On Wednesday, the Royals unveiled renderings of a new 85-acre development, including a $1.9 billion stadium that will be located in downtown Kansas City, Missouri.
The new Kansas City Royals stadium will be a part of the development at Crown Center, a Hallmark Cards-managed retail and dining area. The project, including the entertainment district and the ballpark, could cost up to $3 billion. It will be the biggest public-private collaboration in Kansas City’s history.
“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 chairman John Sherman said in a statement. “Joining Hallmark with this project achieves both and extends the Hall family’s critical legacy of helping Kansas City grow.”
Hallmark is playing a big part in the development
To create space for a new Kansas City Royals stadium, KSHB News reports Hallmark will demolish its headquarters. Hallmark will reportedly be the only business to be displaced by the project. Hallmark already owns almost all of the 85-acre footprint.
According to Sherman, two-thirds of the funding will come from the Royals and private investors, and one-third from the City of Kansas City, which plans to fund $600 million, and the State of Missouri.
Kansas City will own the new stadium
“This is going to be a city-owned facility, and the city took the lead on the financing with the state coming in with the [Show Me Sports Investment Act] funds,” Jackson County Executive Phil LeVota said, according to KCTV News. “And then the team, now with their new partners, Hallmark, stepped up to get the funding available. So Jackson County didn’t have an ownership in it as we do in the sports complex. So there wasn’t an ask for us to be funding any building that we don’t own.”
With the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs moving to a new $3 billion stadium in Kansas in 2031, the Sports Complex Redevelopment Task Force is now deciding what to do with the 400 acres where the soon-to-be vacant Arrowhead Stadium and Kauffman Stadium are located.