Royals’ New $3B Stadium Lands Downtown, but Not Where Expected

The Royals are definitively moving to downtown Kansas City, as has been the expectation for months, but there are multiple large-scale twists in the MLB club’s updated ballpark plan.

The club said Wednesday it will not be developing a new stadium at Washington Square Park, a parcel that had been the subject of fast-rising focus by local officials. Instead, the Royals intend to develop a $3 billion stadium and mixed-use complex at Crown Center, just south of the park site that had been eyed. Among the new elements in the Royals’ plan:

• The project will be developed with greeting cards giant Hallmark, which will move from its current headquarters in Crown Center, and develop a new building within the complex. 
• The 85-acre development will include a “park-like central square,” along with fountains that are also a signature element of Kansas City and Kauffman Stadium, the Royals’ current home.
• The full financing is still being developed, but the city council in Kansas City has already approved up to $600 million in funding, while state money is also being pursued and will be garnered from Missouri’s Show-Me Sports Investment Act. Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe was part of Wednesday’s announcement. The Royals and Hallmark, meanwhile, said there will be an expected private investment of at least $2 billion, representing the largest such outlay in the city’s history.

The Royals intend to break ground on the new stadium next year and open the venue by 2031, when the Kauffman Stadium lease will have expired. 

“There are many great ballpark neighborhoods in Major League Baseball, but this is a bigger project with more land downtown and in the heart of the city,” said Royals owner John Sherman. “We are bringing a modern, state-of-the-art ballpark experience to our fans, close to our public transportation, and where more people work and live.”

With the announcement of the stadium and development deal, Sherman and the Royals also released a new set of conceptual renderings for the forthcoming stadium. The owner, however, acknowledged there is still “a lot of work to do” on the venue design. 

Close Ties

The Royals and Hallmark have long aligned as two of the most prominent corporate entities in the Kansas City area. Hallmark, meanwhile, also designed the team’s logo after Kansas City gained an expansion MLB franchise that began play in 1969. 

“When the new Royals stadium opens at Crown Center, something proud will come full circle,” said Hallmark Cards executive board chair Don Hall Jr. “The iconic Royals crown that Hallmark created will return to the very neighborhood where it was conceived.”

The NFL’s Chiefs, the Royals’ current neighbor in the Truman Sports Complex located east of the city center, are starting their own large-scale project in development after completing a deal in December for a $3 billion domed stadium and a separate team headquarters in Kansas. After the Chiefs signaled their intent to leave Missouri, officials in the Show-Me State amplified their efforts to ensure the Royals did not do the same.

“The Royals are staying home, and they are building a new home at the center of our region’s culture, arts, vibrance, and entrepreneurial success,” said Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas. “We are the visionaries of today, and we are changing Kansas City for the better.”

The club’s plans, meanwhile, mark another major step after Jackson County, Mo., voters delivered a stinging rebuke at the ballot box against a prior downtown ballpark plan, funded in part by a local sales tax.