Royals Reveal Photo Renderings for New MLB Ballpark with $2B Private Investment Expected
The Royals are staying in Missouri with a ballpark that will be built in downtown Kansas City.
Per an official release from the MLB club, the Royals are building a new stadium in the Crown Center complex in the city with an expected $2 billion private investment to assist in funding the project.
"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," Royals CEO and chairman John Sherman said. "Joining Hallmark with this project achieves both and extends the Hall family's critical legacy of helping Kansas City grow."
Funding for the project is expected to be divided between the Royals, private investors and public funding from the City of Kansas City and Missouri's Show-Me Sports Investment Act.
Hallmark Cards, which is based in Kansas City, is among the private investors in the project.
In April, Kansas City government officials, including Mayor Quinton Lucas, announced a proposal for $600 million in bonds for a new downtown stadium.
The Royals' new stadium comes in the wake of the Kansas City Chiefs' announcement in December they would be leaving Arrowhead Stadium after the 2030 season when their lease expires and relocating to Kansas where a new domed stadium will be built.
Sherman said as recently as March 30 that the Royals were still in talks with officials from both Missouri and Kansas about stadium proposals for the club.
"We looked really seriously on the other side of the state line and we're still in some conversations on the Kansas side," Sherman said.
There was no official start date listed for groundbreaking on the new project. The Royals' lease at Kauffman Stadium expires in 2031.
Kauffman Stadium is the fifth-oldest active MLB stadium, having originally opened in 1973. The Royals began play four years earlier as an expansion franchise after the Athletics moved from Kansas City to Oakland.
In their 53 seasons at Kauffman Stadium thus far, the Royals have won four American League pennants and two World Series titles. Their most recent championship was during the 2015 season.
