urbanSTL

Kansas City Current - Downtown Soccer Stadium (streetcar adjacent)


The budget for this project is up to $125 million (up from $70 million). The expectation is that most fans will take the streetcar or bike/walk to games. There is an existing garage at Ballys Casino to the east of the stadium and some temporary surface lots will go to the west.

Seating capacity has been upped to 11,500. The stadium will be expandable (I imagine a second deck on N/S and corner seating). New renderings show suites.

Apparently KC will be a World Cup host city.

jshank83 wrote:Apparently KC will be a World Cup host city.

Power & Light hosting an event at 4pm. National media, Mayor, and LT Gov. in attendance.

Looking forward to that event. Will be interesting to see how many people attend it and if St. Louis/Missouri will see an uptick in visitors from outside of the US. The next 3.5 years or so would be a good time to prep our showcase areas across the state so that when this big event comes, international visitors write home about what a great place Missouri is to visit. Our cities have lots of culture and great food. Out state is home to wine country. And everywhere in between, our natural resources and state parks are all special to us. I imagine international visitors would like all of that. Biggest hurdle is getting them out there though and I doubt they’d want to drive and the state has no means of funding more trains, but maybe they could be convinced to fund special Amtrak schedules and bus services to get people across the state. We have time to think and figure it out.

I doubt any visitors would want to travel to other places within the state. This event is exclusively for KC besides could you really see Kansas Citians telling visitors to go check out St.Louis? All they’ll say is why visit murder capitol of America when you can bask in fun festivities in soccer capital of America!! Congrats to KC though.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

PlatinumBlues wrote: ↑

Jun 16, 2022

I doubt any visitors would want to travel to other places within the state. This event is exclusively for KC besides could you really see Kansas Citians telling visitors to go check out St.Louis? All they’ll say is why visit murder capitol of America when you can bask in fun festivities in soccer capital of America!!  Congrats to KC though.

You never know. Some international visitors might have an interest in venturing out despite what others might say about St. Louis and outstate Missouri. I don't expect all of them to, but a few will and that's all that matters because if we all put on a good show, they'll be back with their friends and family who in turn will tell more people.

PlatinumBlues wrote: ↑

Jun 16, 2022

I doubt any visitors would want to travel to other places within the state. This event is exclusively for KC besides could you really see Kansas Citians telling visitors to go check out St.Louis? All they’ll say is why visit murder capitol of America when you can bask in fun festivities in soccer capital of America!! Congrats to KC though.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

If you have German visitors you could somehow pair the nonstop here into a package.

STL might be able to be involved as a training location of some type.

I don’t think STL is going to get some huge influx from it but I could see some kind of bump. If someone is traveling all the way over here for a game(s) in KC there is no reason they couldn’t take a day or two here between when their teams plays. Easy hop. STL would be silly not to try.

Especially with a national attraction like the arch and daily Amtrak trains. Most of Kansas City's visitors will be staying at least 2 weeks so there would be plenty of time to explore the states of Missouri and uhm... Kansas if one desired.

Seems a bit unfair to KC

Houston - Surrounded by blocks of parking
Boston - In the middle trees, surrounded by acres of parking
Dallas - Surrounded by blocks of parking
Miami - Surrounded by blocks of parking
NY/NJ - In the middle of a swamp, surrounded by acres of parking
Philadelphia - Surrounded by blocks of parking
LA - Surrounded by blocks of parking

Estadio BBVA is going to be INCREDIBLE. 

^What are they using? Football stadiums?

symphonicpoet wrote: ↑

Jun 17, 2022

^What are they using? Football stadiums?

Yes. They hold 60-80k versus soccer specific stadia which hold >20k.

Baseball is too oddly shaped I guess? Ah well. Football stadiums mostly suck. 'Tis a shame.

symphonicpoet wrote: ↑

Jun 18, 2022

Baseball is too oddly shaped I guess? Ah well. Football stadiums mostly suck. 'Tis a shame.

Too small of a playing area, I believe. USMNT played at Busch in 2015 and one of the corners of the field was right up on a wall. Not all that safe, not great viewing lines and I don't think the field was up to FIFA standards. Also, again, capacities at baseball stadia are usually in the 30-45k range.

Bart Harley Jarvis wrote: ↑

Jun 18, 2022

Too small of a playing area, I believe. USMNT played at Busch in 2015 and one of the corners of the field was right up on a wall. Not all that safe, not great viewing lines and I don't think the field was up to FIFA standards. Also, again, capacities at baseball stadia are usually in the 30-45k range.

