Royals One Step Closer to New Kansas City Stadium

The prospect of a new Royals ballpark in downtown Kansas City took a big step forward Tuesday as two different municipal boards advanced plans for a proposed $1.9 billion facility. 

The lengthy pursuit of the venue—with many twists and turns over the past several years—saw new and critical assent for a stadium at Washington Square Park, near Kansas City’s Crown Center and Union Station. The day’s developments included:

• The city council’s Finance, Governance, and Public Safety Committee unanimously approved a measure to continue stadium funding negotiations with the Royals. The panel referred the measure to the full city council, and a vote there could happen as soon as Thursday. The current plan being negotiated calls for up to $600 million in city funding, backed by tax revenue generated at the stadium and a surrounding mixed-use development. The approval, however, arrived after nearly three hours of sometimes-heated testimony from citizens opposing the potential public-sector outlay. That throng filled the city council chambers to standing-room levels.
• Kansas City’s Board of Parks and Recreation Commissioners similarly approved a resolution that authorizes the city manager to complete a lease agreement for the Royals at Washington Square Park. That move happened after the board briefly moved into executive session to discuss details around the resolution. 

“That’s an important part of what the end transaction is,” said Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas of the citizen pushback to the stadium plan. “Frankly, I think that gives us even more potential community benefit long-term. … This isn’t money that’s coming from a general-fund source somewhere else.”

A New Urgency

The Royals and owner John Sherman have actively pursued a new ballpark since soon after he acquired the club in 2019. That effort took a significant step backward two years ago after Jackson County, Mo., voters soundly rejected a proposal to use local sales tax funds to help finance a downtown facility. 

The search, however, has taken on a very different energy since the Chiefs, the Royals’ current neighbor in the Truman Sports Complex, struck a deal in December to build a new stadium and separate complex in Kansas. 

That forthcoming move by the NFL team helped galvanize local leaders in Missouri to prevent a similar shift by the Royals, and also led to a retooled ballpark financing plan that is far more focused on the stadium site itself. A parallel effort also remains in development to secure state funding for the project. 

“We got elected to keep things moving, and this was a vital step,” Lucas said after the committee vote Tuesday. “What you see today is a firm step that the Royals will continue to be in Kansas City, Missouri, for the long term.”

Sherman similarly said in February regarding the stadium deliberations that “it’s time to get on with it. I know our fans have stadium fatigue, or deal fatigue, and we’ve got that, too.”