Missouri and Kansas want Sherman’s business.
Add Clay County, Missouri to the list of landing spots for John Sherman in his quest to find a parcel of land to build a stadium for his Major League Baseball Kansas City Royals franchise. Missouri Governor Mike Kehoe approved the Clay County Sports Complex Authority bill which puts North Kansas City into the stadium race. North Kansas City joins the state of Kansas and Kansas City in the stadium derby. Kansas City, Missouri Mayor Quinton Lucas said his city has offered more than $1 billion to Sherman to help him build a new downtown stadium or renovate the business’s 52-year-old home stadium. Sherman has been talking to political leaders in Kansas City, Jackson County, Missouri and 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 more than a year after 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 have 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. Missouri taxpayers’ would pay 50 percent of the costs for building two stadiums. Missouri and Kansas want Sherman’s businesses. It is a dilemma that sports owners dream about.
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