KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Business owners are excited about the impending sale of the Country Club Plaza. The Kansas City mayor said the sale is ready to happen.

Some store owners have been located on the Plaza for years, others are thinking about filling a vacant storefront with word of the sale.

Mayor Quinton Lucas calls it one of the most exciting things bound to happen in Kansas City this year.

In spite of being well beyond the Dallas based buyer’s original goal of closing the deal by the end of 2023, Lucas said it will happen soon.

“It is imminent, it is impending and it’s exciting,” Lucas said.

“Everybody’s excited about this sale,” owner of Larissa’s Plaza Tailor Shop Michael Naumov said.

For more than 20 years, Naumov and his family have owned Larissa’s Plaza Tailor Shop. He said several vacant store fronts now plague the plaza.

“I don’t think I’ve seen this many empty stores, since Houston’s closed and Zacolo’s closed, and Chuy’s closed, “and a lot of restaurants closing and leaving,” he said.

He hopes the impending sale of the Plaza means new life and more foot traffic.

“We’re a small independent family-owned business. So, for us it’s a little easier,” Naumov said. “for more corporate bigger stores, restaurants it’s a lot hard, it definitely affects it.”

Lucas said the deal will be signed soon.

He went to Dallas in the spring to mee with the owners of Highland Park Village, the potential buyers. Lucas said people can expect the ownership group to bring back unique brands and local businesses, along with more office space and housing.

“I think exciting for us to be able to say how can we look at a regeneration of retail opportunities, dining opportunities, or public safety, which the group, Highland Park Village in Dallas, has spent a lot of time working on, and I really think it really will be a public private partnership.”

He also believes public safety will be a priority.

“I think it really will be a public-private partnership, not just in funding and looking at any type of support that they may look at from the city of Kansas City, but also, in how we can do safety better, how through more private security, working closely with KCPD, to make sure everyone can feel safe when they’re on the Country Club Plaza,” Lucas said. “So I think this is one of the most exciting things that is bound to happen in Kansas city this year.”

Domhnall Molloy is a co-owner of the Summit Restaurant Group. They just opened a ninth restaurant in the Kansas City metro and own eateries like 3rd Street Social and Summit Grill.

He said they’ve looked at the plaza a few times, but never made the jump due to expensive hurdles that worked against them.

Molloy said he’s hopeful that could change with new ownership of the Plaza.

“Hopefully with the new ownership, maybe they’ve got a better deal, and they’re able to make rent more aligned with the market and hopefully we can get some more independent restaurants back on the Plaza,” Molloy said.

“I definitely just want to see more businesses,” Naumov said, “less empty stores.”

He’s looking forward to a change in ownership of the Plaza.

The Kansas City Chiefs have dominated a lot of teams in recent years, but who have they played the best against?

Let’s look at who they have the best records against, according to Pro Football Reference.

Younger Chiefs fans might not remember this but for 25 years, the Seahawks resided in the AFC West and therefore played the Chiefs frequently. In 2002 when the Texans entered the NFL, divisions had to be reworked and the Seahawks were sent to the NFC West.

None of that changes the fact that the Chiefs have had tremendous success against the Seahawks during their history, owning a .642 winning percentage against Seattle. The Chiefs have won four of their last five match-ups against the Seahawks with the most recent win coming on Christmas Eve in 2022 (a 24-10 victory), which was the only time these two had ever played each other on a Saturday.

The Chiefs don’t play the Falcons very often since they’re in different conferences but when they have met up, it’s been all Chiefs. KC holds a winning percentage of .700 against the Falcons and have won 70% of their match-ups against Atlanta.

The Chiefs are riding a two-game win streak against the Falcons with their latest victory coming in 2020. It was a narrow 17-14 win. The last time the Falcons took down the Chiefs was in the season opener of the 2012 season when Atlanta blasted KC to the tune of a 40-24 victory. It’s been all Chiefs ever since though.

Sticking in the NFC South, the Chiefs have had plenty of success against the Panthers, posting a .714 winning percentage and a 5-2 record over Carolina. The two have only played each other seven times due to the Panthers entering the league in 1995 and residing in the NFC.

The Chiefs are riding a three-game win streak over the Panthers, which started in 2012. Every win has been by six points or fewer though so it’s not like the Chiefs have just demolished Carolina every time the two have met up.

