Fans enjoyed home opener at Kauffman Stadium as stadiums sales tax vote looms

Fired up and ready.

“We figured if you're going to do it, you might as well go big, right?” said Nathan Brooks.

Brooks was part of opening day tailgating Thursday afternoon at Kauffman Stadium.

The new major league baseball season had fans looking ahead to big victories.

“Opening day?" "It's optimism, it's the thought that your team can win everything,” said Royals fan Tom Stanton.

With food on the grill and drinks in hand, fans like Rynner Stevens were preparing to watch the Royals open another season.

"Just jump up and down and wait,” Stevens said.

That's what voters in Kansas City, Missouri and Jackson County and officials with the Royals and Chiefs might be doing with just five days before an election that includes a vote on a stadiums sales tax to provide money for a new stadium for the ball club.

Royals fan Tom Stanton drove in from Omaha and said he wanted the stadium to stay at the Truman Sports Complex.

"I don't want this place to leave because, from an Omaha standpoint, it's easy to get down here, easy access to the interstate," Stanton said. "Come to a 6 o'clock game, be out by nine and home by midnight.”

Nathan Brooks, another Royals fan, said he is open to a change as long as it benefits the city.

“If it's a different experience that's okay," Brooks said. "I want them to create, I want them to make good decisions as a city and make the best decisions for our team and for people so we will make the best of it with whatever the situation is,” said Brooks.

Fans say this season they just want to see the Royals knock it out of the park.

“This is what it is all about ," Stanton said. "People coming together and watching baseball's first game of the season."