This is a breaking news story and will be updated throughout the day.
The Kansas City Royals will team up with hometown company Hallmark Cards to build a new ballpark at Crown Center, with a promised $3 billion downtown campus of mixed-use development in the surrounding 85 acres.
In an email sent to fans early Wednesday, Royals owner John Sherman announced a "transformative project" that will create "reimagined headquarters" for the Royals and Hallmark. The project will be built on a strong, community-shared history that honors the Royals' past and looks to the future, he said.
During a 10 a.m. news conference at the American Restaurant in Crown Center, Sherman said it was a day to be marked in history, when baseball was being brought to the city's center. Mayor Quinton Lucas and Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe joined Sherman and Don Hall, Hallmark's chairman of the board.
Quoting President Harry Truman ("Make no little plans"), Sherman said the development will ultimately be a $3 billion project with an innovative partnership with Hallmark.
“There’s no script for what we’re sharing with you today, no playbook, no blueprint," Sherman said.
“The Kansas City Royals are staying in the state of Missouri, and we’re staying in the city of Kansas City, Missouri," he said to applause. “We’re bringing baseball downtown. We’re bringing a second crown downtown,” Sherman said in a reference to Hallmark's crown logo.
Hall looked out at nearby Liberty Hall and Union Station, where his grandfather, JC Hall, the company's founder, first arrived in Kansas City 115 years ago, brought by what he had heard of the "Kansas City spirit." Hall compared Sherman to his grandfather, saying they both had the "heart, resources and long-term vision."
"Separated by generations and in histories yet united by a shared belief in Kansas City's promise," Hall said. "Today, those visions come together."
"Standing at this spot I can't help but reflect on the fact that my grandfather hopped off that train when he was 18 years old to build a business here only because he had heard people talking about the Kansas City spirit."
Lucas said the project is structured as a public-private partnership that will rely on revenues generated by the team along with nearby development. The project will be built with no new taxes, no large special taxing districts, and will generate 20,000 construction jobs, he said.
“The Royals are staying home, and they are building a new home at the center of our region’s culture, arts, vibrance, and entrepreneurial success," Lucas said. "We are the visionaries of today, and we are changing Kansas City for the better.”
Sherman is realizing his dream of a downtown ballpark nearly three years after the Royals announced a vision to leave Kauffman Stadium and build a multibillion-dollar stadium and ballpark district.
The announcement for the $1.9 billion stadium comes a week after Kansas City passed the beginnings of a financing package for a Washington Square Park location, adjacent to Crown Center. The $600 million plan would use new sales and earnings tax revenue in a stadium district to pay off the city-backed bonds for the project.
This new stadium proposal will also not require a public vote — which sunk the last Royals ballpark plan in 2024.
The stadium taxing district is not yet finalized, but will likely include Crown Center and part of the Crossroads. The city will borrow the $600 million to help finance the stadium and ballpark district. Its contribution would be paid off using revenue from the tax district. Once a plan goes before the Tax Increment Financing Commission, it must provide notice 45 days before anything can be approved.
As part of the financing plan the city passed last week, any negotiations that City Manager Mario Vasquez has with the team would go to the city council for approval. That means development agreements made with the Royals — like a community benefits agreement, lease agreement and term sheet — would go to the council for a final vote.
The plan has support from the Kansas City Area Development Council, the Sports Commission, the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce and other groups, according to a statement released by the Royals on Wednesday morning.
How we got here
The area around Washington Square Park was presented by Kansas City as an alternative downtown stadium option after voters rejected a 3/8th-cent stadium sales tax extension in 2024. The tax has been in place since 2006 and helps maintain the stadiums at the Truman Sports Complex, which is owned by Jackson County. It will expire in 2031.
The extension would have helped build a new Royals stadium and fund renovations at Arrowhead Stadium for the Chiefs. Many opponents argued taxpayers shouldn’t subsidize private development. Others were opposed to a Royals move downtown and the team’s chosen Crossroads location. Ultimately, voters rejected the extension with 58% of the vote.
Other funding
The Royals could get some of their stadium costs covered by the state of Missouri. After a contentious regular session last year, the Missouri Legislature passed a stadium funding plan during a June special session to pay up to half of the Chiefs’ and Royals' stadium project costs.
The state will provide matching funds by covering annual bond payments equal to the amount the teams currently generate in state taxes.cording to one estimate, the program will cost about $1.5 billion over 30 years. That, coupled with local incentives, provides a package similar to what the teams would have received with an extension of the 3/8th-cent sales tax.
Missouri’s plan was a direct counter to Kansas’ attempt to lure the Chiefs and Royals across the state line — a plan that reignited the border war and was successful in taking the Chiefs to Kansas.
Just before Missouri passed its incentive package, the Royals confirmed they were looking at locations in Kansas. But the team got pushback over a possible stadium in the Aspiria complex — the former Sprint World Headquarters campus — in Overland Park. It also ended its considerations for a Clay County, Missouri, stadium.
