Royals Announce New Ballpark in "The Heart of Downtown KC"

[Couch-Potato]

What do you guys think about the new ballpark?

ESPN:

Spoiler!

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The Kansas City Royals intend to build their new downtown ballpark blocks away from T-Mobile Center and the Power & Light District, scrapping two concepts elsewhere in the city for a location that puts the stadium closer to existing entertainment areas.

The Royals revealed plans for the $2 billion-plus ballpark project Tuesday at Kauffman Stadium, two days after the Kansas City Chiefs -- whose Arrowhead Stadium shares the Truman Complex with their existing ballpark -- won their third Super Bowl in the past five years, and one day before the city celebrates another Lombardi Trophy with a parade downtown.

"This is going to be awesome!!! Can't wait!" Chiefs quarterback and Super Bowl MVP Patrick Mahomes wrote on X in response to renderings of the new Royals ballpark.

The parade route Wednesday travels along Grand Avenue to Union Station, or directly past the location of the new ballpark.

"We're the second-smallest city with both an NFL franchise and Major League Baseball club," Royals owner John Sherman said, "and we want to sustain ourselves as a major league city. We want these franchises to thrive here for another 50 years."

The new ballpark -- located in "the heart of Kansas City," per an X post from the team -- will seat about 34,000 fans, or roughly 3,000 fewer than Kauffman Stadium, and the Royals are hopeful it would be ready for the 2028 season. The final design is still under development, but renderings shown Tuesday paid homage to the K's swooping roof lines and iconic center-field fountains.


"The ballpark will have a really great feeling of intimacy," Sherman said.

Kansas City started play at Municipal Stadium in 1969, then moved to Kauffman Stadium in 1973 and extensively renovated the current ballpark from 2009-12.

The Royals unveiled two other locations last fall, one on the eastern edge of downtown and the other across the Missouri River in Clay County, Missouri. Both were met with tepid reaction from fans, many of whom still love Kauffman Stadium, and political infighting ensued over the extension of a sales tax in Jackson County, Missouri, to help pay for the ballpark.

The Royals' ownership group plans to invest more than $1 billion in private funding for the project, but some of the money will come from the 3/8-cent tax, which also will provide funding that the Chiefs plan to use to renovate Arrowhead Stadium.

"I know I'm biased here," Sherman said, "but between what the Chiefs can do out here with an expanded tailgate experience, and what we do down there, we will have two of the best pregame and postgame experiences in all of sports."

The Royals and Chiefs pushed to put the sales tax on the April 2 ballot, and Jackson County legislators initially approved the referendum, only to watch Jackson County executive Frank White -- a five-time All-Star and member of the Royals' Hall of Fame -- veto the measure. Last month, two legislators changed their vote and joined five others in overriding the veto.

That not only put the tax extension on the ballot, it put the onus on the Royals to reveal exactly what voters will be paying for.

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The new ballpark would be situated adjacent to Interstate 670, where the Kansas City Star's former printing press building sits largely vacant, and tie together several disparate neighborhoods into a more cohesive downtown environment.

Just to the north, where new parks would cover the interstate and allow for safe pedestrian traffic, sits Power & Light, the home to many existing bars and restaurants. To the south lies the Crossroads Art District, a trendy enclave anchored by the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. And to the east is the historic 18th & Vine neighborhood, home to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, the American Jazz Museum and iconic restaurants such as Arthur Bryant's Barbeque.

"The fact of the matter is, we've always been cognizant of this site. It never went away," said Earl Santee, the founder of the Kansas City-based sports architectural giant Populous. "We looked at other sites over time, and this is my 23rd major league ballpark site, and it's timing that leads you to the end, and this is the right timing for this site."

Santee compared the 17.3-acre site to downtown ballparks built in Denver, Pittsburgh and Minneapolis. There are about 20 property owners in the area and the Royals will need to negotiate with each of them to purchase their parcels of land.

"Development is happening in ways that are engaging," Santee said. "This will amplify the brand of Kansas City."

Indeed, the Royals hope the project continues what Sherman called "a golden era" for the former cowtown on the plains.

Over the past decade, Kansas City has hosted two World Series, baseball's All-Star Game and the NFL draft, while a $1.5 billion airport opened just over a year ago. The Kansas City Current of the National Women's Soccer League will open their new purpose-built stadium next month on the north edge of downtown, and Arrowhead Stadium was recently awarded six games -- including a quarterfinal match -- by FIFA for the 2026 World Cup hosted by the U.S., Mexico and Canada.

"This is about a lot more than just a new home for the Royals," said Brooks Sherman, Royals president of business operations, who is unrelated to the team's owner. "This generational project is intended for something great."

