KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The Kansas City Royals intend to build their new downtown ballpark blocks away from T-Mobile Center and the Power & Light District, scrapping two concepts elsewhere in the city for a location that puts the stadium closer to existing entertainment areas.
The Royals revealed plans for the $2 billion-plus ballpark project Tuesday at Kauffman Stadium, two days after the Kansas City Chiefs -- whose Arrowhead Stadium shares the Truman Complex with their existing ballpark -- won their third Super Bowl in the past five years, and one day before the city celebrates another Lombardi Trophy with a parade downtown.
"This is going to be awesome!!! Can't wait!" Chiefs quarterback and Super Bowl MVP Patrick Mahomes wrote on X in response to renderings of the new Royals ballpark.
The parade route Wednesday travels along Grand Avenue to Union Station, or directly past the location of the new ballpark.
"We're the second-smallest city with both an NFL franchise and Major League Baseball club," Royals owner John Sherman said, "and we want to sustain ourselves as a major league city. We want these franchises to thrive here for another 50 years."
The new ballpark -- located in "the heart of Kansas City," per an X post from the team -- will seat about 34,000 fans, or roughly 3,000 fewer than Kauffman Stadium, and the Royals are hopeful it would be ready for the 2028 season. The final design is still under development, but renderings shown Tuesday paid homage to the K's swooping roof lines and iconic center-field fountains.
"The ballpark will have a really great feeling of intimacy," Sherman said.
Kansas City started play at Municipal Stadium in 1969, then moved to Kauffman Stadium in 1973 and extensively renovated the current ballpark from 2009-12.
The Royals unveiled two other locations last fall, one on the eastern edge of downtown and the other across the Missouri River in Clay County, Missouri. Both were met with tepid reaction from fans, many of whom still love Kauffman Stadium, and political infighting ensued over the extension of a sales tax in Jackson County, Missouri, to help pay for the ballpark.
The Royals' ownership group plans to invest more than $1 billion in private funding for the project, but some of the money will come from the 3/8-cent tax, which also will provide funding that the Chiefs plan to use to renovate Arrowhead Stadium.
"I know I'm biased here," Sherman said, "but between what the Chiefs can do out here with an expanded tailgate experience, and what we do down there, we will have two of the best pregame and postgame experiences in all of sports."
The Royals and Chiefs pushed to put the sales tax on the April 2 ballot, and Jackson County legislators initially approved the referendum, only to watch Jackson County executive Frank White -- a five-time All-Star and member of the Royals' Hall of Fame -- veto the measure. Last month, two legislators changed their vote and joined five others in overriding the veto.
That not only put the tax extension on the ballot, it put the onus on the Royals to reveal exactly what voters will be paying for.
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The new ballpark would be situated adjacent to Interstate 670, where the Kansas City Star's former printing press building sits largely vacant, and tie together several disparate neighborhoods into a more cohesive downtown environment.
Just to the north, where new parks would cover the interstate and allow for safe pedestrian traffic, sits Power & Light, the home to many existing bars and restaurants. To the south lies the Crossroads Art District, a trendy enclave anchored by the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. And to the east is the historic 18th & Vine neighborhood, home to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, the American Jazz Museum and iconic restaurants such as Arthur Bryant's Barbeque.
"The fact of the matter is, we've always been cognizant of this site. It never went away," said Earl Santee, the founder of the Kansas City-based sports architectural giant Populous. "We looked at other sites over time, and this is my 23rd major league ballpark site, and it's timing that leads you to the end, and this is the right timing for this site."
Santee compared the 17.3-acre site to downtown ballparks built in Denver, Pittsburgh and Minneapolis. There are about 20 property owners in the area and the Royals will need to negotiate with each of them to purchase their parcels of land.
"Development is happening in ways that are engaging," Santee said. "This will amplify the brand of Kansas City."
Indeed, the Royals hope the project continues what Sherman called "a golden era" for the former cowtown on the plains.
Over the past decade, Kansas City has hosted two World Series, baseball's All-Star Game and the NFL draft, while a $1.5 billion airport opened just over a year ago. The Kansas City Current of the National Women's Soccer League will open their new purpose-built stadium next month on the north edge of downtown, and Arrowhead Stadium was recently awarded six games -- including a quarterfinal match -- by FIFA for the 2026 World Cup hosted by the U.S., Mexico and Canada.
