MLB's Royals announce plans for $1.9BILLION downtown stadium… after Chiefs opted to leave for Kansas

While the NFL’s Chiefs are clicking their little red heels to Kansas, Major League Baseball’s Royals are doubling down on Kansas City, Missouri with a newly announced $1.9 billion stadium deal.

Developers will break ground for the Royals’ new ballpark next year as part of a $3 billion mixed-use development project centered around the stadium. In moving their longtime home from Kauffman Stadium to the downtown Crown Center area, the Royals have partnered with Hallmark, the greeting card company which is planning to erect a new headquarters within the 85-acre project.

‘This is a partnership between two treasured Kansas City institutions,’ Royals owner John Sherman told reporters on Tuesday. ‘We are committed to creating a vision which honors our history, the rich past of both organizations, while reinvigorating and reimagining what our future can be together.’

As for funding, two thirds of the project is financed by private sources, while public tax dollars and bond purchases will be used to cover the rest. A portion of that public funding was previously earmarked for stadium projects with a law enacted last year authorizing the bonds.

‘We think it’s a great investment for our Missouri taxpayers, because this does not affect existing programs,’ Missouri Governor Mike Kehoe said. ‘The ripple effect from this facility will truly be far-reaching into rural Missouri and other parts of the state.’

The announcement follows Kansas City Officials’ decision to authorize City Manager Mario Vasquez to negotiate a $600 million deal with the Royals.

A general view of the sky lighting up as the Kansas City Royals play at Kauffman Stadium

The Crown Center area will be connected by streetcar to the Power & Light District, which includes the T-Mobile Center, a venue known for hosting rodeos, combat sports and college basketball games.

Previously, the Royals announced their intention to leave Kauffman Stadium when their lease expires at the Truman Sports Complex in five years.

Tuesday’s announcement comes after the city’s failed attempt to keep the Chiefs, who have since announced their intention to move across the state line into Kansas.

The Chiefs and Royals were previously aligned on a project to renovate Arrowhead Stadium and replace Kauffman Stadium, but voters rejected a 2024 proposal to fund that plan through the extension of a sales tax.

Consequently, $2.4 billion in bonds were issued to cover 60 percent of a new domed stadium in Kansas City, Kansas, where the Chiefs will begin playing in 2031.

Renderings of a proposed domed stadium for the Chiefs were released back in May 2024

Sherman has cited Atlanta’s Truist Park as a good example of a ballpark and development project financed by private and public funds. 

In Georgia, the Cobb-Marietta Coliseum & Exhibit Hall Authority raised nearly $400 million in bonds, while the county raised millions more in transportation taxes, while local business and the Braves covered the rest. In total, the park and surrounding real estate cost around $1.1 billion.

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

But economists remain skeptical over the use of tax funds for stadiums, which often fail to deliver their promised economic impact for communities.

Currently, 49 of the 60 stadiums used by the NFL and MLB are either publicly owned or sit on public land, and a growing number of fans hope to see those teams continue with their current facilities.

‘We’ve got a perfectly good stadium sitting there that was recently renovated and we’re still paying on that,’ Royals fan Jim Meyer told The Associated Press in 2023. ‘There is no real reason to replace it.’