KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Parking for a potential Royals stadium in downtown Kansas City would mostly rely on existing parking garages and surface lots with the ability for fans to buy parking spots in advance.
The team is asking voters to approve a sales tax on an April 2 election to help fund the new stadium.
Jeff McKerrow from Kimley-Horn said the Royals will build 1,500 parking spots in the development. He expects a typical ballgame to generate roughly an additional 7,500 cars.
Those visitors would have to park in existing surface parking lots and garages.
The team may contract with the owners of lots and garages to reserve parking for fans.
McKerrow suggested the team may incorporate a way to pay in advance for a parking pass before a game in specific zones around the stadium.
“You understand where you’re going to be headed, where you’re going to go and you have that in mind before you get there,” he pointed out.
The team’s goal is to reserve street parking for people visiting businesses in the Crossroads neighborhood.
Parking in those spots could require a kind of validation from the businesses, which should prevent fans from parking in the street.
“Parking can be at a premium downtown,” said Rusty Phillips, who owns Belle Epoque, a salon in the Crossroads Arts District.
He likes the concepts the team presented Thursday, but wants to see them in action.
The team estimates about 30 percent of fans will get to the game using mass transit, rideshare services, or walking.
The team may create an Integrated Operations Center to constantly monitor traffic in downtown during dame days. That would allow managers to synchronize traffic signals or make other changes to help traffic flow more smoothly.
“I like that they’re moving toward a solution and not just aimlessly trying to find something,” said Ashley, who was visiting a Crossroads coffee shop Thursday afternoon.
Others, like Micah Beaver who works downtown, are more skeptical.
“People going to work, people not even going to the game, going somewhere else, it’s just I don’t think it’s going to be capable,” Beaver said.
The team pointed out there are nearly three times the number of ways to get to and from the downtown stadium site versus in and out of the Truman Sports Complex where the Royals currently play their games.
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