Kansas City Royals owner John Sherman says decision on stadium location coming soon

The Kansas City Royals continue to evaluate their options regarding a new stadium, but news may soon be coming on that front.

The Royals are considering multiple locations in the surrounding downtown area. The club previously released two stadium renderings with proposed venues in different locations. The options under consideration include the East Village area and a potential site in North Kansas City.

The Star also reported talks of a second downtown location. The Royals reportedly have considered building the stadium in the general location of the former Kansas City Star Press Pavilion at 1601 McGee St. near the downtown south loop.

On Saturday, Royals owner John Sherman addressed the proposed stadium plans. Sherman said the Royals will look to announce further details regarding the stadium’s location by the end of February.

And he took it a step further. Sherman remained hopeful that a stadium decision could come in the upcoming days.

“We plan on doing it meaningfully in front of that Feb. 29 date,” Sherman said. “You know, some people bring up early voting, I think veterans can start voting Feb. 16. Our objective is to get meaningfully ahead of that, and you will know more about when that is pretty quickly.”

Why is the Feb. 29 deadline so important?

The Royals are counting on voters in Jackson County to approve extending the 3/8th-cent stadium sales tax for the next 40 years. The stadium sales tax proposal will be on the April 2 ballot.

If renewed, the stadium sales tax will go toward building the Royals’ new stadium, renovating Arrowhead Stadium and providing both teams with income to pay for operations and stadium maintenance.

The measure has become a topic of conversation. Jackson County Executive Frank White Jr. expressed concerns regarding the stadium sales-tax renewal. He ultimately decided to veto the proposed measure.

However, Jackson County officials chose to override his veto by a 7-2 vote, which paved the way for the proposed tax to hit the ballot.

Now, the stadium sales-tax renewal decision lies in the voter’s hands. The first day of absentee voting in Jackson County is Feb. 20. Additionally, military and overseas voters can begin sending in absentee votes on Feb. 16.

Sherman mentioned both the Royals and Chiefs are operating with a similar template as the existing stadium sales-tax agreement.

“I would go back to, you know, these teams are important to the community,” Sherman said. “We want to make sure they both thrive here for the next 50 years. This is same tax, better deal. More benefits both for the community and for the county in terms of the concessions.”

Still, there are details that need to be hammered out by each side. This includes community-benefit agreements that will need to detail plans for living wages to workers and possible other benefits.

The Chiefs also haven’t outlined how they would plan to spend the money from the sales tax. Neither have both teams decided how much they will invest. However, they did promise to be responsible for any cost overruns on stadium projects once the budget is finalized.

“We’re going to complete a community-benefits agreement,” Sherman said. “We have to finalize the lease terms for the county and then gotta run a campaign. And that campaign will be a very positive ‘vote yes’ campaign.”

Sherman views the campaign as an opportunity to gain voter support. The Royals released a promotional advertisement in January asking to let Jackson County voters decide.

Sherman also hopes White would be supportive with the stadium push.

“It would be great if Frank was on board (with) it, but you know, we’re gonna plow ahead regardless,” Sherman said. “And I think we have a good plan with the legislature and with the sports authority.”

The Royals have plans to open the new stadium by the start of the 2028 season. The proposed $2 billion stadium project will see the Royals pledge $1 billion in private investment to absorb the cost of the entertainment district.

While there have been several extended delays regarding the Royals’ self-imposed deadlines, Sherman believes the urgency is still prevalent.

“I think, you know, the time is now for a whole variety of reasons, not just that the city has great momentum,” Sherman said. “We think these are going to be special projects, both out here (and) for what the Chiefs do, and that’s certainly downtown and creating a district.”