The Royals make a shockingly rare announcement about its stadium plans.

The former sprint campus is out as a site for its new ballpark.

I got so excited it was almost done.

Now what?

A closed door meeting between the mayor, county executive and governor fueled speculation that a deal is now imminent to keep the team in Kansas City.

But where?

And will you get a vote on the plan?

Also, this Half-Hour.

When a city funded grocery store closed on Prospect Avenue last year, we were told one of the big lessons is that government shouldn't try to get into the grocery business.

So why is the mayor pushing a vote to reopen it this week?

Plus, whatever happened to those plans for an Ice detention center in Kansas City and the new Jackson County Executive marks 100 days on the job this week.

How is he doing in office?

Those stories and the rest of the week's news straight ahead.

Week in review is made possible through the generous support of Dave and Jamie Cummings, Bob and Marley's Gourley, the Courtney as Turner Charitable Trust, John H. Mize and Bank of America Na Co trustees, the Francis Family Foundation through the discretionary fund of David and Janice Francis, and by viewers like you.

Thank you.

Hello and welcome.

I'm Nick Haines, and thanks for joining us on our weekly journey through the most impactful, confusing, and downright head scratching local news stories.

Hopping on board the Weekend Review bus with us.

This Half-Hour from KCUR news Lisa Rodriguez from next page KC Eric Wesson and as we can't get enough of Eric's, we got to Eric's on this week's show.

Also with us is CNBC's intrepid reporter Eric Graves, and he is Kansas City Star on Substack.

Former star reporter and opinion writer Dave Helling.

Now, it's exceedingly rare these days to hear any statements from the Kansas City Royals about their stadium plans.

But this week, the team made one thing clear they have officially dropped plans to move to the former sprint campus in Overland Park.

To see that we were.

Ecstatic would be completely an.

Understatement.

I couldn't get the smile off of my face.

I was so excited.

It was almost unreal.

They gave me faith in the in our democracy.

Wow, have we set the bar so low that having faith in our democracy rests in not having a new ballpark built near your home?

Lisa I mean, in some ways this is how democracy works on a on a municipal level.

So it's really an an upswell of community reaction, community opposition.

So in some ways this is it's grassroots democracy in action.

But certainly, people out in Overland Park and Leawood in that area, a big sigh of relief, glee almost.

Including the Jewish Community Center right next door.

I didn't see in the statement, though, Eric Graves, why this wasn't suitable for them, other than to say it just didn't work for us.

You know, one thing that I locked on to in the statement there was that they always want to make sure they're listening to their fans in this, and their fans there certainly said they love the royals, but they do not want the royals there.

And if you think about it, this was the spot that really had the most attention around it.

After that, no vote back in 2024, to the point where T-Mobile even stepped in and said that they would consider leaving to the point where your biggest company says they're going to step away.

There was a lot of, smoke here around a potential stadium, and neighbors certainly did not want it.

Does this mean, no, they are not going to go to Kansas at all, or only not going to this site?

Dave Helling it.

Means that there are still Kansas options, but when the Star Bond program said, in essence, we're not going to support the Royals.

When the LCC, Dan Hawkins and others said, the star bond access has ended for the team than any chance of the Royals going to the Louis Wood side, to the superior side, or really any other place in Kansas dropped to almost zero.

Local governments aren't going to come to the table with any money.

It's not like Overland Park is going to help pay for a stadium.

And by the way, when the star bonds were allocated to the Chiefs, the blowback from that has been more intense than I think legislators expected.

So the idea of doing another package for the royals, all of that combined to take the experience side off the table.

And we also learned this week that it's all going to go to Clay County.

Either they didn't make the ballot for April there.

It's not going there.

They weren't warm and fuzzy about it in the first place.

The people that live there, well.

Dropping the AC to campus wasn't the only stadium related news.

This week, a hush hush, closed door meeting between the governor, mayor and county executive is being viewed as a signal that a deal is finally ready to be made on a new Royals ballpark in Kansas City.

Mayor Quinton Lucas says he's optimistic.

Eric Graves, is there any evidence a decision is now imminent, though.

Mayor Lucas has told me in a couple of times that they are feeling more united.

The voters said that as well.

They're feeling much more united.

I would say you probably should.

After you lose the Chiefs like that to Kansas, so you probably need to feel that way.

But Lucas has told me a couple of times that he wants to have something in place by spring training around.

He's got to be like 20 something days away.

Which is very close, very close.

So it does feel like there is momentum for potentially Washington Square Park, potentially other areas out there and 18th and vine.

