K.C.’s funding plan for a downtown Royals ballpark is “crucial step,” but it also leaves “open questions about additional funding — and a firm commitment” from the team — for the nearly $2B project, according to Bayless & McDowell of the K.C. STAR. Mayor Quinton Lucas introduced a massive funding plan for a new Royals downtown ballpark, with $600M towards a $1.9B project at Washington Square Park. The plan would still “seek state financial support from a sweeping funding package” Missouri lawmakers approved the plan last summer in an attempt to keep the team inside its lines. The law allows Missouri to pay for up to 50% of a new stadium for the team — but that does not mean it will “simply raise its hand for half the costs.” Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe said that he was “committed to working alongside Kansas City and the Royals to secure a stadium near downtown.” But a Kehoe spokesperson, in a statement, left it “uncertain how much that commitment will cost the state and its taxpayers.” In the previous plan for a downtown ballpark, Jackson County voters would have done the “heaviest lifting.” But they “rejected that structure at the ballot box” (K.C. STAR, 4/10).
GIVE EM THE DETAILS: A K.C. STAR editorial stated Washington Square Park might “be a perfectly fine place for a new baseball stadium,” but taxpayers “need to know the details first.” This time, the plan does not rely on passing a new tax. Instead, it is to be financed by issuing municipal bonds, tax increment financing or TIFs, and other mechanisms. These are “still public monies we’re talking about.” And without a “robust plan” to engage taxpayers before moving forward, “anyone with a vested interest in a transparent process should balk at what looks like yet another rushed plan, rolled out as a surprise.” Lucas and City Hall leaders “would be afraid of losing the Royals so soon after the Chiefs announced plans to relocate to Kansas just months ago.” No one “wants that to happen again.” But “should the public be on the hook for more than a half-billion dollars for a downtown baseball stadium and entertainment district without a say in the matter?” (K.C. STAR, 4/9).