What’s the latest on the Royals’ search for a new stadium?

There’s some fear on the KCMO side that the Royals are going to Kansas, but apparently not to the Aspiria Campus

This probably isn’t breaking news to most people reading this, but the Kansas City Royals have been interested in leaving the Truman Sports Complex and building a new ballpark for years now, with their first choice somewhere downtown. Royals owner John Sherman first publicly floated the idea in 2021, and to quote Matthew LaMar in his extremely helpful timeline that he published back in 2024, it’s been a long and winding road since then.

Matthew published his article before Jackson County residents in April 2024 (personal disclosure: I voted on this and voted no) rejected a 3/8ths cents sales tax extension that would have helped fund a downtown ballpark for the Royals as well as renovations for GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium, home of the Kansas City Chiefs. The state of Kansas, meanwhile, passed legislation in June 2024 that would allow the state to finance up to 70% of the stadium project costs for both the Chiefs and Royals with STAR bonds if they decide to move across State Line Road.

It’s been fairly quiet on the stadium front since the STAR bonds passed. We know that the Royals have looked at a location at Washington Square Park, which is near Union Station and Crown Center. Sam McDowell of the Kansas City Star reported that the Royals have explored multiple locations since the failed vote, including one at 117th and Nall, near the old Sprint Campus (now the Aspiria Campus). The Chiefs sent out a fan survey about what people would want in a new stadium or at a renovated Arrowhead, but not much else has come out about what they are thinking.

Sherman spoke to the media this week, but didn’t offer much of an update, other than to let us know that he feels good about his options and that the Royals are still exploring options in Kansas and Missouri:

It’s a complicated process. We have multiple opportunities on both sides of the state line. It’s just a process. I feel really, really good. I have empathy for people who feel the process is not clarified

I’m glad that Sherman has empathy for us, but we still are left in the dark about what the Royals next steps are going to be. The STAR bonds are starting to creep towards their expiration date. The incentives sunset on June 30th, although the legislature does retain the option to extend the expiration date by one year. John Sherman has set a new target for the Royals to “be prepared to talk about it,” by mid-year of 2025, in late June or early July.

So while we are likely a few months out from hearing anything definitive, there are some interesting stories that have come out the past month. Some seem to indicate some sense of alarm from some people affiliated with the downtown Kansas City stadium project, while there were contradictory stories on whether the 117th and Nall location is still being considered, which as of this writing does not appear to be the case.

Let’s start with the KCMO side first. On March 6th, the Downtown Council of Kansas City publicized a resolution about the stadium. If you’re unaware of this group, the council describes itself on it’s about page:

The Downtown Council of Kansas City is a private, nonprofit membership organization representing Kansas City’s best businesses, property owners, nonprofit organizations, and anyone invested in Downtown’s success.

So to my eyes, the council seems similar to a Chamber of Commerce, or a lobbying group which is representing Downtown KC to City Hall, Jefferson City and wherever else downtown interests need to be represented. The group decided to go public with their resolution around the stadium, stating they are, “urging the City of Kansas City, Missouri to work with the Royals and other political jurisdictions and economic development agencies in Missouri to finalize an agreement to bring the stadium downtown.”

The author of the resolution and subsequent post, Gib Kerr, is a current Managing Director for Cushman & Wakefield and the Downtown City Council chair. Kerr is a big player in local real estate; he was involved with helping the KC Current pick their Riverfront location for CPKC stadium, and he helped broker a deal for a $526.7 million neighborhood redevelopment in the West Bottoms. Kerr, along with three other members of his family, were recently awarded the KC Business Journal Power Player award for their contributions to the commercial real estate industry and the community.

For Kerr to be trying to whip up public support and/or apply political pressure for the stadium right now is a noteworthy development. In his post, he seems to view the possibility of the Royals moving across State Line as a real threat, writing:

The State of Kansas is aggressively pursuing the Royals by offering a generous incentives package of STAR bonds that could potentially pay for the entire cost of a new stadium. We cannot ignore this very real competition.

