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The Royals announced today via Press Release, plans to redevelop Kauffman Stadium should funding become available. Key aspects of the redevelopment include:

• LEFT FIELD PLAZA: “Taste of K.C.” — A food court, featuring some of Kansas City’s renowned eating attractions, including barbecue. Hall of Fame — The new hall of fame will feature significant improvements to the team’s hall of fame, including team artifacts, historical items and walk-through exhibits. Sluggerrr’s House — The Royals youngest fans can come and tour baseball’s favorite mascot’s living quarters, complete with a family history. Interactive Kids Entertainment — The location will also feature a miniature golf course, batting cages, speed pitch cages and video games. An exciting water feature will be the focal point of the plaza area.
• RIGHT FIELD PLAZA: Public Restaurant — A great option for fans for pre- to post-game dining with a great view overlooking the stadium. The building will include party decks allowing fans to watch the game from the roof top. Hospitality/Banquet Facility — A multi-purpose facility for large groups, conventions or pre/post-game events. As in left field, there will be an exciting water feature as the focal point of the plaza area
• CENTER FIELD ENTERTAINMENT: Royals Pavilion — This new entertainment location will provide a facility that is perfect for pre-game or post-game family entertainment events with Kauffman Stadium providing the scenic backdrop. Royals Walk of Fame – An 800-foot walkway will connect the left field and right field plazas, giving fans the chance to stroll along this street-lantern decorative lane. The street will provide a viewing of historical reminders of the Royals past, beyond the significant improvements to the right field Hall of Fame. The enhancements will also include a link to Kansas City’s own national treasure, the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum
• MAIN CONCOURSE: Wider Concourses — The average width of the main level concourses will increase from an average of 20 feet to 40 feet. More Food – Significantly more concession stands and greater variety of local foods themes will be added More Shops — Numerous retail stores throughout the 360 degree main level will make it easier for fans to purchase team merchandise.
• UPPER DECK: Wider Concourses – Increase width of concourse, while increasing the number of concession stands and restrooms. Going Down? – Fans in the upper deck won’t feel left out of the new outfield entertainment areas as they will have easy access via new escalators on the wings of the upper deck. NEW SEATING: Fountain Seats — A total of approximately 2,500 seats in the outfield corners will be added in positions currently occupied by the team bullpens. Included among the new seats will be a splash zone behind the left field fountains.
• GRAND ENTRANCE: Come on In – The front door of Kauffman Stadium will look dramatically different as the current offices are replaced by a grand, open entrance into the ballpark. The entry will include larger ticket offices, which will decrease wait time in will call lines.

Recall that all of this is contingent on voter approval on April 4th. In December of last year, county and team officials announced they had reached new agreements with the teams to extend their leases to 2031.The current leases do not include caps on cost overruns, and the new leases would require the teams to pick up those costs.

The sales tax would pay for $425 million of the work. The Chiefs would contribute $75 million and the Royals $25 million, and the state would contribute $50 million in tax credits.

There are actually two items on the April ballot:

• The first would be a 3/8 -cent sales tax to raise $425 million toward $575 million in improvements at Kauffman and Arrowhead stadiums. The Royals would put in $25 million, the Chiefs would chip in $75 million and the state $50 million in tax credits.
• The second ballot measure would impose a use tax on certain purchases made out of state to help raise funds for a $200 million roof that could roll between the two stadiums in 35 minutes or less. The NFL has said Kansas City could be host of a Super Bowl with a rolling roof

Jeffery Spivak of the KC Star outlines (How stadiums, sports can affect life for us in KC) the pros and cons of passing the funding.
Two supporting PDF documents were released to go with the press release (Adobe Acrobat Reader is required to view these):

• New Kauffman Stadium sitemap
• Kauffman Stadium development plan

A Photo Gallery is provided on the Royals site

TO SEE OTHER BALLPARK RENDERINGS, INCLUDING NEW YANKEE STADIUM, NEW METS STADIUM, AND NATIONALS RENDERINGS CLICK HERE.

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 18th, 2006 at 6:17 pm and is filed under Baseball Insight. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.