. More than normal, now that Hallmark is involved. What, specifically, does Hallmark get out of tearing down their headquarters? Obviously, their business has undergone seismic shifts in the last several years. Greeting cards aren’t so much a thing now. They’ve made the ultimate pivot to video to save their brand. I’m going to assume the Crown Center district and the maintenance that comes with it, has become something of a financial albatross. This partnership and the access to public money that comes with it seems to give them an out of sorts. Let's call it an upgrade. Is this a way to get out of having to foot the bill maintaining and probably downsizing their corporate complex?

From Royals managing partner and CEO John Sherman:

“We will rethink, re-imagine, redefine, and redevelop Crown Center in an 85 acre-plus setting here that will instantly become the largest sports anchor downtown development of its kind. Don has said it will it will advance the purpose of the Crown Center neighborhood; a place where people gather, connect, celebrate milestones, and create lifelong memories.”

I feel like I’m missing something…did the Hall family just hand over the deed to the land? Who owns the stadium in this location? Who will own Crown Center? There has to be more.

Here's Don Hall:

“We just told our employees that the Hallmark building will be coming down, and we’ve got to now go to work and try to figure out where we will stay,” Don Hall, Jr., executive chairman of Hallmark Cards, told reporters on Wednesday. “But we are going to be committed to Crown Center.”

I suppose it's nice that they're committed to Crown Center, but they really don't have an idea about where their corporate offices will be located? Do they even have an idea of what they're doing in an interim capacity as the old building comes down and something new gets built for them? This seems like a wing and a prayer. Or, in the way the Royals tend to operate on these big ticket items, a stroke of luck that they grabbed and have decided, with little due diligence or advance work, to move forward.

I think the most notable thing to come from this was the fact that, instead of fewer than 10 acres at Washington Square Park, the Royals will now have 85 acres at their disposal. That’s a massive amount of space for Sherman’s Baseball Playground, but what comes down to create that space? Certainly more buildings than what was shown in the initial conceptual renderings. What stays? What will be redeveloped? Apparently the shops and hotel will remain with planned improvements.

With Sherman and the ownership group set on leaving The K for greener pastures, I do think this Crown Center solution is loaded with potential. It is much better than just the Washington Square Park site on its own. I'm also intrigued by this partnership between Hallmark and the Royals. This could solidify a corridor that runs down Main Street from the River Market area to the Plaza. Assuming the owners of the Plaza make good on their promises of improvements. It could be, pardon the pun, a crown jewel in the heart of the city.

Downtown baseball holds a ton of appeal. It always has. Crown Center, while once a hub of retail and corporate offices, has seen better days. This has the opportunity to solve two problems in one bold masterstroke. Done correctly, this could be a tremendous asset for the community. I remain cautiously optimistic.

However, there are a ton of questions.

Of course the gang was light on details on how this would be financed. Only generalities. And barely at that.

More Sherman:

“Thanks to our public-private partnership with the state of Missouri and the city of Kansas City, we will build a $1.9 billion ballpark that will combine with a mixed-use development for a total of $3 billion-plus investment in the heart of our city in phase one, with two-thirds of that investment coming from the Royals and private partners and one-third from our public partners.”

These numbers are like the renderings…pure fantasy. First of all, where did that $1.9 billion number for the ballpark come from? When this process started years ago, the total build—the stadium and the surrounding entertainment district—was to be $1.9 billion. Now that’s apparently just the stadium. There was no mention of how much the state of Missouri would contribute as part of the public financing. Sherman says the Royals will pony up around $800 million. This is all back of a napkin economics with no basis in reality. At the very least, it sounds like the public will be financing over $1 billion for this project. Without voting on this initiative. Two years after they rejected a no-new-tax scheme that would’ve given the Royals $600 million for a stadium just a few blocks to the north.

How does this impact areas like the Plaza and the Power and Light District? Those areas are already heavily subsidized by the city. As Dave Helling speculated at Kansas City Stack, the city could be on the hook for a debt service of around $40 million annually while the best-case for revenue to the city from this stadium would be around $20 million annually. That's quite a shortfall.

The whole event lasted almost an hour. By my count, the fiscal aspect was referred to just twice. I’m sure just the way the panel wanted.

About the only thing that’s semi-concrete that I could glean for this exercise comes from the press release touting this project will “create more than 20,000 jobs in the construction phase alone.” That’s hilarious because I do not believe that “new construction” is how job creation works. These are temporary jobs that—surprise!—go away when the task is complete. It is simply a shift of labor. I consider it a minor victory that that was as far as the release went. There was no other job creation number, nor was there any speculative economic impact.

Otherwise, this had everything the billionaire class loves when they’re asking for public funds. A snazzy video to evoke a feeling of nostalgia! Shiny graphics to promote the Hallmark/Royals crossover! Dignitaries! A Hall of Famer!

The master of ceremonies for the event was President of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, Bob Kendrick. Finally, the Royals and parties involved did something right. Kendrick is a tremendous steward of the Negro Leagues, but he's also the embodiment of baseball in Kansas City.

Wednesday's announcement was just the start. However, the Royals haven't exactly banked a lot (or any) trust and goodwill. I think it's fine to have questions at this point. These people are asking for public money and need to be held accountable. We will have to see how this evolves.

The Royals scored a total of 17 runs in their three game series against the Orioles. Yet they lost two out of three, including Wednesday afternoon's contest, buy a final of 8-6. The bats, finally showing some life, banged out three home runs. This is the current Royals home run leaderboard:

Carter Jensen - 6*
Kyle Isbel - 3*
Vinnie Pasquantino - 3*
Salvador Perez - 3

*Homered on Wednesday.

Kyle Isbel, through his first 71 plate appearances, has a 121 wRC+. I am uncertain how to handle this information.

Starter Michael Wacha finally hit a speed bump. He had been so good to this point, he was probably due to stumble. There were times the changeup was lethal as usual, but Pete Alonso got him in the first, clubbing a two-run home run to stake the Orioles to an early lead.

He kept Baltimore at bay until the sixth. After getting the first out, Wacha gave up a four-pitch walk to Alonso. From there, three consecutive singles chased him from the game. The singles were on pitches out of the zone.

The two singles below the zone came on 2-2 pitches. Wacha executed. The Orioles chased and still beat him. The ultimate "gotta tip your cap" kind of outing. I will back Wacha to bounce back in his next start.

In the meantime, the Royals have now lost nine of ten. Their minus-35 run differential is the worst in the American League. Their .320 winning percentage is the worst in the majors. While there were some positives to take from the last two games in particular, there is still a ton of work to be done if this team is to claw its way back to respectability.