{"id":672194,"date":"2026-04-10T04:48:32","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T04:48:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/672194\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T04:48:32","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T04:48:32","slug":"k-c-officials-propose-royals-stadium-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/672194\/","title":{"rendered":"K.C. Officials Propose Royals’ Stadium Plan"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Royals have spent a few years trying to secure public funding towards a new stadium. Those efforts seem closer to reality. Kansas City mayor Quinton Lucas announced this afternoon that his office has proposed an ordinance towards a $1.9 billion investment plan for a new stadium and surrounding infrastructure in the Washington Square Park area in downtown Kansas City. Sam McDowell and Kacen Bayless of The Kansas City Star<\/a> first reported the news in a column which those in the area will want to read in full.<\/p>\n

The proposal would authorize roughly $600MM in city funding towards the project. That\u2019s independent of whatever money would come from the state. Last summer, Missouri passed a law that allows the state to fund up to 50% of major stadium construction projects.<\/p>\n

That was geared not only towards the Royals but also the NFL\u2019s Chiefs, who have sought a move out of Kansas City\u2019s Arrowhead Stadium. The Chiefs ultimately found what they consider a better deal with Kansas lawmakers. They announced in December they\u2019ll proceed with plans to move over the state border in 2031 on a $3 billion domed stadium in Kansas City, Kansas.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s news makes it seem there\u2019s a decent chance the Royals will remain in Kansas City, Missouri. However, this is not any kind of binding arrangement. It\u2019d still need approval from the City Council, to say nothing of an agreement from the Royals themselves.<\/p>\n

The idea would be for the Royals to commit to a 30-year lease beginning in 2030. The team\u2019s lease at Kauffman Stadium runs through 2030, but the mayor\u2019s office evidently hopes to have the new stadium ready for play a year in advance. He told reporters this evening the hope is for construction to begin early in 2027.<\/p>\n

The team has not formally weighed in on the terms. Owner John Sherman has generally voiced support for a downtown ballpark. The mayor tells The K.C. Star that this proposal was the result of \u201chours and hours of extensive discussion\u201d with the team. Even if the Royals are on board with the city\u2019s plans, the state\u2019s contributions would still need to be sorted out. Notably, this proposal does not include plans for a public vote. In April 2024, Jackson County voters shot down<\/a> a sales tax measure to fund Royals\/Chiefs stadium projects via referendum.<\/p>\n

The Royals have played at Kauffman Stadium since 1973. It\u2019s the fifth-oldest active venue in MLB behind Fenway Park, Wrigley Field, Dodger Stadium, and Angel Stadium.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Royals have spent a few years trying to secure public funding towards a new stadium. Those efforts…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":672195,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2387],"tags":[5,936,2123,55,2596,2595,4,252],"class_list":{"0":"post-672194","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-kansas-city-royals","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-kansas","10":"tag-kansas-city","11":"tag-kansas-city-royals","12":"tag-kansascity","13":"tag-kansascityroyals","14":"tag-mlb","15":"tag-royals"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116378606211489977","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=672194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672194\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/672195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=672194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=672194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=672194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}