Sure -- and that's the wild card. No matter who is making the proposal, the economic impact to the surrounding community is always touted as the benefit "guaranteed" to offset the tax burden. It's also always the excuse for bending over backwards to keep a franchise in your city.

Now, take the Royals as a test case: You have Jackson County, the current site of Kauffman Stadium and more populous than the City of Kansas City (yeah, the redundancy is built in...), being set up against their will to oppose KC proper. It's not merely a different neighborhood getting the potential "collateral revenue" -- it's an entirely different incorporated municipality losing to another what they already have. Meanwhile, the particular part of Downtown KC being talked about is currently undeveloped. In other words, an entire neighborhood must be built first, before it can gain any benefit from the the proximity of a ballpark.

Have no fear, those development plans are in the works, too. "Everything's up to date in Kansas City", so says the song from the musical...

Thus, the trepidation on the part of the sports commentators in this town. That article from the Star I linked to expressed its fear of the franchise leaving as a direct result of the two governmental entities being unable to agree -- precisely over the issue of collateral revenue.

The way things stand right now, the Royals don't want to move. Those who agree with them (i.e., the Jackson countians) are afraid that the downtown ballpark will take the revenue out of their tax base -- and, given Hobson's choice between one public funding tax or the other, they'll choose to finance renovating the existing stadium.

The fact remains that the Royals have lost 100 or more games in three out of the last four seasons. They almost did that in four of the last five (2001, they lost 97 games; 2003, they lost 79, finishing third place in their division at .512). Small incentive for any but the most rabid fans (and the bar owners near the existing stadium) to care.

As far as I know, attendance stats count seats sold, not seats occupied. I wonder how many ticket-holders stayed away these past two seasons.