The Royals’ owner wants a new stadium soon.
Kansas City, Missouri Mayor Quinton Lucas said his city has offered more than $1 billion to the owner of the Major League Baseball Kansas City Royals franchise John Sherman to help Sherman build a new downtown stadium or renovate the business’s 52-year-old home stadium. “We do have, I think, a very robust offer that combines state and local incentives,” Lucas said. “It’s my view that gets you to a $1.2 to $1.4 billion range with no tax increase. It doesn’t calculate or include the current Jackson County sales tax.” Sherman has been talking to political leaders in Kansas City, Jackson County, Missouri and politicians in Kansas about getting a stadium-village built somewhere in the Kansas City market.
Sherman has been looking for a site for his business for a year after the Jackson County, Missouri voters said no to extending a sales tax that would have funded a new baseball stadium in downtown Kansas City and a renovated stadium for the National Football League’s Kansas City Chiefs franchise. Kansas lawmakers are still mulling over a proposal that would see STAR bonds used to pay 75% of the cost of building two stadiums in Kansas. Additionally, sports gambling and lottery gaming and sales tax revenue from businesses in the stadium development districts would cover bond debt. Another source of revenue to pay off the debt would come from a liquor tax. Kansas lawmakers could use a mechanism that would allow up to 100% of sales tax revenue on alcoholic liquor sales within a stadium district to pay off bonds for the structures. Chiefs’ owner Clark Hunt and Sherman should be in a good spot in 2025 as two states, Missouri and Kansas, might be ready to throw money at them to build stadiums for their businesses. It is a place that sports owners dream about. Sherman wants a stadium deal this year.
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