Kansas City officials plan to go around taxpayers to build a new Royals ballpark

I want to congratulate the mayor of Kansas City (State of Missouri) for making one of the most ridiculous arguments that I have seen so far this year.  But first, let me back up slightly. Presently, things do not look good for the Kansas City Royals. They keep missing deadlines. Last week, the Kansas House Speaker noted how the Royals had missed a December 31 deadline, which would have allowed the team to use a state of Kansas funding package for sports venues. This week, one county official told the Kansas City Star that he had given the Royals a January 8th deadline to make a new ballpark proposal that could be put on the April 2026 ballot. This week, that deadline passed, and the official mentioned to the newspaper that he was “done” negotiating with the team.

The Kansas City Star recently wrote a story detailing how some public leaders are trying to find ways of going around the taxpayers to pay for a new Royals Ballpark. In 2024, Jackson County voters decisively rejected an increased stadium sales tax for the Kansas City Chiefs and Royals. As the Star article mentions, there is simply no way that the vote would be any different if done today. Just a few weeks ago, I wrote an article on the absolutely ridiculous and unfocused way that the Royals were trying to move forward with a new ballpark. The Royals have promised transparency yet have given practically nothing to the public. We still have no idea where a new ballpark would be built, who would pay for any of it, or even who would pay for any cost overruns or infrastructure complications. City officials seem almost in shock at the questions that are still unanswered. For example, one of the latest Royals proposals to city officials STILL did not answer or explain where or who would pay for almost $650M worth of expenses. 

So, how exactly are the Royals going to get a new ballpark? By going around the taxpayers:

“Two top officials told The Star that Kansas City could offer the team a new stadium commitment without a public vote…officials are considering a stadium-funding plan that would avoid a defeat at the ballot box” — 01/08/2026, Kansas City Star

Will anyone tell us how city officials plan to pay for this new ballpark? Will someone tell the taxpayers how the city has the financial means to give many millions or billions to the Royals? Of course not. Missouri House Speaker Jonathan Patterson sat down for an interview last week and suggested that a perk of the Royals building a new ballpark in the downtown area was  “that it would not be subject to a vote.” Patterson would go on to state that the city has “existing programs in place to secure the Royals.” He did not go into detail about the programs that would be used or how much money was being discussed.

The mayor of Kansas City was not much better. The mayor told the Star this week that the city “already had available tools in place to make an offer to the team.” What are these tools? The mayor never answered that question apart from claiming that funding for a new ballpark would come from “users of the venue” and new developments around a new ballpark. The mayor does promise, though, that this deal will “not require the entire city to back the project” and that the city has the “best tools to get something done.” I am left to wonder if the mayor is in touch with reality when he claims that they can and will pay for a new ballpark “in a fiscally responsible manner.” When the Star continued to ask the mayor what he meant by the city having the best tools to fund a stadium, he again avoided the question with a vague answer. The only answer that the mayor seems to give is that a new stadium will somehow be built from people visiting the stadium and some new development around the venue.

However, the mayor just wants us to trust him. He claims that the city will have a “robust package that looks to outstanding, additional tools” to pay for any new ballpark. It isn’t like he has tried to hide almost every piece of negotiation information from the public in the past? Nevermind, he did and has continued to do that. But he has never lied to the public about who has funded slanted polling results? Scratch that. He has done that. Just believe what the mayor says, ok?