I talked to Ali Gates a couple of weeks ago, who mentioned that he and other people were pitching that site to the Royals, so there's a lot of interest right now, and it all seems to center around somewhere in downtown.

But hold the front page rather than rolling out the red carpet for the royals.

A Missouri lawmaker has filed legislation requiring a public vote on the building of any new stadium in the state that requires more than $100 million in local funding.

Isn't that exactly what the royals are desperately trying to avoid?

I think the Royals are trying to avoid that now.

We don't hear much from the Royals, so we have to assume.

But the fact that they missed the deadline in Clay County for an April ballot measure and and they got so much resistance out of Kansas, I think, signals that they would rather get this deal done by other means.

And Quinton Lucas himself, well, we haven't seen a $500 million figure thrown out as the Missouri lawmaker has put out there.

But he has said there are ways to do this that involve redirecting property taxes that don't involve a public vote on this.

Lucas has said the process will be transparent and will involve public input.

But as you said, 20 days isn't a whole lot of time to to gather that input right now.

So we'll.

See.

And we saw that closed door meeting in Jefferson City with the governor, the county executive and the mayor.

And after that meeting, the mayor said, you know, we're going to be far more transparent than other stadium projects in our region.

There was a low bar to say we're going to be more transparent than Kansas.

Kansas closed the meeting where they discussed this.

So transparency is not the byword on that side of the state line.

There is much discussion of whether or not the whatever the Kansas City does for the Royals needs to go to the ballot.

There's a petition process in Kansas City, but state legislation, which you already mentioned, and there will be enormous pressure, depending on where the side is, there will be enormous pressure on the council to try something before voters to give them a say in this project.

Or they will face the same kind of blowback that you're seeing in Kansas about the Chiefs, where people feel like they were cheated of any opportunity to really make their voices known as they were on the aspire campus.

So I do think that the mayor, who has said repeatedly there doesn't have to be a vote, reflects the view the royals may not remember.

But isn't that why that legislation was introduced into Missouri in the first place?

It was House member Mike Jones from Parkville who said there was plans afoot to do all of this go through the Port Authority, have $500 million so we could avoid a public vote.

I think that is the idea here.

And that's what, as we discussed, they're afraid of right now.

They do not want to end up where they were in 2024 with a no vote down on it.

But at the same time, this is going to go through the city council at some point.

And I think there are certainly people in there that do not want to lose this baseball team, and it's.

Got to go through the parks board as well.

If they're going to do this.

The stadium over in the Crown Center area still got to go through the parks board.

Just a couple of quick notes on Clay County.

The deadline for putting anything on the ballot was Tuesday.

The Clay County Commission made its big announcement on Wednesday.

That's like confirming what we already knew because the deadline had passed.

So that was really a bit of a nothing burger.

And importantly, Clay County sort of didn't put the kibosh on maybe something in August.

They didn't say, hey, we're out.

We're through.

We're finished.

Only that now our deadline has been missed and nothing will be on the April ballot, which again, we already knew.

That means you could put it on the August ballot.

On the August ballot.

Any other ballot and everyone you talked to says that Clay County, the Clay County site, requires a sales tax and a vote of the people.

If you do that, and the polling has been horrible, that may be behind what all these are not.

All right.

Now.

Many of the details on the new Chiefs Stadium in Kansas are still up in the air.

But this week, the Chiefs moved one step closer to turning dirt on the project by picking two local architecture firms as finalists to design the new domed stadium.

Monica, based in Kansas City, Kansas, designed the Raiders Stadium in Las Vegas and the Titans Stadium in Nashville.

Populous, which is called Kansas City, home for more than 40 years, designed The Sphere in Las Vegas and the new Buffalo Bill Stadium.

But is it putting the cart before the horse, Lisa, when the Chiefs still don't know exactly where this stadium will be built?

We're told they haven't even bought the land yet for this.

There's a lot of details that still need to be worked out, including buy in from local governments, on the Star bonds, on on the tax issue.

But I think as we've discussed before, the Chiefs know that they're in a moment where they need to drum up some excitement and enthusiasm about the stadium plan, because I think the blowback and the negative reaction to it has been far greater than they anticipated.

So announcing these local, design firms is is great to me.

It's, you know, fantastic.

I want to get down to the to the tax question, but I certainly think they need to generate some positive news about the stadium.

Well, let's keep it on the uplifting note, though, Eric, when you think about when you have stadiums like we just saw in that video and including things like the severe and these are the companies behind it, are we going to be having something that's spectacular coming to Kansas or or is the state legislature in the way they developed this deal that the term sheet says this is just going to be a serviceable stadium.