"This is about a lot more than just a new home for the Royals," said Brooks Sherman, Royals president of business operations, who is unrelated to the team's owner. "This generational project is intended for something great."
Originally Posted by comochiefsfan:
Yeah sorry I don’t subscribe to those reports.
I know what economists say but there are intangible things that sports brings to a community that are extremely valuable that can’t be measured in dollars and cents.
If you want to look at it through that lense then that is certainly a legitimate perspective if you’re only interested in the financial aspect of it.
Also the Chiefs aren’t going anywhere but I don’t know why anyone thinks the Royals aren’t gone without a new ballpark because they are.
I know this may sound like a dumb reason to move somewhere but the Chiefs, Royals and Jayhawks swung my decision to move to Kansas City. I was going to just move to a bigger city after I graduated college and start looking for a job. It came down to Chicago vs Kansas City and the sports culture here made the difference. [Reply]
Originally Posted by comochiefsfan:
The Royals are gone without a new stadium. This is just reality.
Whether you think they should pay for it is one thing, but they aren't staying at the K and if they don't get a new one here then they will get one somewhere else.
It's nice to have a 2nd local pro sports franchise to root for.
On the other hand it makes me have to watch baseball, which is a pretty awful sport. [Reply]
Originally Posted by BWillie:
It's nice to have a 2nd local pro sports franchise to root for.
On the other hand it makes me have to watch baseball, which is a pretty awful sport.
Baseball just needs to get their media rights together so fans can actually watch their product.
They are miles behind the times when it comes to making their product accessible and an optimal viewing experience for the fan.
I've long maintained that baseball would be an ideal sport to launch a Redzone style channel.
15 games a night 3 times a week. Jump around between situations where runners are in scoring position, when big names like Ohtani or Stanton come up to bat, when a pitcher is on the verge of striking out the side.
Right now, you couldn't pay me to watch a non Cardinals game start to finish, but something like that I would definitely check out and would likely drastically increase my interest in the league as a hole.
Why isn't MLB thinking forward and implementing shit like that? Frustrates me to no end to see the sport dying and the owners seemingly being content to just let it happen.
Edit: Apparently something like this already sort of exists on MLBTV. That's cool. Why haven't I heard of it though? Why do I have to open an app to watch it, instead of it being on YouTube TV next to MLB Network? I just don't get the way they're promoting the game at the moment. [Reply]
Originally Posted by comochiefsfan:
Baseball just needs to get their media rights together so fans can actually watch their product.
They are miles behind the times when it comes to making their product accessible and an optimal viewing experience for the fan.
I've long maintained that baseball would be an ideal sport to launch a Redzone style channel.
15 games a night 3 times a week. Jump around between situations where runners are in scoring position, when big names like Ohtani or Stanton come up to bat, when a pitcher is on the verge of striking out the side.
Right now, you couldn't pay me to watch a non Cardinals game start to finish, but something like that I would definitely check out and would likely drastically increase my interest in the league as a hole.
Why isn't MLB thinking forward and implementing shit like that? Frustrates me to no end to see the sport dying and the owners seemingly being content to just let it happen.
Part of the reason it struggles is stars don't matter as much as other sports. The Angels had Trout and Ohtani for years and never mattered. [Reply]
Originally Posted by BWillie:
Part of the reason it struggles is stars don't matter as much as other sports. The Angels had Trout and Ohtani for years and never mattered.
I agree. The Blue Jays are pretty loaded too and it hasn't helped them reach a WS. [Reply]
Originally Posted by BWillie:
Part of the reason it struggles is stars don't matter as much as other sports. The Angels had Trout and Ohtani for years and never mattered.
Originally Posted by tredadda:
Neither did the Chargers. But from my understanding the Spanos family did their best to destroy any and all goodwill with the city, hence the middle finger. You live there, so you probably know better but that's what I always heard.
Yes. There were options on the table and Spanos took the bag that LA offered. [Reply]
I overlaid, to scale, every downtown stadium in baseball on that proposed footprint to keep Oak St. open and none of them fit.
None of them.
Not even Oriole Park, which is basically built to avoid Camden Yards the same way this stadium would be built to avoid Oak St.
What that tells me is that the Royals are willing to say whatever it takes to get this vote to pass, and they'll let the architecture firm figure it out later.
What it also says is that the renderings you think you're voting on are not anywhere close to what will actually be built. [Reply]