Royals Plan Downtown Stadium

The Kansas City Royals are moving from their longtime home at Kauffman Stadium to the downtown Crown Center area, partnering with Hallmark Cards on a $3 billion project that includes a mixed-used development with a new ballpark as its centerpiece. While the master plan has yet to be completed, owner John Sherman said Wednesday, the $1.9 billion stadium would break ground next year as part of the first phase of an 85-acre project. Two-thirds of the funding will come from private sources and the remaining one-third from public partners, the AP reports, including money earmarked by Missouri's government for stadium projects.

"This is a partnership between two treasured Kansas City institutions," Sherman said. "We are committed to creating a vision which honors our history, the rich past of both organizations, while reinvigorating and reimagining what our future can be together." Sherman was joined by Hallmark Chairman Don Hall Jr., Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe, Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas, and other local and state dignitaries in making the announcement near Hallmark headquarters. The announcement came about a week after Kansas City officials passed an ordinance authorizing the city manager to negotiate a $600 million deal to help the Royals move downtown. Most expected the stadium to sit on Washington Square Park, which is next to Union Station, but it will instead be located just south of it, with the park featured in the development.

Hallmark intends to build a new headquarters in the area, which is connected by streetcar to the Power & Light District, anchored by the T-Mobile Center. That part of downtown will provide the backdrop beyond the outfield fence. Officials touted the public parking already in the area and traffic flow from nearby highways. The NFL's Chiefs have decided to move across the state line to Kansas; officials there briefly pursued the Royals, too, but with less enthusiasm. Economists have found that subsidizing stadiums isn't worth the cost for communities because the venues pull economic activity away from other parts of the area, rather than expanding the overall economy. Yet states and cities continually provide stadium money—49 of the 60 used by MLB or NFL teams are publicly owned or sit on public land.