The Kansas City Royals have spent years looking for a location to build the team a brand new ballpark — with significant help from public tax money. But now, it appears that the organization’s options could be dwindling.
While the Kansas City Chiefs announced last month that the NFL franchise would be moving across the state line to Kansas, the Royals missed a key deadline on Dec. 31, 2025, to present their own proposal to acquire STAR bond funding. Those are the tax incentives that the Chiefs are using to finance 60% of their $3 billion stadium in Wyandotte County.
Now, prominent Kansas lawmakers like House Speaker Dan Hawkins have suggested they are done negotiating with the Royals.
“House Speaker Dan Hawkins, the most powerful Republican in the Kansas House, said that they would not accept the deal past December 31st. December 31st obviously came and went, the Chiefs made their announcement, and (they) still had not heard anything from the Royals,” Kansas City Star politics and government reporter Kacen Bayless explained to KCUR’s Up To Date.
Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas is still pushing for the Royals to consider the Washington Square Park location near Crown Center, and Jackson County Executive Phil LeVota says the county is still talking to the team.
This also comes as Clay County Commissioner Jason Withington announced that he is no longer interested in negotiating with the Royals on a future stadium in North Kansas City. It is notable, however, that Withington is not a member of the county’s negotiating team with the Royals.
“(Withington) did say that Clay County had given the team an early January deadline, January 8, to commit to Clay County. And that deadline would sort of allow the county commissioners to prepare (a ballot measure for the April) ballot in order to, you know, secure a North Kansas City stadium. He told me last week that the team had also missed that deadline,” Bayless said.
Meanwhile, two Missouri state lawmakers are hoping to convince a Cole County judge to strike down a Missouri law that would help the Royals pay for a new stadium.
- Kacen Bayless, politics and government reporter for The Kansas City Star
