The Kansas City Royals have finally settled on a site for a Kauffman Stadium replacement, eschewing the suburbs for a new ballpark at downtown’s Crown Center’s shopping district.
The Royals have spent months searching for a new ballpark site, with the locations ranging from the Kansas City, Kansas suburbs (including on land already controlled by a Royals affiliate in Overland Park) and Clay County to multiple downtown locations. Through it all, Royals chairman John Sherman has held to a vision of a new ballpark combined with developable acreage, a model used by the Atlanta Braves and Truist Park anchoring The Battery. It’s a model frequently touted by MLB officials when discussing new ballparks in Tampa and Kansas City, and it’s one we will likely see invoked come expansion time.
“Our founder Ewing Kauffman wanted the Royals to be Kansas City’s forever, and he wanted the team to benefit his hometown as much as possible,” Sherman said via news release. “Joining Hallmark with this project achieves both and extends the Hall family’s critical legacy of helping Kansas City grow.”
Crown Center is an 85-acre development located on the southern side of downtown Kansas City. It was developed by Hallmark Cards and will feature the company’s new headquarters (the current headquarters will move to accommodate the projected ballpark location), as well as theaters, hotels and attractions like Union Station, the Museum of BBQ, a Legoland outpost and the National WWI Museum and Memorial. The site also features plenty of freeway access and is connected by streetcar to the Power & Light District and T-Mobile Center. Interestingly, much of Crown Center dates back to the 1969-1973 period—as does Kauffman Stadium—and has landed the complex on the National Register of Historic Places.
The ballpark would be located on the eastern side of Crown Center, per the tentative site plan released by the Royals (below), a location that envisions most fans to enter the ballpark from the north (outfield) side of the ballpark at street level, with the slope minimizing the vertical impact of the facility. However, this is not the Washington Square Park location, closer to Union Station, once envisioned for the new ballpark. Instead, the Washington Square Park site is projected for development.
The cost of the new open-air ballpark is initially budgeted at $1.9 billion, with the team pledging a minimum of $800 million (plus overruns) and a public ask of $600 million from the city and an unspecified amount from the state, likely funded under a new bonding program enacted in 2025 called the “Show-Me Sports Investment Act,” using a TIF district encompassing the Crown Center and nearby development to pay back the bonds. The City Council has already initially approved the $600 million, subject to further developments on the project, including approval of a development plan and a lease. The total cost of the development, though not finalized, is expected to be at $3 billion, putting the level of private investment for the entire project at $2 billion, or two-thirds the cost.
“I am proud of the steps we have taken to build a strong future for Royals baseball in Downtown Kansas City,” said Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas when announcing the plan. “The Royals are staying home, and they are building a new home at the center of our region’s culture, arts, vibrance, and entrepreneurial success. This is the best in public-private partnership — funded by baseball and development, with no new tax increases, and with the kind of conservative fiscal management Kansas City families deserve. We are the visionaries of today, and we are changing Kansas City for the better.”
If construction begins in 2027, the new ballpark could open by the 2030 season. If this happens, the future of the Truman Sports Complex, Kauffman Stadium and Arrowhead Stadium will be under debate. The landmark development opened in 1973 with facilities for both the Royals and the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs, but the complex never yielded the expected development, and two years ago Kansas City voters rejected new funding for renovations of both facilities. The Chiefs have since committed to a new domed stadium in Kansas City, Kansas.
Renderings courtesy Kansas City Royals.
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