[Titty Meat]

Originally Posted by dabergtobirden

dude explain why you are laughing? kansas city karens are the worst. no new airport, no public transportation, all i do is cry about parking/traffic. royals would kill at this spot and make way more tax revenue and help for the city. but nooo i'm so mad at how this will take away my favorite bar that opened up a year ago and will go away next year!!!

i love the diverseness/indie spirit of the crossroads as much as the next guy. and maybe a little bit of this goes away but it will really benefit all the breweries and the good local spots. will be way better for KC if this goes through.

TSC never developed and that's with 2 teams. They passed on the East Village because it would be hard to develop despite the slam dunk it would have been because they wouldn't have had to fight anybody about the land. What you are citing is a myth.

Again we haven't even seen a rendering of Arrowhead and that's just the tip of the ice berg. Very little details have been released and we vote again. This can fail and they can come back with an actual plan and vote again. Just like they did with the stadium renovations over 15 years ago

[dabergtobirden]

another funny thing about reading on social media and on here - most progressive/liberals don't like this bc they think it's hurting their spot - the crossroads. i'm super liberal on social issues but i understand how business works. there is this weird collaboration amongst the crazy left and dumb right that hates everything different that hates this.

[Titty Meat]

LIBERULS

[dabergtobirden]

and i think this like many things in internet era will end up like...yeah lots of outspoken voices were amplified by their social media presence...while most voters who aren't attention seekers will be like, hell yeah this is much better for my city and i'll silently vote for progress and bettering my community. again i know some of you have personal things and you are just looking out for your own.

[dabergtobirden]

again, kansas city karen titty meat....what are your objections to this locale?

i just wanna understand why people are opposed, the uber left i get from twitter/reddit they hate bc they are young idiots who don't know anything. but you i would think understand this city and how good it would be for us.

[Titty Meat]

Boy are you one lost S.O.B you'll fit in well with the KC voter base

[HonestChieffan]

$1 million bucks in a pot to promote the stadium pro-vote.

If the grift in this whole fiasco wasn't enough, Sly James gets the contract as promotor.

The payoffs to politicians come due....one mayor takes care of another.

Scam the taxpayers and lets play ball...

[penguinz]

A city built by corruption thrives on corruption.

[BigRedChief]

Originally Posted by Eleazar

No tailgating and a much greater difficulty getting to the stadium seem like issues lots of normal people will care about.

every new stadium doesn’t allow tailgating. It’s not cost effective. There’s no money being made. This trend is nation wide.

[|Zach|]

Originally Posted by Eleazar

No tailgating and a much greater difficulty getting to the stadium seem like issues lots of normal people will care about.

I feel like that is not as big of deal for the Royals its always hot as **** not near the thing as it is for Arrowhead.

[GloryDayz]

Loooooong, but the man makes some good points. Coming from a dude who thinks baseball is a downtown sport. But he's right when he says "the team" is doing very little, nothing actually, to ensure that the Royals do the one thing they can do to ensure people attend games - have a team that can compete in their division and in the league - instead of essentially being a farm team for the league's teams who put their money where their mouth is when they talk about being winners.

[ChiefsCountry]

The farm team for other teams? It's like people spew crap they know nothing about. Royals haven't been that in 15 years. It's more incompetent from drafting than spending money. They have kept every big player that have developed sans Hosmer, and they dodged a big bullet there.

[GloryDayz]

Originally Posted by ChiefsCountry

The farm team for other teams? It's like people spew crap they know nothing about. Royals haven't been that in 15 years. It's more incompetent from drafting than spending money. They have kept every big player that have developed sans Hosmer, and they dodged a big bullet there.

More excuses for a 100-loss season.

But hey, I still think baseball is a downtown sport and the Royals should move downtown because of that.

And don't worry, it'll pass...

[Red Dawg]

Originally Posted by dabergtobirden

another funny thing about reading on social media and on here - most progressive/liberals don't like this bc they think it's hurting their spot - the crossroads. i'm super liberal on social issues but i understand how business works. there is this weird collaboration amongst the crazy left and dumb right that hates everything different that hates this.

Super liberal on social issues? ****ing gross.

[duncan_idaho]

Originally Posted by GloryDayz

More excuses for a 100-loss season.

But hey, I still think baseball is a downtown sport and the Royals should move downtown because of that.

And don't worry, it'll pass...

It’s a complete bullshit talking point.

I mean claiming the Royals have been failing because they’re developing players and not keeping them.

The Royals have been bad not because they’re not paying to keep their own talent but instead because they’ve done a bad job of drafting and developing talent.

The new ownership team just made an enormous commitment to the great young player it had developed while also spending real money on free agents, and did that while the shit bag incompetents who bought the media rights were in such bad shape it was questionable if the team would even get that payout.

You can say a lot about the royals failures and be right, but claiming the Royals are a farm team for others is absolute ****ing bullshit that is 20 years out of date.