The Season of Greed

Shit stormed at Kauffman Stadium.

One day in June, sewage spewed out of a hole in a cast-iron drainage pipe. Workers told Mark Gorris, vice president of business operations for the Royals, that the pipe looked like the inside of a Butterfinger candy bar. "It was just flaky and disintegrated," Gorris says.

The club was on the road when the pipe burst. Royals fans, the baseball gods must have figured, had seen enough crap this year.

Gorris mentions the pipe to illustrate that Kauffman Stadium is feeling its age, though it may not be evident to ticket buyers. "In that whole category of renovating a 32-year-old stadium, there are a lot of issues that fans won't feel or see, because it's just things that are wearing out."

Parts may be wearing out, but the designs of Kauffman Stadium and its neighbor, Arrowhead, have stood the test of time. Jackson County bucked a trend in 1967 when voters approved a plan to build separate stadiums for football and baseball. Philadelphia, St. Louis and other cities erected facilities that could accommodate both spectacles.

Though cheaper, the "concrete doughnuts," as the multipurpose stadiums became known, inspired little love or loyalty. Most have been demolished.

Kansas City's forward-thinking stadiums, meanwhile, remain popular. Arrowhead sells out year after year. An ESPN.com writer who toured all 30 major-league parks last year rated his day at Kauffman above 24 others.

A ruptured drainpipe notwithstanding, the structures at the Truman Sports Complex are sound.

What they lack is earning power.

A second bistate tax -- the first saved Union Station -- looms on the horizon. If voters in Jackson, Johnson and Clay counties say yes in November, half of a quarter-percent sales tax will provide $360 million for improvements to Arrowhead and Kauffman, which team officials have declared "functionally inadequate." (The other half of the tax will fund the arts.)

Between now and November, voters will be told that improvements will make the stadiums more "fan friendly." The changes, however, are designed primarily to generate money for the Chiefs and the Royals.

Voters will be told that the teams need the money to compete. The owners of the teams, though, will be selective with the financial information they share.

Voters will be told that their leaders fought hard for a good deal. The evidence says otherwise.

Voters will be told dazzling stories about the economic development the teams bring to the area. Multiple studies argue that such promises are illusory.

Finally, supporters of a downtown baseball stadium will be told that they cling to a fantasy. In fact, with a little imagination, the idea might have worked.

Kansas City voters, prepare for the season of greed.

Bistate II is not the worst stadium deal ever put before voters.

But it sure as sewage could have been a lot better.

The Toronto SkyDome ushered in the era of the extravagant sports stadium. Built in 1989 with taxpayer-supported bonds, SkyDome features a hotel, restaurants and a retractable roof. Crowds came to behold the edifice from far and near. In 1990, the Blue Jays were the first team in baseball history to draw 4 million fans.

The SkyDome concept was refined a few years later in Baltimore. The designers of Oriole Park at Camden Yards rejected the mold of the concrete doughnut and used brick and steel to unite the ballpark with an old warehouse beyond right field. The configuration was retro, but the luxury suites and other amenities were thoroughly modern.

A bit of SkyDome and Camden Yards lives in all the stadiums and arenas that have come after them. Not every design hits a home run -- Cincinnati's Great American Ballpark affords views of a shallow, muddy river and the dim lights of northern Kentucky -- but all succeed in minting new coin for the owner of the occupying team. New stadiums invariably come equipped with an array of moneymaking opportunities: luxury boxes, club seats, concession stands.

The improvements planned for Kauffman and Arrowhead stadiums will make them more like the mallparks of today. The average fan will derive some benefit from the changes. Each stadium is scheduled to receive a new outer shell, allowing the concourses to expand significantly. Expanded concourses mean shorter lines for beer and toilets.

Mainly, though, the proposed changes will bring smiles to the faces of the team owners.

The Royals want to build a restaurant beyond right field. Cost to taxpayers: $4 million.

The Chiefs hope to transform the narrow, open-air concourse behind the club seats into a luxurious sports bar.

Both teams want new suites -- 15 for the Chiefs, between 40 and 50 for the Royals. If the Royals rent the suites annually for $100,000 each (about what suites in other towns go for), team owner David Glass can expect to gross an additional $4 million to $5 million a year.

Conceptual estimates call for $24 million worth of new scoreboards at the stadiums. Scoreboards that will leave plenty of room for car and bank ads.

The teams say they need the revenue that modern stadiums produce to keep up with other teams. Royals VP Gorris says the club has an obligation to increase corporate involvement. "We have teams that are three, four, six times higher than us in their corporate spending in terms of signage and suites and club seats and so forth," he says. "That's an area where we think we can make up a lot of money. We hope we can. It's vital that we do."