KC mayor pushes new bill to fund Royals' ballpark — and keep them in Missouri

The Kansas City Royals' lease at Kauffman Stadium is due to expire in 2031, and what will happen after that remains unclear. In April last year, voters in Jackson County rejected an extension of a stadium sales tax to help fund both a new downtown ballpark for the Royals and renovations at Arrowhead Stadium for the Kansas City Chiefs. Since then, the Royals' future plans have been in limbo, with team owner John Sherman working on a new deal, and Kansas legislators even attempting to lure the team across state lines.

Now, new incentives to keep the Royals in Missouri may be on the way. On February 27, Major Quinton Lucas announced in a press release that he had partnered with three Kansas City-area lawmakers — Sen. Barbara Washington (D-Kansas City), Rep. Sherri Gallick (R-Belton), and Rep. Mark Sharp (D-Kansas City) — as they filed a new bill to fund professional sports facilities in Missouri, including the Royals' proposed new downtown ballpark.

"The Kansas City Royals and the Kansas City Chiefs are Kansas City's teams today and will remain Kansas City's teams for the generations to come," Lucas stated. "I am proud to partner with [Sen. Washington, Rep. Gallick, and Rep. Sharp] on the Missouri Entertainment Facility Capital Assistance Program Act (MEF-CAP) — bipartisan legislation giving Missouri cities the tools we need to keep our professional franchises, attract new teams, and maintain world-class entertainment venues."

The proposed stadium funding program would allow Missouri to provide financial assistance for future stadium projects, incentivizing the Royals and Chiefs to stay in the state.

“For me personally, (I filed) the bill just to kind of do everything I can to try to protect the teams and hopefully keep them here,” Sen. Washington told The Kansas City Star's Kacen Bayless and Sam McDowell. “But I would like to see a tri-fold effort between the city, the county, and the state before we really move forward with financing this.”

The newly-introduced legislature comes just one day after local and state leaders met in Jefferson City to discuss plans to keep the teams in Jackson County. After the meeting on February 26, Jackson County legislators Sean Smith and Manny Abarca stated that reforming a controversial 2023 property assessment process — which state leaders reportedly expressed interest in doing — would change public sentiment after the failed vote last year.

“Voters understanding this [the 2023 property assessment process] can never happen again, not just in Jackson County, but statewide, would be a huge change in context versus the last election,” Smith said, per KSHB.