Royals owner John Sherman acknowledges sense of urgency in deciding the future home of the MLB club

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Royals owner John Sherman acknowledged Monday that the Major League Baseball team feels a sense of urgency in deciding where it will play beyond the 2031 season, when its lease at aging but beloved Kauffman Stadium is due to expire.

The Royals have considered several stadium sites around the Kansas City metropolitan area, and a few of them — including one in the suburb of Overland Park, Kansas — have been eliminated. Now, the club appears to be zeroing in on sites in downtown Kansas City, across the Missouri River in Clay County, Missouri, and a potential move across the state line to Kansas City, Kansas.

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In that case, the Royals would be following their current NFL neighbor in the Chiefs, who announced in December that they would be building a $3 billion domed stadium as part of a public-private partnership near Kansas Speedway to replace Arrowhead Stadium.

Arrowhead and Kauffman Stadiums sit a few hundred yards apart at the Truman Sports Complex in Jackson County, Missouri.

“It’s always dangerous to set a deadline, but I think the pace is picking up,” Sherman said before the Royals played their home opener Monday against the Minnesota Twins. “And consistent with what I’ve been saying, yeah, I expect we’ll be able to talk about something sooner rather than later. There’s a great sense of urgency, just in general.”

In most cases, stadium construction can take four to five years, depending on the project scope and location. That means a buffer the Royals once had when they began to consider a move from Kauffman Stadium has dwindled to just a few months.

The closest they’ve come to a decision came in April 2024, when the Chiefs joined them in a joint plan to renovate Arrowhead Stadium and replace Kauffman Stadium with a downtown ballpark. But voters in Jackson County overwhelmingly voted against extending a tax to help pay for the projects, forcing the two franchises to go their own ways.

The Chiefs now know where they will be playing after their lease expires. The Royals hope to know within the next few months.

“We’re all interested to know where the next generational home of the Kansas City Royals and Major League Baseball will be,” said Sherman, who has long been a proponent of downtown baseball but seems to have warmed to other opportunities.

Sherman watched the Royals open the season last weekend in Atlanta, where the Braves built Truist Park as the centerpiece of a vast and bustling mixed-use development. He stayed in a hotel near the ballpark and seemed to be impressed by almost every facet of the project, whether that be the traffic flow or the restaurants and shops that filled with fans before and after games.

“It was like college game day, you know? Tons of people around. The energy level was incredible. All the restaurants and retail facilities were full,” Sherman said. “It’s just an all-you-can-do (type of development).”

Sherman said the two biggest elements of a potential stadium deal are site control — which the club has, to varying degrees, at each of its potential landing spots — and the framework for some public financing. The private financing element for both the stadium and any accompanying district would be easier to finalize once those pieces are in place.

“It’s always been my experience,” Sherman said, “when you’re doing important work, it’s not easy. It shouldn’t be easy. And these are complicated processes, right? Public-private partnerships, multi-jurisdictional, dealing with multiple entities as well.

“But,” he said, “I think we’re making progress.”

Meanwhile, Jackson County officials have begun planning for the day when the Chiefs no longer play at Arrowhead Stadium and the Royals have moved out of Kauffman Stadium. Last week, they announced the creation of a task force that will convene for the first time next month and have 90 days to develop recommendations for use of the Truman Sports Complex.

“As we look ahead and recognize that neither team will remain at the sports complex in a few years, it is my responsibility to make sure that the 400 acres of prime county-owned land is not going to sit idle,” Jackson County Executive Phil LeVota said.