KC Downtown Council calls for increased effort in stadium border war

Yahoo

08-03-2025

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Downtown Council has made its push to try to get the Kansas City Royals downtown in a new stadium.
, it called for the city to work with the team and 'other political jurisdictions' on a downtown stadium. One of the reasons the council believes this issue is important is that Kansas is also trying to get the Royals to cross the state line.
'The State of Kansas is aggressively pursuing the Royals by offering a generous incentives package of STAR bonds,' part of the post read.
'We cannot ignore this very real competition.'
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The Royals wouldn't comment on the council's post.
'Yeah,' Downtown Council Chairman Gib Kerr said when asked if Kansas scares him.
'Kansas is making a hard run at the Royals and the Chiefs for that matter. The STAR Bonds are a very powerful incentive, and there are multiple sites in Kansas that could accommodate the Royals and the Chiefs, and we have to take that seriously.'
Friday, Kansas Republican House Majority Leader Chris Croft from Overland Park told FOX4 that Kansas leaders were working every day on this issue.
'You know, there's been people saying this is a border war,' Croft said.
'There's no border war on this thing. When Missouri went first in process, and they had troubles getting that, we wanted to make sure that those teams knew that we wanted to keep them in this area.'
Because the city's supposed to be taking the lead on the Royals stadium, the question becomes whether there would need to be a vote of the people if the Royals go to Washington Square Park, a Kansas City Parks & Recreation property just east of Union Station.
'Yeah, whether it's the city or the parks department, that's yet to be determined, but my understanding is that the city or the parks department could enter into a long-term ground lease without having to go to a public vote,' Kerr said when asked if the parks department could own the property where a new Royals baseball stadium sits.
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Friday, Kerr added a ballpark downtown would be iconic.
'Especially if it's surrounded by major cultural landmarks like Union Station, Crown Center, the World War I Museum, and of course being on the streetcar line which is going to connect the river all the way to the Plaza and all the major cultural institutions along the way,' he said.
At the Royals Rally in February, Chairman John Sherman said it was the team's objective to talk more about the stadium in the middle of the year, meaning the end of June.
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