Kauffman Stadium turns 40 years-old today. It’s a wonderful ballpark. Even more wonderful when one takes into account the time it was built. In the late 60s and early 70s places like Pittsburgh and Cincinnati -- following the example of Washington and Atlanta -- were going with multi-use stadiums. Places which could house both football and baseball, but which were pretty poor venues for both. Way worse for baseball, in my view.
Thankfully Kansas City built separate places for both the Royals and the Chiefs. It really resulted in two great venues. They’re both beautiful and, when the teams are good, exciting and fun places to see games. Amazing what happens when you let form follow function.
But it didn’t have to be that way. In fact, the city fathers of Kansas City once proposed a mighty dome for the Chiefs and Royals. And Royals Review has the story, along with some cool renderings.
Of course the renderings of these things are always cool. How much ya wanna bet that a real dome built in KC back then -- complete in its multi-use glory -- would be sub-Tropicana Field awful today. It it even survived the 80s.
