Major League Baseball’s Kansas City Royals have picked the downtown Kansas City Crown Center site as the home for their new $1.9 billion ballpark.
MLB.com said the Royals have set out their intentions to move and build a new stadium and ballpark district at Crown Center as part of a joint partnership with Hallmark Cards for the $3 billion project.
Royals owner John Sherman was joined by Hallmark chairman Don Hall Jr., Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe and Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas, along with other local and state dignitaries, in making the announcement near Hallmark headquarters.
Two-thirds of the funding for the scheme will come from private sources and the remaining one-third from public partners, including money earmarked by the state for stadium projects.
Royals CEO/chairman John Sherman said, ““This is a partnership between two treasured Kansas City institutions.
“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.
”It would be real easy for me to say, ‘This is how we drew it up,’ but they’re never how you drew it up,” “There’s lots of ways to say it: There’s no straight line between Point A and Point B.
“Patience has given us an outcome that we could never have imagined.”
The ballpark is set to be built where the Hallmark corporate headquarters currently sit, with the Hallmark building moving to a new location still around Crown Center.
The new stadium will take advantage of the existing Crown Center infrastructure, including 9,000 parking spaces and the Kansas City streetcar stops along Main Street.
The 85-acre development would connect nearby Union Station and the Crossroads district — all with a picturesque skyline of downtown Kansas City.
The Kansas City Royals are an American professional baseball team based in Kansas City, Missouri (US). The Royals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central Division. The 37,903-capacity Kauffman Stadium serves as their current home venue.
The Royals had been weighing several options in recent months. But they ultimately rejected an option in the suburb of Overland Park, Kansas, and allowed a deadline to pass for a site north of downtown and across the Missouri River in Clay County, Missouri.
Missouri governor Mike Kehoe said, “We’re really proud of the investment that has realized.
“This has got to be a good return on investment for taxpayers. If the Royals left, you get nothing. So using the Show Me State Investment Act, we think helps keep the team here — or as I say, a business with thousands of employees — and ensure Kansas City’s future in a downtown.”
Kansas City Council last week passed an ordinance for a deal worth up to $600 million for a new stadium in the Washington Square Park/Crown Center area.
The Royals expect to break ground in 2027 with a target date of opening for the 2030 season, although their lease at the Truman Sports Complex isn’t up until after the 2030 season.
There are still plenty of details to be ironed out, including a lease agreement and development plan with the city and City Council finalizing that plan.
Sherman added, “There are many great ballpark neighborhoods in Major League Baseball, but this is a bigger project with more land in downtown and in the heart of the city.
“We are bringing a modern, state-of-the-art ballpark experience to our fans, closer to our public transportation and where more people work and live.”
Hall’s family owns Hallmark, the greeting card company founded in 1910 by Hall’s grandfather, J.C. Hall. The business has expanded worldwide but still remains headquartered in Kansas City.
He said, “I cannot help but reflect on the fact that my grandfather hopped off that train when he was 18 years old to build a business here, only because he had heard people talk about the Kansas City spirit.
“He believed that when you invest in people and place, the return is measured by what you do to make the Kansas City spirit more vibrant for everyone in the community. That same belief is demonstrated by John Sherman’s leadership today.”
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