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You know I'm a big Royals fan, Hell I'm a Kansas City fan period.  But I am going to make a prediction that unfortunately I believe will come true in the next 7 to ten years.  I think Kansas City will lose the Royals franchise to another city within that time _frame_.      Lets face it, KC is a football town, The Chiefs, as long as they are winning are the life blood of sports fans in the KC area.  It didnt used to be like that.  I remember back in the late 70's and early to mid 80's KC was a _base_ball town.  This is when the Chiefs were bad, remember when they were bad? Like last year bad?  The Royals were a perennial playoff team with, George Brett, Amos Otis, Fred Patek, Hal McCrae, Cookie Rojas, Paul Splittorff, Brett Saberhagen, Dan Quisenberry, Whitey Herzog, and fans that would pack the ball park almost every night.  I remember those times and the times I cussed the Yankees for knocking us out of the playoffs every year. I remember those times do you?  That was when they couldnt pay people to come and watch the Chiefs over at Arrowhead.     I also remember back in the early 60's when I was just a small boy, my father  took me to the old Municipal Stadium, to watch a team called the Kansas City A's play, anybody remember them?  Charles Finley was the owner then, and he fielded bad team after bad team.  The A's were about as good as a triple A farm club back then and Finley was just a little too tight with his cash to run a top flight organization.     Charles Finley killed _base_ball in KC in the mid 60's, but the people of KC also had a hand in it, because they didnt support the team.  About this same time in history, a guy named Lamar Hunt brought a team from Dallas to KC, they were called the Texans back then but changed their name to the Chiefs and were very good, very quick, they played in the first ever Super Bowl against a very good Green Bay team and lost.  But every year through the mid 60's to early 70's the Chiefs were in the playoff picture and even won a super bowl in 1970.  Remember that folks?  At about the same time as the Chiefs were winning these division _title_s, Charles Finley took the Kansas City Athletics, who were previously the Philadelphia Athletics to the Golden State for greener grass and bigger revenues.  So KC was a one sports town for about a 3 year period.  Until Ewing Kaufman brought us the expansion team known as the Royals here around 1969.  We built a stadium complex, and the Royals, with the help of Kaufmans money (pharmacueticals) and a good general manager,( John Shuerholz)  now with Atlanta,  We built a great team that took a world Series from St. Louis in 1985.  Back then the Chiefs were going through the dark period remember that folks?  Now the tables have been turned once again, the Chiefs have been pretty good now for a decade, and the Royals havent,  Ewing dies, and takes his money and corporate sponsorship with him, the Royals are left in a lurch, no owner and no prospects for enough money to rejuvenate this team.  Where is Hallmark? Sprint?  any one of a dozen multi billion dollar companies that are Kansas City bred and _base_d that want to take a chance on bringing respectable _base_ball back to the fans of KC?  All we can hope for is the dark knight from some big city like New york to come in here and make a lot of false promises about keeping the Royals in KC.  But where is the money for talent, where is the 50 million dollars for payroll to compete on the free agency market?  This is a must in todays _base_ball if you want to be competitive. The Royals are nothing more than a good AAA farm club playing major league ball.  The fans will not support this team unless it wins.  This team will not be a winner unless a major corporate sponsor is willing to spend the amount of money necessary to compete in todays world of big budgets and free agency.  I really dont buy into this idea that KC is a small market, KC and the surrounding suburbs hold just as many people as St. Louis or Minneapolis, or Cincinnatti, or Pittsburgh,  This is a regional team, remember when we used to be the KC/Omaha Royals, we were the midwests team, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Arkansas and northern Oklahoma.  That support is still out there, but basically it all boils down to the fan _base_,  KC fans do not go to games because the Royals are not winners.  KC will not support a non winning team.  Remember the Kings or the Blues?  That is why I say, unless there are very big changes like, revenue sharing, or a salary cap in _base_ball, or a big time corporate owner for the Royals in the next 7-10 years, the Royals will become the next franchise to move to another city, maybe Nashville or maybe Phoenix.  Then Royals stadium will become Wizard stadium or something like that.  Do you think I'm wrong? write me back and tell me your opinion.  All of the above is _base_d on memory and some of my facts or figures maybe off but i stand by my convictions.  Sincerely, Eric Bartlett  A Kansas City Fan.

    Charles Finley killed _base_ball in KC in the mid 60's, but the people of KC also had a hand in it, because they didnt support the team.  About this same time in history, a guy named Lamar Hunt brought a team from Dallas to KC, they were called the Texans back then but changed their name to the Chiefs and were very good, very quick, they played in the first ever Super Bowl against a very good Green Bay team and lost.  But every year through the mid 60's to early 70's the Chiefs were in the playoff picture and even won a super bowl in 1970.  Remember that folks?  At about the same time as the Chiefs were winning these division _title_s, Charles Finley took the Kansas City Athletics, who were previously the Philadelphia Athletics to the Golden State for greener grass and bigger revenues.  So KC was a one sports town for about a 3 year period. The Chiefs started playing in KC in 1963, and became contenders in 1968.  The A's left Kansas City after the 1967 season, and the Royals began play in 1969. They were HEAVILY supported when they came to town.  This was the heyday of Kansas City's sports scene.  It didn't matter that the Royals were an expansion club

I read your entire post, and one of the reply's to it, and I have to admit, both of them bring up some good points.  I am a die hard KC fan, but I moved away from there up to the north just about 6 months ago.  I love the Chiefs, and I love the Royals too. After last season's terrible showing by the Chiefs I noticed something.  It seemed to me that the fans are starting to swing back to _base_ball.  They say everything goes in cycles.  I think this is the start of another cycle. Sure the Chiefs are looking good this year, but that's what everyone thought last season too.  Remember all the 16-0 talk?  And this year we have a new coach, so I don't think anyone is expecting much.  I have a notion they may be back on the downward swing.  I do hope I'm wrong about that though. As for the boys in blue, they are a heck of an exciting team to watch this season.  I agreed with all of the minor league team playing in the majors comments last season, but not this one.  We have some real talented young guys out there on the field and the fans are responding to it.  Attendance is way up this season.  I have a friend that works for the Royals and he said we are about 100,000-150,000 ahead of where we were last year in attendance.  We're averaging about 22,000 a game.  Last year it was 17,000. To me, this shows that the fans are hungry for _base_ball again, and that they like what they see in our hometown team.  We just have to rely on the not-so-reliable Royals front office now to hold on to these guys and get some free agents to fill our team out.  I'd say we're a bullpen and a starter away from a decent playoff shot. I really hope the Royals don't move.  I really want them to find an owner, and I hope they can do it soon, cause from the games I've seen, I'm looking forward to these guys in about 2-3 years from now.  Just remember, we need to do our best as fans and go out and support them. BEC

You know I'm a big Royals fan, Hell I'm a Kansas City fan period.  But I am going to make a prediction that unfortunately I believe will come true in the next 7 to ten years.  I think Kansas City will lose the Royals franchise to another city within that time _frame_. Do you think I'm wrong? No, I don't think you're wrong. I'm 35 and remember going to old municiple as well. The only point you made that I would disagree with would be your guesses as to what city the Royals will reside in next. My guess would be either Washington DC or San Antonio, TX. Hound