Its also no secret that they are Royals fans. The SKC guys reportedly go to several games a year.

I wish Glass would sell to someone who gave a shit about being competitive.

Final naive question . Do MLB rules prohibit cross ownership with an MLS franchise?

here's to hoping they can afford to make the Glass boys die of "natural causes"

Why don't they make glASS an offer he can't refuse.

nope. Some MLB, NBA, and NFL owners also have at least partial ownership of a MLS team.

The Cerner guys became a viable possibility only recently. Before they came along, there was really nobody for Glass to sell to and be assured of keeping the team in KC. Every other wealthy KC family doesn't give a damn about sports.

I don't buy the whole "I can't sell the team and be assured it would stay in KC," spin. Glass has been terrible for the team.

For 20 years he has been a vampire, sucking every last penny out. Now that he has demolished the fanbase, he is putting in just enough to break even and stir up enough interest to get a few more cashflow heartbeats out of the dead rotting corpse that is Royal's baseball. Then he'll die and leave it to his son to sell to whomever.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Asked who his backup SS is, Ned Yost said &quot;You,&quot; meaning me. Holy crap, you guys. The Royals are screwed.</p>&mdash; Andy McCullough (@McCulloughStar) <a href="https://twitter.com/McCulloughStar/statuses/453639184004050944">April 8, 2014</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Why not bring up Colon and send down one of our worthless relievers?

Fine, but you are wrong.

No one else was willing to buy the team unless they could relocate, and everyone in KC (until recently) who could afford the team didn't care about sports and didn't want it.

Because it would cost them $400M. At 10% interest that's 40m they'd have to find in savings on revenue of 130m. That can come from two sources: Slashing payroll 40m or raising revenue 40m. If people want lower payrolls or higher prices they should want Cerner

So you would presume to know all of the potential suitors to purchase the Royals in the last 20 years? Seems to be a lofty assumption.

Indications are that the Glass family is not willing to sell at this time.

"Would love for them to pick up the phone" is something I've heard the SportingClub guys say in the past, when interviewed.

So where is the 25% increase in ticket prices being spent?

I imagine they'd look at the team as another long-term investment and focus more on doing well over 10 years and 20 years than on balancing the purchase price immediately. That's what they've done with SKC.

Assuming they'd have to slash $40 million from payroll is going a bit far, I think.

For one thing, it assumes it's true the Royals are losing money last year/this year on payroll.

For another, it assumes they wouldn't improve the fan experience and drive attendance up. From what I've seen, I have no doubt that group would make sure it made the K a more fun, attractive environment and increase attendance and revenue.

Finally, those guys seem savvy enough to realize that the No. 1 factor for being profitable is winning and having good perception in your community. Buying the team and immediately slashing $30 million from the payroll would hurt your bottom line because it depresses excitement.

Even if they're trying to break even on the overall balance sheet, I don't think you'd see those guys chopping payroll into the $50-60 million area.