We're not going to have all of these bells and whistles that you see in those other places.

The term sheet does say it has to be a essentially a state of the art, puts it on par with a lot of other stadiums across the country.

And there is a lot of stadium conversation right now because so many of these new stadiums look like spaceships that don't necessarily have a ton of personality in it, which is exactly what you do have.

An Arrowhead Stadium right now.

So I'm interested to see that.

I think there was a a neat note about Populous and Manica.

Manica designed those initial renderings.

They got floated across Kansas City and that we still use on the news every week when we're talking about a stadium.

Populous is the partner for the Royal Stadium.

So populous has the potential to be to build both the Chief Stadium and the Royals new stadium.

So they could be very busy.

As long as they have some gates barbecue over there.

And they got good seatings.

And the press box for the, media is, is well stocked and I think it'll be okay.

It'd be more likely to be slaps, though, as that's a good Kansas City, Kansas based barbecue joint.

Owners of decent barbecue will be happy.

One of the things I've written a little bit about is the lack, so far of a meaningful, community benefits agreement between the Chiefs and Wyandotte County and for that matter, Johnson County.

But Wyandotte County is critical if they're to commit the kind of money that people are talking about, for that stadium to have some sense of what the benefit will be to non football fans, just like we had on the airport.

And you'll remember at KCI, the discussion over the CBA was the most important component.

How about training?

How about WBE.

How about ticket preference for Wyandotte County and daycare education.

You know, all of the things that the Edgemoor people had to guarantee out at the airport would presumably be something that Wyandotte County would insist upon before they agree to be a part of the, Star Bond district.

That decision is coming up quickly, is it not?

In about four weeks.

So we'll need to keep our eye on that now.

We now know one more feature this new dome stadium will not have is gender neutral restrooms.

Kansas lawmakers fast track to the governor's desk this week, a bill that bans unisex bathrooms in schools and government buildings.

And won't the state of Kansas own this new stadium?

Not the Chiefs, Lisa.

Yes.

I mean, it is a governmental, quasi governmental building, and I think we still have to learn exactly what, what the effect of this bill will be, what exactly that definition is going to be.

Certainly, we know schools and libraries will be part of this, and, and that the legislature has been trying to do this over and over and over.

And the governor is going to veto it over and over, but it appears that they've got in both chambers of veto proof majority now, which really.

Surprised me in a sense, Dave, that this was the year that we the big push from President Donald Trump.

What number one priority was to have redistricting in Kansas to squeeze out Davids?

They couldn't muster enough votes to make that happen.

And yet they can get this passed.

What what's the difference?

The session isn't over.

So redistricting is still at least nominally on the table.

No matter what anybody says.

So don't completely write off that possibility.

But, the the early part of all legislative sessions in every state are usually concerned with these sort of hot button social issues, in part because the negotiating over taxes and spending and, appropriations are still under way.

So with nothing else to do, they solve the bathroom crisis, which clearly plaguing all of Kansas, you'll see abortion often come up in other other sort of hot button issues that don't really affect a lot of people, but it gives them something to do.

And I think that was behind this vote.

Now, I mentioned Sharice Davids.

She's prompting lots of political speculation this week as she launches a statewide listening tour without us knowing how, she added Dodge City, Wichita and Colby, Kansas, to her district.

Or is there something more about that we need to know about?

Dave?

Well, the rumors have been, growing in recent weeks that she is looking at running against Roger Marshall for the U.S.

Senate seat.

There was some reporting to that effect back in the fall of last year.

And now the speculation grows because as you suggest, the places she's going this week are not in her district.

That is not a typical thing for a House member to do.

There may be some pushback in the first place if she decides to run for the Senate.

It leaves an opening for the third district in Kansas, in what is typically a safe seat for Democrats.

At a time when 1 or 2 seats may make the difference in Washington.

My guess is some Democrats at the national level will say, no, Sharice, protect this seat and then run against, Jerry Moran.

If necessary.

In two years.

Now we know a Substack blog piece this week you say that she could be running for governor.

It would not make sense.

Well, it could, because Democrats have much more success in running for statewide office at the governor level Kathleen Sebelius, Joan Finney, Laura Kelly, of course, than they do running for the Senate.

They haven't won a Senate race in Kansas since 1932.

So if she wants something, to pursue a statewide election that gives her a better chance of winning the governor's race might make more sense.

Well, two weeks after Kansas City passed a moratorium on Ice detention center, the issue remains up in the air this week, even though the Department of Homeland Security says there are currently no plans to open a facility here.

That has not stopped a wave of news reports claiming an industrial warehouse on the site of the former Richards Gap.

