Kansas City officials are set to introduce a bill this afternoon to fund a new downtown stadium for the Royals, and while we don’t have the actual bill language, we do have a Kansas City Star report on whatever details sources close to the deal felt it was in their interest to leak, this oughta be good:
The plan is built around a specific location: Washington Square Park.
This is likely to be controversial, as Washington Square Park is a public park, and is also not really big enough to fit a modern stadium on, let alone the ballpark district Royals owner John Sherman is hoping for.
Kansas City would contribute roughly $600 million of the project, according to a copy of the proposal obtained by The Star.
So … $600 million in cash? Would the Royals pay anything for the public land they’d be using? Would they pay property taxes? Rent? A cut of stadium revenues? You’ve read the proposal (or at least a copy of it, what does that even mean in this era of digital documents?), K.C. Star, tell us the details!
Mayor Quinton Lucas is expected to unveil the plan as an ordinance during Thursday afternoon’s City Council meeting at City Hall, he confirmed to The Star. The ordinance authorizes City Manager Mario Vasquez to negotiate and execute a 30-year term sheet, lease, and development agreement with the team to build the new stadium.
This implies that the Kansas City council could be asked to pass the $600 million in public funding before the details of lease and development agreement are worked out, which would be … bad? I’m going with bad.
The planned reveal marks a key step in the drawn-out fight over the Royals, potentially the first domino in a process that, after years of twists and turns, could suddenly roll quickly.
DOMINOES DON’T ROLL
It’s not yet clear whether the Royals will jump at the deal, though Lucas said the proposal is the result of “hours and hours of extensive discussion” with the Royals.
So the ordinance would be passed before the Royals agreed to it? That also sounds bad!
Lucas told The Star that the proposal would also require a vote on Tuesday from Kansas City’s Board of Parks and Recreation Commissioners in order to use the park. That board would continue to be the owner of the property, though operations “continues to be some level of discussions,” Lucas said.
Okay, that implies that the Royals would be paying neither for the land nor property taxes, though it’s certainly possible to roll those elements into any deal even on city-owned property, which would be the responsibility of Vasquez to figure out, sounds like.
That process would notably attempt to side-step a public vote on the stadium two years after Jackson County voters soundly defeated an April 2024 proposal for a separate site downtown.
It’s unclear where the $600 million would come from if not from a source that would trigger a public vote, but we’ll see.
How will the stadium project be funded? The ordinance will be introduced just two days after Kansas City officials successfully convinced voters to renew the city’s 1% earnings tax for another five years, a critical vote that loomed over ongoing Royals talks.
Ah, and that tax would be—
Lucas said Tuesday night that revenue from the earnings tax would not be used to cover any stadium costs.
Never mind.
The city will pursue a public-private partnership, with its $600 million contribution earmarked for a project that includes the stadium and team offices, acquisition and demolition of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City building that the company has vacated and a neighboring service road. That portion of the project would be split — with 60% of the funds coming from public entities, such as Kansas City and Missouri, and 40% in private funding, sources said.
So $600 million public (including state money?), $400 million private, except that the stadium would actually cost $1.9 million, plus there’s the surrounding development, “the bulk” of which would be paid for by Sherman (not counting land and tax breaks, obviously). The known unknowns are stacking up fast.
Kansas City, according to the ordinance, intends to pay for its portion of the stadium using a constellation of funds, including bonds, city appropriations and Tax Increment Financing (TIF). The city plans to reimburse itself using proceeds from the bonds, but the ordinance does not include specifics about how that would play out.
BONDS ARE NOT A FUND! Also you can’t reimburse yourself from bonds, you make payments on bonds, they don’t pay you. Come on, guys!
At the state level, the stadium would rely on a sweeping funding package Missouri lawmakers approved last summer in an attempt to keep both the Royals and Chiefs inside state lines. The law allows Missouri to pay for up to 50% of a new stadium for the team, but it’s unclear how much money the state or Jackson County will actually contribute.
This is a breaking news story. Check back for further updates once it is completely broken.