The Kansas City Royals give fans something to believe in… for one Sunday
“I just want to see a win,” Ken Wharton of Emporia, Kansas, tells me when I ask what has brought him to Kauffman Stadium this past Sunday.
His fingers scratch an itch not far from his heart, under the light-blue Royals jersey he’s wearing. He thinks for a second about what he has said.
“Just a win,” he says again, trailing off and raising his shoulders slightly.
Wharton gets swallowed in the pregame crowd as the smell of roasted nuts and Papa John’s pizza wafts over the concourse. The allegiances worn on fans’ backs is spread among the Wildcats, Tigers and Jayhawks, but there’s also a small contingent of men wearing the other light-blue jerseys: Sporting KC. (The soccer club has a prominent billboard along Interstate 435 North on the way to the K.) Fans creeping to other franchises has to be a concern in a year that has seen the Royals move to demand-based ticket prices, even with the early season attendance numbers up.
Despite a 7-18 home record after Sunday’s game, the team is averaging an additional 5,000 fans this season (for a total of more than 23,000 per game) with Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game only a month away. Those numbers are a surprise in the wake of criticism that the franchise has drawn for “Our Time,” this year’s official slogan.