Second on the list is the Cardinals, who the Chiefs own a .750 winning percentage over and have won 10 games against while only dropping three (and recording a rare tie, which oddly enough happened in the two franchise’s first-ever meeting against each other). The Chiefs have won two in a row against Arizona with the most recent win coming in the season opener of the 2022 season.

The last time the Chiefs lost to the Cardinals was in the 2014 season and it was a close 17-14 defeat. The Chiefs ended up missing the playoffs by one game that year so a lot of fans circled that game as the reason why KC didn’t make the postseason that year.

The team that the Chiefs have had the most success against in the NFL is none other than the Washington Commanders. They own a .909 winning percentage against the Commanders franchise and have only dropped one game to them ever and that happened in 1983 when Washington was good and the Chiefs were bad.

Since that loss, the Chiefs have won eight straight games against Washington. The most recent win came in 2021 when Kansas City handled the Commanders with ease, winning 31-13.

The Royals 11-5 loss to the Yankees was a culmination of everything this team struggles with exemplified.

Kansas City made the decision to push Dan Altavilla to the starting mound as part of Matt Quatraro’s desire to spice up a rotation that’s missing one of its top guys in Michael Wacha. Altavilla was attempting to play an “opener” role for the Royals before he was supposed to be relieved by Daniel Lynch for a majority of the game. Unfortunately for Kansas City, Altavilla wouldn’t make it past the first out. Lynch would come in down two runs with the bases loaded and only a single out. The Royals would have been better off just allowing Lynch to take the mound in a traditional start.

The Royal’s early pitching struggles continued in this game, allowing another collection of first-inning runs to be earned by the Yankees. The Royals constantly starting in a losing position has created an almost impossible-to-break cycle of going down early and not being able to crawl back. The Royal’s big comeback win over the Mariners last week was an example of an outlier more than anything else. Despite great offensive games from players like Bobby Witt Jr and Salvador Perez, the offense was too inconsistent to go run-for-run with the likes of the Yankees big three. The Royals will attempt to not get swept as they conclude the series with the Yankees at 1:10 p.m. tomorrow.

9:53 p.m. – The Royals put two more runners on base but it always seemed too little too late for Kansas City. They suffer their third straight loss to the Yankees and will attempt to avoid the sweep tomorrow. 11-5 Yankees

9:39 p.m. – Kansas City is resilient. Even when the game seems to be put away, the Royals continue to make noise on the base paths putting two on before being retired in the bottom of the eighth inning. It always seemed like too little too late for Kansas City, but their insistence to fight shows a lot of pride and tenacity in this young team. 11-5 Yankees

9:19 p.m. – The Royals put together another surge, this time adding three runs all while having two outs on the board. Unfortunately it’s only enough to cover the runs given up by the Torres home run last inning, meaning the Royals are still down six runs going into the eigth inning. Witt Jr and Pasquantino add RBIs, but this would make it the fourth series in a row the Royals have lost a game after scoring 5+ runs. Though Witt Jr has played well, and Perez picks up his first career game with 3+ drawn walks. 11-5 Yankees

9:00 p.m. – You could count the positives for the Royals in this game on one hand and still have most of your fingers left. It has been an absolutely abysmal night for the Royals on both sides of the plate barring a single half inning. Another home run, this time provided by Gleyber Torres, gives the Yankees three more runs. Both Royals pitchers have allowed over five earned runs in this one. There is a lot to be learned from losses, but the coaching staff may be better off burning the tape of this one and coming back on a clean slate tomorrow. 11-2 Yankees

8:51 p.m. – An inning that would usually be called a success for the Royals is overshadowed by the remaining six-run defecit. The Royals managed to bring home two, but still find themselves with a more than tough deficit to come back from. That’s why it is so crucial for the Royals to not take themselves out of games early. Kansas City has the ability to score runs quickly, but when you go down by a margin of six runs before coming to the plate you are doomed for failure. 8-2 Yankees

8:41 p.m. – The Royals finally have a star show up to play as Bobby Witt Jr extends his hit streak to 13 games with an RBI double. Kansas City now has the same amount of hits this inning as in the previous five innings combined. It can’t be this hard for the Royals to produce offense against the back halves of rotations no matter who Kansas City is playing. Cody Poteet goes 5.1 innings and only allows a single run on 88 pitches. 8-1 Yankees

8:33 p.m. – Kansas City’s offense has been lifeless through this contest. It matches their season-long struggle with consistency and not relying on explosive innings. The production from the Royal’s young stars has just not been there. It is very possible the Royals have a breakthrough moment in this game, putting on multiple runs in an inning, but the deficit and the offensive inconsistency inning-by-inning are putting the Royals in a crater-sized hole. 8-0 Yankees

