{"id":2520122,"date":"2026-07-28T07:40:39","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T07:40:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2520122"},"modified":"2026-07-28T07:40:39","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T07:40:39","slug":"zoning-meeting-on-new-royals-stadium-derailed-by-protest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/zoning-meeting-on-new-royals-stadium-derailed-by-protest\/","title":{"rendered":"Zoning meeting on new Royals stadium derailed by protest"},"content":{"rendered":"

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A member of Stand Up KC holds up a sign during a presentation about the proposed rezoning of Crown Center for a new Kansas City Royals ballpark at the Regnier Theatre inside Union Station on Monday, July 27, 2026, in Kansas City.<\/p>\n


\n Emily Curiel
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ecuriel@kcstar.com<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

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Protesters derailed a rezoning meeting on Crown Center, cutting short a hearing intended to inform residents about redevelopment plans to accommodate a new downtown Royals stadium<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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The public meeting<\/a> is the first in a series of steps the Royals must complete to create a new \u201csports and entertainment district\u201d within Crown Center. A series of speakers representing the team, the shopping, dining and retail district, and the development detailed plans for the area.<\/p>\n

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About an hour into the meeting, as the last remaining speaker was at the podium, members of the Missouri Workers Center erupted in chants of \u201clet us vote.\u201d The progressive labor advocacy group broke out in chants and heckled speakers.<\/p>\n

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Last month, the group, along with Stand Up KC, delivered signatures to City Hall seeking to force a public vote on the city\u2019s plan to contribute $600 million to fund the new $1.9 billion stadium. It\u2019s unclear if it can stop the stadium, and Mayor Quinton Lucas has said that he\u2019s anticipating construction to begin before a vote can derail it.<\/p>\n

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The meeting ended about 15 minutes early. During a question-and-answer period, when presenters addressed prescreened questions from the crowd, a host announced they would end the meeting amid the ongoing outburst.<\/p>\n

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A member of Stand Up KC holds up a sign during a presentation about the proposed rezoning of Crown Center for a new Kansas City Royals ballpark at the Regnier Theatre inside Union Station on Monday, July 27, 2026, in Kansas City. Emily Curiel ecuriel@kcstar.com<\/span> <\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

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Fran Marion, one of the protesters, said she showed up at the meeting to send a message about mismatched priorities.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe voted before. We told them no. You\u2019re not hearing me, so let me come back and tell you again,\u201d Marion said. \u201cThere\u2019s more important things out here in Kansas City than a Royals Stadium.\u201d<\/p>\n

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But many of those in attendance were frustrated by the outburst that led to the end of the meeting. Some in attendance shouted back at hecklers, and a majority of people raised their hands when asked if they\u2019d like to continue the planned question-and-answer session as the meeting was being derailed.<\/p>\n

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Eric Krakky, who is involved in the neighborhood association at the San Francisco Tower in Crown Center, said it was not the right time or place to stage a protest.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIf you have civil disobedience, the proper way is to ask the question and not yell. It\u2019s also the wrong format. This is a zoning meeting, and it\u2019s not a public forum about voting,\u201d Krakky said. \u201cIt\u2019s disrespectful to the residents that want to hear and learn what\u2019s going on in their neighborhood.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Krakky said that he\u2019s in favor of bringing the team downtown, and said the lost question-and-answer time could have answered some questions people have.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s a big project and there\u2019s some serious concerns,\u201d Krakky said. \u201cI do think it\u2019s part of Kansas City\u2019s future and moving us ahead, so we just don\u2019t, we won\u2019t, we won\u2019t know until the next opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Jim Edson, who lives in Union Hill on Main, said that \u201ca lot of people were at the wrong meeting.\u201d He\u2019s been engaged through his neighborhood organization and has been in contact with representatives from the team, but still has some unanswered questions about the development.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of details that I know aren\u2019t there yet. This is about rezoning, and that\u2019s pretty big stuff,\u201d Edson said. \u201cMine are more in the details, like where am I going to park my bike?\u201d<\/p>\n

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This story was originally published July 27, 2026 at 10:01 PM.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Related Stories from Kansas City Star<\/h5>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Jack Harvel<\/a><\/p>\n

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The Kansas City Star<\/span><\/p>\n

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Jack Harvel is the Missouri Politics Insider for The Kansas City Star, where he covers how state politics and government impact people in Kansas City. Before joining the star, he covered state politics in Kansas and reported on communities in Colorado and Oregon. He was born in Kansas City, raised in Lee\u2019s Summit and graduated from Mizzou in 2019.\u00a0<\/span>\n <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.kansascity.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A member of Stand Up KC holds up a sign during a presentation about the proposed rezoning of Crown Center for a new Kansas City Royals ballpark at the Regnier Theatre inside Union Station on Monday, July 27, 2026, in Kansas City. Emily Curiel ecuriel@kcstar.com Protesters derailed a rezoning meeting on Crown Center, cutting short […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2520123,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2520122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-royalty"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Zoning-meeting-on-new-Royals-stadium-derailed-by-protest.JPG","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2520122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2520122"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2520122\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2520124,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2520122\/revisions\/2520124"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2520123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2520122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2520122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2520122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}