American Royal Center — Local services in Kansas City

We , my wife and 2 yr. old grandchild, decided to go to the American Royal BBQ at the Speedway. I had my doubts, since I had been before and it's a waste of good money and time. However, my wife assured me they promised the BBQ was improved with a petting area for children, and lots of BBQ to taste. Still, I didn't believe it, because I grew up in KCMO and it was always stingy with BBQ and service. Well, we arrived at 3pm , and the $25. pp tickets and window sign promised 2-3 oz of BBQ from each tent. We walked for over an hour through rows and rows of tents, mostly empty. We saw beers offered for $7, mixed drinks for $14. We saw some 70 yr. old singers on a stage and 2 working food trucks. There were NO , repeat NO tents with any BBQ samples, No petting area with animals to see or touch for children, Absolutely Nothing for our money. Pathetic, but accurately consistent . American Royal...

The American Royal has a great location in the west bottoms of Kansas City. There is ample parking which the city does charge a fee for, but if you're willing to walk there is quite a bit of free parking also.This is a great place for many events each year, the most famous of which was the American Royal BBQ until it moved to its various other locations.Over the years we have been to model train shows, the Lipizzaner Stallions and the Home and Garden Show just in a few. It's good to see that the next door Kemper Arena is being remodeled to keep the area alive. From what I understand the American Royal it's going to move out to Kansas City Kansas, hopefully somebody will find a way to use...

Sorry American Royal but you lost almost all credibility with your ridiculous BBQ contest event this past weekend. You sponsored a nationwide BBQ contest with only one retail BBQ vender to sell to well over 10,000 public patrons? And those same patrons by the way had to pay $25 per ticket just to get in (which was also after paying a $10 cash only ticket for parking). All remaining vendors selling water and soda were sold out within an hour on a 90+ degree day. Basically your $25 ticket paid for your ability to walk around looking at empty BBQ tent after empty BBQ tent ..enjoy my money because you will never make a dime off of...