Our air Force base has been picked as the site for up to 10,000 immigrant detainees, the government says.

No community activists say yes.

So who is supposed to believe?

You know, I think it's interesting.

I think we should always go back to the idea of people do not come and visit a place if they're not interested in that place.

And we saw, image and, and excuse me, the Ice agents go there and visited and made quite the spectacle here.

So that certainly, says something there.

I think it's also interesting the idea of the court battle that could happen between the local government here in Kansas City and the feds probably would drag out, probably could end up with the feds winning, but would certainly take some time.

Time that, the federal government would really like to set up.

And that's not the only court battle.

Eric Wesson, since we spoke about this last week, Jackson County, Wyandotte County pushing moratoriums on Ice detention centers and Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas now joining dozens of mayors across the country in a federal lawsuit challenging the use of thousands of armed federal agents in Minneapolis.

Why is the mayor now spending city resources to legally challenge what the Trump administration is doing in a city two states away?

It gives him, exposure.

He gets to talk about things that could happen here in Kansas City to try to prevent them from happening.

I don't think it's a really a conversation he should be involved in.

But one of the things about it, though, is that we have the World Cup coming here, and so that could be part of the conversation as well.

But will we see Mayor Lucas speaking out even more on these issues?

I did notice this week that he is in Washington, DC to take over leadership of the Democratic Mayors Association.

Of part of that new role.

He was in Washington, as I say, this national gig is going to put pressure on him to speak out even more about issues beyond Kansas City's borders.

There's no question about it.

In fact, I think he made an appearance on CNN to have some discussion of some, some, issues of national importance and Kansas City importance as well.

And I do think we should keep our eyes on the controversy, concerning the Immigration and Customs Enforcement people, in part because Kansas City can't be exempt for that forever, regardless of what happens at this Ice facility at Richard's cap power.

So I think the mayor is going to be in an interesting position as the World Cup approaches to comment more and more.

If this situation escalates and the interface between federal law and state and local law is a fascinating, difficult, complicated subject.

And he will be at the forefront of that discussion.

When a city funded grocery store closed on Prospect Avenue last year, we were told one of the big lessons is that government shouldn't try to get into the grocery business.

So why is Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas pushing a vote this week to reopen the Sun Fresh store on Linwood that has been plagued by violence, theft, rampant drug use and public sex?

I think, you know, in, in in Mayor Lucas's defense, he always said he plans to reopen that store.

And I think it's important to him that this is not a failure.

We saw, even in the New York mayoral race, this issue being picked up as C governments shouldn't be running grocery stores, but it appears to this new operator.

For one, we have an example and a lesson of what what has happened and what the real challenges are for an operator at this location.

And it appears they have some different ideas about how to manage security through a membership plan, to make it more secure.

So they're looking at making this almost like a Costco, but a free membership that you would have to give you name and address, have a card to enter the store.

Eric, is that what makes this more successful this time around?

I don't know if it makes it more successful, but it makes it a little more manageable.

Then you don't have people from the bus stop just walking into the store.

Come in.

Stealing things out of the store.

It still has the same issues on the outside.

It's just not as bad now because it's colder and you don't have people hanging out like you used to, but it still has some bugs in it that I hope that they get worked out.

This week marks Phil the voters hundredth day in office as the Jackson County Executive.

He's the man who replaced Frank white as county leader after he was ousted at the polls.

How is Livonia doing?

Is Jackson County still embroiled in the same drama that prompted voters to recall his predecessor?

Or is the county's business moving more swiftly and effectively today?

There are certain things that that Phil has done that are not what we would typically see from a politician in his position.

I think about, the Gayle McCann baby lawsuit.

When the county was served, Lavona had a press conference last week.

Typically, I would say 99 times out of 100, this being the one time we get a statement that says we do not comment on pending litigation.

And Lavona came out in front of this, called it a frivolous lawsuit, answered questions about it unlike anything that I had seen from a politician.

That stance is part of that reason, though, because there's going to be an election in November.

We're going to be voting again on the Jackson County executive that he's not going to run for their office.

I think.

So I think that the temporary nature of the role allows him to be a little bit freer with this kind of stuff without, that, that kind of looming election or consequence.

But in terms of big issues.

Is the property tax issue resolved?

No.

So we'll we'll have to see.

What's been the biggest difference.

Eric, you're.

Off the front page of newspapers and they're, they're not the lead story on the evening news.

I think one of the differences between, Phil a voter and Frank white is Phil, a voter is willing to admit there's a problem and a mistake was made.

Frank White insisted almost to the end that there were no mistakes.

