Thread by @dlm_bmlawkc

Reflections on Jackson County voters' biggest mistake in a generation (a 🧵):
Let's start here -- this was a poor run campaign. The Royals failed to answer voters' legitimate questions (e.g., How would you keep Oak open?) and to correct KC Tenants' repeated misstatements.

The Royals never explained how businesses would be compensated if they were displaced. Any explanation would have been better than silence. Silence allowed these businesses to paint the worst picture possible. The Mayor said no business would be condemned. That wasn't enough.

The Royals needed someone out in front, to be the face of the proposal. To really sell it to voters. They had nobody. It's like they expected the proposal to sell itself. Meanwhile, the opposition was diligent in telling its story.

The opposition won the battle of hearts and minds. Clearly. Of course they largely won the battle with bullsh*t. This wasn't a new tax, at least not in any real sense. This wouldn't have displaced residents or hurt schools. No matter. No one corrected this crap.

It was frustrating to see this as a lawyer. I wanted to argue with these people. I did argue with these people. But arguing on twitter accomplishes nothing. These teams needed someone taking the argument to the voters. Again, they had no one. It was depressing.

My impression from speaking with friends and colleagues about the vote, many of whom live in Jackson County, is that a lot of yes voters stayed home. They took for granted the fact that someone else would get this done. The no voters were inspired. They turned out in force.

And it comes back to the Royals' poor campaign. They did nothing to inspire people to turn out to vote for the proposal. They seem to take this for granted too. They needed to create a sense of urgency. They needed to make the people who come to the stadiums come to the polls

I don't know if the teams will leave. I tend to think not. But they might. There is no longer zero risk. They have made clear they won't play in TSC as-is (Chiefs) or at all (Royals). And no one can make them. So something needs to get done or they are absolutely gone.

If and when the teams come back to the table, I'd love to see business owners in Jackson County who support the stadium--and I am one of them--organize to push this forward. We can tell a better story than KC Tenants can, mostly because the truth is on our side.

But we need to tell the story. It can't just be random people on social media arguing with other random folks on social media while the teams are running lame commercials and KC Tenants is running misleading attack ads. We need to fight back. Because sports matters here.

But it starts with the teams, and particularly the Royals. They need to do more to educate the public. To answer questions. To respond to lies. To lead. Otherwise, the people who didn't support them last time won't support them next time. And that would be sad.