KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) – Kansas City leadership backed a proposal on Thursday to fund a $1.9 billion baseball stadium near downtown Kansas City. The site at play is Washington Square Park and the area near Crown Center.
On Tuesday afternoon at their meeting, Kansas City Parks and Recreation board members will consider approval of allowing City Manager Mario Vasquez “to execute a lease agreement with the Kansas City Royals for Washington Square Park.”
Mayor Quinton Lucas is proposing the City commit up to $600 million through bonding, financed primarily through economic activity redirections from the stadium and surrounding development, according to the mayor’s office. The proposed district would be funded with no new taxes, have a 30-year lease and a community benefits agreement toward parks across Kansas City, Missouri.
Washington Square Park in Kansas City, Mo., is the site of a potential new Kansas City Royals stadium development.(KCTV5)
According to the document, the lease agreement would specify the following conditions:
The Tenant has entered into an agreement and/or sublease for the construction and operation of a Stadium with minimum seating capacity of thirty thousand (30,000) seats for the Kansas City Royals baseball club.The agreement includes provisions requiring the inclusion of parks and recreational areas and facilities that all inhabitants of the City may use and enjoy.The agreement includes provisions requiring the payment of additional proceeds not necessary for fulfillment of the agreement to be funded to the parks and boulevard system as the community benefits for the project.
The Royals and Chiefs have shared a lease at the Truman Sports Complex for decades, but their current contract expires in 2031.
The Royals stadium situation remains undecided after voters in Jackson County shot down a proposal to extend the 3/8-cent sales tax in April 2024 to approve a stadium in the Crossroads.
Kansas City Royals owner John Sherman spoke with the media ahead of the team’s Opening Day.(KCTV5)
With a 2031 opening target for a new stadium, Royals owner John Sherman has said the Royals need to break ground by September 2027. Sherman had previously expressed a desire to build a stadium in downtown Kansas City, selecting that area over a site in North Kansas City. The Royals owner has previously stated the entire stadium and ballpark district project would cost $2 billion and that the club will commit to only $1 billion in private funding.
In June 2025, Missouri Governor Mike Kehoe signed into law legislation that would authorize state funding for up to 50 percent of stadium projects for the Chiefs and Royals.
But in December, the Chiefs announced they would build a domed stadium across state lines in Kansas.
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