He has way more insight into what is going on than I do, so I’m inclined to believe him that Kansas is aggressively pursuing the Royals. On the other hand, Kerr represents multiple properties in the Freight House District. The Freight House District is north of the proposed Washington Square Park site, where a potential Royals ballpark district has been conceptualized, so he has multiple incentives to be pushing hard for the Royals to end up choosing that site.

The other news surrounding the Washington Park site that broke recently is that the Blue Cross and Blue Shield office headquarters has been relisted as for sale. Real estate developer 3D Development (who are also involved in the Freight House District) put a purchase contract in for the site in August 2024 and offered to assign the contract to the city to help give Kansas City nearly all the property it would need to present the Royals a lease under the city’s control. Yet they have now chosen to relinquish the contract, and they explained their reasoning to Thomas Friestad as such:

We held the 2301 Main contract for 8 months with extensions, yet due to delays in the stadium decision from the end of 2024 to an expected June-July 2025 and without any commitment from the Royals, our group has chosen to terminate the purchase contracts.

We are very concerned that the Kansas ballpark incentives and site have become very compelling and we are at risk for missing this once in a half century opportunity to attract the Royals to downtown.

So here we have someone else financially tied in with the Washington Square Park project expression frustration with how the project is going, and expressing fear that the Royals are going to move to Kansas. They are sounding the alarm, presumably to try and bring pressure to all the parties involved in making this potential downtown stadium a reality instead of seeing the Royals move to Kansas.

Mayor Quinton Lucas also decided to speak on the issue, letting the public know that Kansas City has offered more than $1 billion to the Royals, claiming it does so with no local tax increase. I’m not sure what it looks like for Kanas City and the state of Missouri to scrounge up $1 billion, but my guess is it’s a lot of tax incentives and less about cash upfront. Presumably, since there is supposed to be no local tax increase, this would not need to be put in front of the voters again. I’m not sure what to think about Mayor Lucas’ public statement, other than that he wants his voters to know that he’s trying.

So what’s happening on the Kansas side of things? On Monday morning, 610 Sports Radio host Bob Fescoe reported that the Royals have reached out to the Jewish Community Center about purchasing their land, and gave the impression in his radio segment that its just about getting “i’s dotted and t’s crossed,” for the stadium to end up at the old Sprint Campus. Fescoe has long been beating the drum that both the Chiefs and Royals are going to end up in Kansas, so it wasn’t surprising to see him reporting this news, but coupled with the news and general alarm out of KCMO it seemed like this could be the start of us finding out that the Royals are getting ready to take their talents to Overland Park.

On Tuesday, however, the owners of Occidental Management threw cold water on the idea, writing in a statement:

There is a lot of speculation out there. This is just a rumor, and we are not talking with the Royals about moving to the Aspiria campus

Now the owner of this location isn’t necessarily incentivized to be fully disclosing to the public about what’s going on, but that’s a pretty strong statement and denial. If the Royals are going to move to 119th and Nall, they need the Aspiria campus, so as of now that option looks not to be a serious one. Sherman is his talks with the media also downplayed the Aspiria Campus option, saying the leak “didn’t come from us.” The Overland Park options have been the most publicly discussed and rumored options for a new Royals stadium on the Kansas side that I have seen. If the old Sprint Campus option is not far along or not likely to get done then we don’t have too many clues on where the Royals would be interested in playing baseball if they did end up in Kansas.

The information we have seen in the past month, while interesting to those of us who want to read into the tea leaves, doesn’t give us much to go on. Key players with the Washington Square site seem concerned and are trying to generate public and political pressure to get a deal between Kansas City and the Royals done. Meanwhile, the most publicly discussed Kansas option just received cold water on that being a real possibility. With around three months to go until the Royals latest target date of speaking publicly about their intentions for where they will end, we are left waiting and wondering. Maybe in the end, the Mission Gateway will be the location after all.