Here’s what one architecture firm thinks a downtown Kansas City baseball stadium would look like

There have been whispers about the Royals possibly moving downtown when their lease expires after the 2030 season, and those whispers have become louder since downtown booster John Sherman purchased the club last fall. Sherman has been reported to be open to the idea of moving the team downtown, telling Kevin Collison at City Scene KC:

“Baseball creates more economic opportunity in denser areas versus suburban areas or less dense areas.

If you can put together the right package, downtown would be an interesting opportunity.”

Well one local architecture firm has decided to begin envisioning what a downtown baseball stadium in Kansas City would look like. Pendulum, a Kansas City-based firm, has released some renderings at kansascitylovestheroyals.com. They envision a 30,000 seat stadium with 26 premium suits, eight restaurants, and 50,000 square feet of commercial space. The mixed-use project would even include 1,000 housing units to overlook the stadium and serve as a buffer to the highway, as well as green space that includes a dog park.

You can see more in their video.

The imagined project would include a “King Louie Lanes Brewery” and includes local restaurant Port Fonda and an outdoor pool.

Noticeably absent are the iconic Royal Crown scoreboard or the signature fountains. This new stadium would also seat about 10,000 fewer fans than the current ballpark, with only 26 suites, compared to the 33 private suites that Kauffman Stadium holds.

Pendulum envisions a stadium at 12th Street and 71 Highway, a site considered to be the most likely spot for a stadium if the team were to move downtown. The east side of the loop is considered to be currently underdeveloped, home to mostly government buildings and the headquarters for construction company J.E. Dunn, whose owners Terry and Peggy Dunn are also in the new ownership group for the Royals.

There is no price tag on what this would cost, and there has been no indication on how a new downtown stadium would be funded. Right now it is just pretty drawings and an idea.

Pendulum principal/owner Jonathan Cole released a statement on the renderings:

“Not only did we launch our vision for what a new downtown ballpark for the Royals could be, we reimagined how to launch the concept on the internet. Unimarketa built us a state-of-the-art website that tracks, collects and aggregates all communication on the web regarding the downtown ballpark topic as a whole. Good, bad, ugly—we’ll know. We have positioned ourselves to be the pulse of this topic, and have created the ballpark concept that Kansas City has been waiting for.”

What do you think?