I think my oddly shaped description is probably better here. Baseball fields are by and in large considerably larger in area than football fields. Arrowhead, for instance has a bit more than two acres and Kauffman a touch over three. Even Wrigley, a notoriously tight park, is well north of two and a half. But the dimensions of a baseball field tend to be somewhat triangular, where football fields are relatively long, but rather narrow.
I'll grant you the seating difference and the sightlines. Not sure how safety comes into it, so long as you have enough flat surface to play on, but . . . whatever you say. All that said, man are modern football stadiums ugly buildings, by and in large.

dweebe wrote:What stadiums don’t suck/would be good for World Cup soccer?

Surely purpose built soccer stadia would be best, but I suppose in the United States your stuck with football venues since our soccer parks are too small and our ballparks too eccentric. But in sheer aesthetic terms I think the average MLB park is head and shoulders above even the best NFL stadium. They're just more interesting buildings, generally made of more pleasant materials and with more textural variation. Add to this the greater propensity for comparatively urban settings and you have a winner. As far as I'm concerned NFL football is the deadest of dead ends. Ugly, largely graceless games played in big concrete bathtubs surrounded by seas of asphalt. What's to like?

da_GOAT wrote: ↑

Jun 17, 2022

Especially with a national attraction like the arch and daily Amtrak trains. Most of Kansas City's visitors will be staying at least 2 weeks so there would be plenty of time to explore the states of Missouri and uhm... Kansas if one desired.

Sorry to burst everyone's bubble. This is not how World Cup fans travel. They follow their team. And the teams usually play in 2/3 different stadiums in the group round (roughly 10 days). And they want to be with the World Cup action; the fanzone in each hosting city. They are coming to see the World Cup, not MidAmerica. Any extra days they spend in KC will probably be going to matches of other countries/partying with fans of other countries.

It's an absolute catastrophe that KC got this spot over STL. A shameful indictment of the leadership of this region that over the last 25 years ***** KC has leapfrogged STL in soccer status in the country. 

St.Louis didn’t make a bid on it that I know of so there’s that. Kansas City can lay claim to soccer capital of America but we all know where the true soccer capital is located. Once our soccer team is up and going St.Louis will quietly reclamation that status if it wants. Either way I’m very happy for KC this doesn’t make KC better than St.Louis or any other city that’s not hosting they just have the facility to do it & we don’t.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

RuskiSTL wrote: ↑

Jun 19, 2022

da_GOAT wrote: ↑

Jun 17, 2022

Especially with a national attraction like the arch and daily Amtrak trains. Most of Kansas City's visitors will be staying at least 2 weeks so there would be plenty of time to explore the states of Missouri and uhm... Kansas if one desired.

Sorry to burst everyone's bubble. This is not how World Cup fans travel. They follow their team. And the teams usually play in 2/3 different stadiums in the group round (roughly 10 days). And they want to be with the World Cup action; the fanzone in each hosting city. They are coming to see the World Cup, not MidAmerica. Any extra days they spend in KC will probably be going to matches of other countries/partying with fans of other countries.

It's an absolute catastrophe that KC got this spot over STL. A shameful indictment of the leadership of this region that over the last 25 years ***** KC has leapfrogged STL in soccer status in the country. 

St Louis literally didn’t have a venue for it. There is plenty to complain about leadership but this isn’t one.

St. Louis is listed as a possible team practice location/hub/whatever they call it in the bid. So if we end up getting that I think we could see fans come over if their team is practicing here and has a game(s) in KC. Again not a huge number but there could be some overflow.

I also don’t 100% agree with fans are JUST going to be following their team. If they are coming all the way here I would imagine a fair amount come early or stay late to do some tourist things. Maybe they only can go to one game but want to spend more time here. Again not saying it’s a huge number but I think we would be silly not to market ourselves to then. Whether it be when game locations are announced and if Germany is playing in KC to say fly nonstop in/out of STL. Set up busses are train ticket packages to get to from KC.

I think there are ways to pull some people in. Again not saying we will be overflowing with people but I think you can peel some off if done right.

In general Europeans are more likely to travel and explore.  Flying 12 hours to stay in 1 city for a few nights isn't too practical.  Drive / train 3.5 hours to see a large historic city with a national monument, best beer scene in the USA, best food city, one of 22 food cities in the world for 2022, neighborhoods galore, best zoo in the country, largest and best urban park. Seems like low hanging fruit to attract an influx of international and domestic tourists. 

^It would be if we had a good rail connection. We really need high speed rail service between KC and St. Louis. Would be good for both places.