8:22 p.m. – Lynch made his first big mistake of the game, allowing Stanton to take him deep over the left field wall. Royals pitchershave been extremely succeptiable to the home run ball not just in this series, but their entire June slump as a whole. Going back to allowing back-to-back leadoff home runs to J.P. Crawford, the Royals have been getting blasted by the long ball. 8-0 Yankees

8:13 p.m. – Daniel Lynch has looked good in this game. Outside of the home run that he allowed in the first inning he has not allowed much from the Yankees. He has held New York scoreless and hitless since the first inning as well. Quatraro’s decision to not only go with an opener, but an opener that had only pitched a single time for the Royals after over 1000 days away from baseball is a questionable one at best. The Royals wanted to try something different with Wacha absent from the rotation and it backfired big time. 6-0 Yankees

7:50 p.m. – Lynch has looked much better in the last two innings, you have to wonder where the Royals would be if they just elected to start him the traditional way. The hitting has been slow but Lynch has only allowed a single earned run thus far. 6-0 Yankees

7:40 p.m. – The Royals just can’t get out of their own way. The Yankees looked like a much superior team through the first two games of the series, and they look that way again today. The Royals were gifted a baserunner with an infield error just for Nelson Velazquez to hit into a routine double play. The pitching looks devoid of confidence so far and the offense is falling back into its bad habit of inconsistency. 6-0 Yankees

7:25 p.m. – Kansas City has a problem. They are getting beat up often and early by the Yankees. New York managed to bring nine total batters to the plate before Kansas City could pick up its first three outs. The Royals won’t make it very far in the postseason or to the postseason at all if they keep finding themselves down five or more runs before they even get a chance to hit the ball. The injury to Michael Wacha has left this team with a major gap in its rotation that is costing them crucial games in a tight division race. Daniel Lynch was brought in to face a bases-loaded situation and allowed all three runs to score, plus a run of his own on a three-run Trevino home run. 6-0 Yankees

7:20 p.m. – The Royals have had an epidemic of bad first innings this month. Altavilla only retired one of the first six batters that he faced. It has been a familiar story for Kansas City as they’ve allowed a first inning run in their last seven games. Matt Quatraro pulls Altavilla and wastes the concept of an opener early. Daniel Lynch will now start with one out, bases loaded, and already losing by multiple runs. 2-0 Yankees

7:10 p.m. – The game is underway as the unconvential “opener” Dan Altavilla gets the game started.

Kansas City, MO. – The Royals have struggled against the Yankees so far. The Royals pitching staff has struggled especially, not just with the Yankees but the entire month of June. Matt Quatraro has decided to change it up and go to an “opener” role to start this game. Dan Altavilla will make his first career start and just his second appearance for the Royals.

Kansas City will have to not get in trouble early if they want to win this game. The Royals have allowed a first-inning run in a large multitude of games ranging back to the Cleveland series. If Kansas City wants a shot to win this game and keep the split alive while playing the back end of their rotation, they need to hit the ball early and hard before the Yankees can pull ahead. The Royals always have a chance in close games, the issue they have been facing is that they are down more than they can handle early and it becomes unsurmountable.

Where: Kauffman Stadium, Kansas City, MO.

When: First pitch is scheduled for 7:10 p.m. CT. 

TV:  You can watch the game on Bally Sports KC or MLB.TV (blackouts may apply depending on location).

Starting Pitchers

KC – Dan Altavilla (0-0, 0 ERA, First Career Start)

NY – Cody Poteet (2-0, 1.72 ERA)

Batting Order/Lineup

KC: 1. Maikel Garcia (3B) 2. Bobby Witt Jr. (SS) 3. Vinnie Pasquantino (1B) 4. Salvador Perez (C) 5. Nelson Velazquez (RF) 6. Nick Loftin (2B) 7. Freddy Fermin (DH) 8. Garrett Hampson (LF) 9. Kyle Isbel (CF)

NY: 1. Anthony Volpe (SS) 2. Juan Soto (RF) 3. Aaron Judge (CF) 4. Giancarlo Stanton (DH) 5. Alex Verdugo (LF) 6. Gleyber Torres (2B) 7. Anthony Rizzo (1B) 8. Jose Trevino (C) 9. DJ LeMahieu (3B)

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