Royals facing tough stadium decision as Chiefs move to Kansas

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Now that the Chiefs are moving across the state line from their longtime home in Missouri to a $3 billion domed stadium to be built in Kansas, attention in the area has swung to the Royals, who have a similar decision to make regarding their own future.

One thing is certain: They will not be playing at Kauffman Stadium once their lease there expires in January 2031.

Royals owner John Sherman has long said his preference is to build a downtown ballpark, but those plans have been bogged down at nearly every turn by politics and community backlash. Last year, voters in Jackson County, Missouri, soundly defeated the extension of an existing sales tax that pays for the upkeep of Kauffman Stadium and would have helped to fund the new ballpark.

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The question now is whether the Royals continue their pursuit of downtown baseball, build a new stadium elsewhere on the Missouri side of the state divide, or follow the Chiefs in moving their new home to the Kansas side of the border.

“The Royals are also a great legacy team that we would love to keep in Missouri. We will do everything we can to continue those conversations,” said Gov. Mike Kehoe, who responded with scorn to the news Monday that the Chiefs had accepted a bond package approved by Kansas lawmakers that will cover 60% of a total project expected to exceed $4 billion.

The Chiefs also plan to build a $300 million training city in the Kansas City metro suburb of Olathe, Kansas.

“If I’m the Royals,” Kehoe said, “I’m in the driver’s seat now. I’m the team.”

In their bid to keep the Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium, Missouri lawmakers authorized bonds in June during a special legislative session that would cover up to 50% of the cost of new or renovated stadiums, plus up to $50 million of tax credits.

That is the financing package that still could be used by the Royals to build their ballpark.

But the bond package put forth by Kansas lawmakers, which would not tax residents but instead be paid off by state sales and liquor taxes generated in a defined area around the project, provides the potential to cover up to 70% of overall costs.

In the case of the Chiefs, the term sheet signed by owner Clark Hunt and Lt. Gov. David Toland calls for a stadium with at least 65,000 seats to be built by August 1, 2031, and the Chiefs to stay there for at least 30 years, with an option to remain up to 30 years more.

Along with the $3 billion stadium, the Chiefs committed to at least $1 billion in “ancillary development,” which includes a headquarters and training facility in Olathe and at least $700 million worth of retail, entertainment and other commercial space.

The agreement allows $100 million of that space to be built outside the two counties containing most of Kansas’ side of the metro.

The state agreed to issue a little more than $2.4 billion in bonds to cover roughly 60% of the costs, though if the extra development exceeds $1 billion, it would cover 70%. That makes it the largest public subsidy ever for a U.S. Stadium project.

“Missouri put together a very competitive package,” Kehoe said of the state’s attempts to keeping the Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium, adding: “Kansas is about to leverage … Kansas taxpayer revenue to make this deal happen. I can’t see where the numbers would pencil on that, as a business person, where it would be a good deal for Missourians.”

The Royals have considered multiple sites around downtown Kansas City, but all have had issues, whether it be traffic flow, community support or something else. They also have provided renderings in the past of a stadium and ballpark district that would be built across the Missouri River in Clay County, which is technically North Kansas City, Missouri.

But momentum of late appears to be behind a move to the suburb of Overland Park, Kansas, and a tract of land known as the Aspiria Campus, where an affiliate of the Royals already holds the mortgage. The property lies just off Interstate 435 in the south part of the metro.

Those plans have been met by opposition from residents in the affluent neighboring suburb of Leawood, Kansas.