By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor
(STADIA)—The decision on whether Jackson Countians will support a new baseball stadium for the Kansas City Royals and a massive overhaul of Arrowhead Stadium is less than a month away. The decision could affect the futures of the two teams in the Kansas City metro area.
Construction of the new baseball stadium downtown and the subsequent destruction of Kauffman stadium will clear a lot of land for the Chiefs to re-develop around a 21st century Arrowhead Stadium.
The Chiefs have released a video of the redesigned Arrowhead area. Here are some screenshots:
And there will be new sideline and end zone suites—
Estimated cost of the improvements: $800 million. The team-owning Hunt family says it will kick in $300 million with proceeds from the forty-year continuation of the present 3.8-percent sales tax raising the rest. Chiefs CEO Clark Hunt says the team won’t sign a new 25-year lease on the stadium without the funding to re-invent Arrowhead, which is now 55 years old.
The Royals’ new stadium and the baseball business complex around it is estimated to cost $200-milllion.
(miz)—The Missouri Tigers continue slouching toward the end of their season with only two more chances to get a conference win. Their loss to Ole Miss on Saturday makes them the first SEC team to lock down its seeding in the post-season tournament. Missouri is guaranteed the last-place seed. They’ll play their final home game of the year tonight against Auburn and finish up the regular season next Saturday against LSU.
Ole Miss was just the same song, sixteenth straight verse. In this case, they let the game get away from them when Mississippi went on a 22-3 run in the first half, and not even a 52-point second half could overcome the usual cold first-half spell that has typified this season. Missouri has lost 16 in a row. The Tigers are now 8-21, the seventh team in school history to lose twenty or more games, tied for the third-most losses in MU history. If they lose their two remaining regular conference games and a tournament game, they’ll set a new school record with 24 losses. The present record, 23, was set in the 2014-15 season and died in the 2016-17 season. (zoo)
(CARDINALS)—Uh Oh…..
The first significant possible hiccup in the Cardinals plans to bounce back from their terrible 2022 season has hit. Sonny Gray, penciled-in as the opening day starter, left his second outing of the spring early yesterday with an apparent hamstring injury. He was scheduled to go three innings but left, with a trainer, four outs early. He’ll be evaluated day to day. In his inning and two-thirds yesterday, he gave up one hit, and had oen strikeout but had faced only the minimum of five batters. .
Everybody’s in the house for the Cardinals. All forty players on the major league roster are under contract, including those with less than three years of service who are not eligible for arbitration. Saturday was the deadline for all players with less than three years of service to agree to deals for 2024. If they had not, the team would set the salary. The team announced on Saturday that the remaining 22 players had agreed for this year.
(ROYALS)—Former Royals shortstop UL Washington died yesterday. He was 70. He was with the Royals for eight seasons. UL wasn’t an abreviation for anything. It was his name. You-ell.
We’ll always remember him because of his toothpick. Others recall him the same way, the player who made it okay to play with a toothpick in his mouth.
Back when the Royals had an academy to develop players, he was the third graduate to make the team (the most famous being Frank White, then Ron Washington, not related to You-ell).
Team historian Bradford Lee says UL and Frank White became the first all-African-American double play combination in American League history.
He was traded to Montreal after the 1984 season so he missed getting the Royal’s first World Series Ring but he was a key player on the Royals first American League pennant-winning season in 1980. He finished his 11-year major league career three years later.
(BLUES)—Crunch time is here for any hopes the St. Louis Blues have of making the National Hockey League Playoff. They start the week in fifth place in their division with a lot of ground to make u to get to fourth. The Blues have not missed the playoffs two years in a row since 2008. They’ve been in the playoffs ten time in the last dozen years and have missed them only ten times since their debut season of 1967.
The Motorsports—
(INDYCAR)—We might be seeing a redesigned IndyCar in about three years. It will replace the current Dallara DW12 chassis that will have served the series for fifteen years by then. Mark Miles, the CEO of Penske Entertainment that owns the series, has told Indianapolis reporters a decision about going ahead could come relatively soon.
It would be powered by a second-generatin hybrid powerplant that is to make its debut later this year. Miles hopes the change will help recruit another engine manufacturer who will join Chevrolet and Honda.
(NASCAR)—Kyle Larson outran Tyler Reddick in the closing laps to pick up the win at Las Vegas.
It was his 24th career win and his third in Vegas. He dominated the race statistically but had to hold off Reddick for the last 27 laps after a restart. Reddick got to within a tenth of a second but Larson beat him to the finish line by a car length.
Ryan Blaney was third with Ross Chastain completing a spirited drive from the back of the field coming home fourth. He had to start from the rear because part of the wrap—the big sponsor decal that covers the car—had come loose wand had to be replaced. He also ncurred a speeding penalty on pit road.
Larson is the third different driver to win the first three races of the year. But Chevrolet is the only manufacturer to be in victory lane so far this season.
(FORMULA 1)—This season has started much as 2023 ended, with Max Verstappen dominating the field at the Bahrain GP. Teammate Sergio Perez and Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz were more than twenty seconds back.
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(Photo credits: Kansas City Chiefs, Bravestarr Cards; Bob Priddy (Brickyard, 2023)