This is the way it has to go.

And that irritated people who were looking at their property tax bills and thought that some reform was needed.

Now, having said that, the voters are not exactly neophytes to local politics.

I mean, they've been around for decades.

So he he is a he is a talented politician.

And I think he understands in the current environment, particularly when he's not claims he's not running again, that the best thing to do is to admit you made mistakes and then try and fix them rather than deny a problem.

And he's a little more of a people person than Frank.

Frank was kind of standoffish, a little bit great baseball player, did that thing.

But I think the voters a little more people friendly.

And who is the bet for who is going to be the next Jackson County executive then in November, when he's not running?

The jury is still out.

All right.

It's a wide open race.

Well, Kansas has taken the Chiefs from Missouri.

Are they about to take the lion's share of it's World Cup visitors next?

Remember when Missouri changed its drinking laws to allow bars to open 23 hours a day during the World Cup?

Well, Kansas is now topping them with a bill that would allow bars, nightclubs and liquor stores to be open 24 hours a day during the tournament.

Will we see mass protests in Overland Park from residents near these bars who say it's lowering their property values and putting too much pressure on roads not designed for that much traffic?

How many jails do you have for all of that?

That's the question.

Well, that is a concern of some people.

By the way, the Kansas City mayor, Quinton Lucas, was meeting this week with the head of the World Cup, FIFA president Gianni Infantino, in Washington.

What would be mayors, the mayor' is it to keep Ice agents off the streets of Kansas City during the tournament?

I think that's very obviously been the biggest concern.

I think that's part of the reason, like we talked about why you've seen the mayor, talking so much at least this week about Ice and the concerns about what's happening in Minneapolis.

But I think he might just be trying to pick the brain of Gianni Infantino.

This is something that is coming here.

That is going to be huge in Kansas City, especially as we get confirmed officially from FIFA.

These huge four teams will be based camping here.

This is quite something and nobody really knows exactly what to expect.

I think one of the jobs the mayor clearly feels is important is tamping down any discussion between the Argentinian fans who are coming to Kansas City and the English fans who are coming to Kansas City, some of whom may still be angry about that whole Falcons deal 30 or 40 years ago, and get them up and get them in a bar that never closes.

That could be pretty tense.

To open those jail cell.

That could get pretty intense.

All right.

Now, when you put a program like this together every week, you can't get to every story grabbing the headlines.

What was the big local story we missed?

Snow.

One record cold shuts down churches, businesses and schools.

Some students give themselves a second day off to protest.

Ice clearing the streets becomes an almost fatal job in Parkville, where a man is charged with firing eight shots of the snow plow driver in a road rage attack.

It doesn't get the same attention as hiring a police chief, but Kansas City gets a new fire chief this week.

New splashy images revealed this week of the new 16,000 seat Molten amphitheater opening this summer in Riverside.

The star speculates it could put Azura Amphitheater out of business and still shows from Starlite and Costco on the agenda at City Hall this week.

Amid growing concerns that the company is going to convert its Midtown location into a Costco business center, a move that would strip out the pharmacy, food court, alcohol sales and many customer friendly staples from clothes to toys.

Lisa Rodriguez, did you pick one of those stories or something completely different?

You know, we've got more details now about bus fares returning in Kansas City.

We've known for a while plans to end the free bus program, and it's $2 per ride.

And that will start in June.

Eric Blind Newton and the are still water.

Why are they still police officers?

And one of the interesting things that I thought about is, you know, when you see fluffy stuff, you see the chief of police, I mean, fluffy stuff like the lights being blue, new uniforms.

Why isn't Stacy stepping forward to say what she's going to do with those two police officers?

Eric.

The Independent School District got a new superintendent, somebody who's coming from Iowa.

She was named by an industry magazine as a top ten superintendent in 2025.

But she does have a past with case involving a discrimination lawsuit she was named in as well as she was an administrator there when there was some, fudging of attendance numbers to reach accreditation.

So some questions there.

I talked to the school board yesterday.

They knew all those things.

They completely stand by her.

They're very excited for her to get started.

An independence.

Discussion.

And Jeff City about ending the income tax continues.

But there are growing signs that some members of the legislature are uneasy with the unexplained details of the plan to in the income tax, the momentum for ending the income tax has slowed a bit.

And on that we will say a week has been reviewed.

Courtesy of Eric Wesson from next page Casey and news icon Dave Helling from KXAN News Lisa Rodriguez and from the World of television news CBC's Eric Graves.

And I'm Nick Haines from all of us here at Kansas City PBS.

Be well, keep calm and carry on.