Kansas City could put up to $600 million into a new Royals stadium downtown under a plan announced Thursday.
The ballpark would go up just east of Union Station, north of Crown Center, in what’s now Washington Square Park.
The city would float municipal bonds to help support the $1.9 billion project, to be paid off through taxes on new economic activity related to the stadium, and existing sources.
The state of Missouri could kick in tax incentives totaling up to half the cost of the project. The Royals would then lease the stadium for a minimum of 30 years.
The proposed ordinance was referred to the city council’s Finance Committee without a vote, but Mayor Quinton Lucas and nine of the 12 city council members have endorsed it as co-sponsors. The committee could approve the proposal as soon as next week, and it would then go to the full city council for a vote.
“When completed, it will be the largest single economic development project in the history of Downtown Kansas City,” Lucas wrote in a statement.
How did we get here?
The Royals haven’t officially embraced the proposal yet, and the team has also previously entertained incentive packages to build in North Kansas City and Johnson County — although those discussions appear to have fallen apart in recent months.
Royals owner John Sherman told KCUR’s Up To Date that he likes the idea of building the stadium in the middle of the city. And Lucas told the Kansas City Star that the Washington Square Park funding package came together in concert with the team.
“This is the work Kansas City needs to do to keep the Royals in Kansas City, and that work is just beginning,” said City Manager Mario Vasquez in a press release. “The next steps are for us to work closely with the Kansas City Royals and the broader community to ensure the success of this generational opportunity.”
Two years ago this month, Kansas City voters soundly rejected a proposal to build a new stadium in the Crossroads Arts District, just south of the downtown loop. That stadium site would have bulldozed dozens of viable businesses and required a 40-year extension of a sales tax that has long supported both Kauffman Stadium and Arrowhead Stadium.
Washington Square Park has been the city’s preferred location since. It’s on the streetcar line, connecting the possible stadium to hotels from the Riverfront to the Country Club Plaza. It’s also adjacent to Crown Center and thousands of existing parking spots.
And unlike that 2024 tax extension, Kansas City’s plan to finance the Royals stadium this time would not require a public vote.
Jackson County taxpayers largely funded the construction of what’s now Kauffman Stadium, along with Arrowhead Stadium, in the 1970s. The Royals say Kauffman needs to be replaced, claiming the facility is deteriorating quickly owing to the use of faulty concrete in construction.
The Truman Sports Complex is currently supported by a 3/8-cent sales tax that will end in 2031.
In December, the Kansas City Chiefs announced that they will move across state lines — building a new $3 billion domed stadium in Wyandotte County, Kansas, and a headquarters in Olathe. That project will be publicly funded, mostly with STAR bonds, thanks to a special tax incentives package passed by a bipartisan group of Kansas lawmakers.
Carlos Moreno
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KCUR 89.3
Washington Square Park, near Crown Center and Union Station, is local official’s preferred site for a Kansas City Royals baseball stadium.
Opposition emerges
Two Kansas City Council members who are normally opposed on most issues, Nathan Willett and Jonathan Duncan, both spoke out on social media Thursday to argue that voters deserve a chance to weigh in.
“Any proposal should be approved by the taxpayers of Kansas City,” said Willett, who is currently running as a Republican for Congress. “Willett is absolutely correct this public investment should go to a vote of the people,” Duncan responded.
The Missouri Workers Center, a coalition of low-wage workers, said in a statement that it “vehemently” opposes the plan.
“We are told there is not enough money to address our rising rents, underfunded schools, inadequate public transit, and limited access to healthcare and childcare,” the group wrote. “Over the lifetime of the bond, there will be over $1 billion in lost tax revenue that could go to the services our communities need to improve our lives and care for our families — and that does not include state tax incentives. If billionaire owner John Sherman wants a downtown stadium, he should pay for it.”
When the Royals first announced their intentions to build a stadium downtown, the Missouri Workers Center publicly pressured the team to sign a community benefits agreement that would ensure livable wages and union jobs for stadium workers, and guarantee the construction of affordable housing around the prospective stadium.
Then, when the Royals declined or watered down those demands, the Missouri Workers Center and other community groups left the negotiating table and urged voters to reject the 2024 vote.
“This time, the City is doing the Royals’ bidding in a way explicitly designed to ram through their proposal with no transparency for the public and no vote of the people — and using our taxpayer dollars to make it happen,” the group wrote in its recent statement. “It reeks of corruption.”
What comes next
Should City Council pass the ordinance, however, that does not mean the stadium is a done deal. Issues such as rezoning Washington Square Park, approval of a Tax Increment Financing plan, Missouri’s financial contribution still lay ahead — as well as securing the Royals’ own participation.
Lucas says the 81 home games a year at the stadium will generate tens of thousands of hotel stays in the area.
If the Royals agree to hammer out a deal to build under the proposed funding structure, the team would have to stop playing Kansas and other municipalities against Kansas City in its search for a new stadium location.
