KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Leaders are discussing the new stadium project for the Kansas City Royals as a low-wage workers group tries to put it to a vote of the people.
The stadium’s supposed to go on the south side of Crown Center near East 26th Street and Gillham Road.
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Mayor Quinton Lucas and Ralph Oropeza, the business manager of the Greater KC Building & Construction Trades Council, met Monday to talk about development projects in the city and union work on them. One of the projects discussed was the Royals one.
Oropeza thinks a vote of city residents on a ballpark would not impact the stadium.
“I think the timeline’s too short, from my understanding,” Oropeza said in an interview with FOX4. “I don’t see how we can get this done before the stadium starts to get built, so if contracts are going to be signed, then I don’t know how you stop the business from actually doing a business just because you don’t like it.”
Our interview with Oropeza lasted just more than three minutes.
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“Do you think that a vote of the people would be a bad idea on this project?” FOX4 asked.
“Yes, I really do,” Oropeza replied. “In my opinion, because I think people are misinformed on what this is all about. What people are forgetting, those jobs that they keep calling temporary are thousands of jobs for our men and women of the building trades.”
The Missouri Workers Center, better known as Stand-Up KC on the west side of the state, has gotten their petition certified, calling for a vote of the people of the city before funding’s committed to it. One of their leaders, Terrence Wise, says this is about more than just a downtown ballpark conversation.
“This is about the future of Kansas City and democracy as a whole,” he said in a Zoom interview with FOX4. “We’ve seen democracy being trampled on in Washington, D.C. We don’t need it here in the Show-Me Sate and in Kansas City, and I think folks down at City Hall should think about, ‘What’s there to be afraid of?’ If it’s such a good idea, if this economic development is what Kansas City wants, let the people vote on it. If they say yes, let’s have it, If they say no, let’s go with the will of the people, so.”
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The deadline to get something on the November 2026 ballot is August 25. The city council had 60 days to act on the plan the Missouri Workers Center put forth, calling for that public vote.
If the council doesn’t act until after the 25th, that public vote wouldn’t happen until April of 2027.
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