KC’s new city manager says Royals should move downtown & he knows just the spot
Kansas City’s new city manager says there is no question in his mind where the Royals should build their new ballpark should Missouri legislators approve a stadium incentive plan to help make it possible.
“My personal preference, of course, is for downtown – for baseball to go to the Washington Square Park site, which I think is well-suited for it,” Mario Vasquez said.
Mayor Quinton Lucas and others have been talking up Washington Square Park since late last summer, following the failed stadium sales tax election in April 2024.
Since then, rumors have swirled about the team possibly moving to the site of the former Sprint campus now owned by Aspiria in Overland Park, across the state line. Clay County also remains in the running.
Vasquez has long preferred Washington Square Park. And now as the city’s top administrator, he has a new and prominent platform from which to make his preferences known and make a case for that location, which he did during a wide-ranging recent interview with The Star in his new office on the 29th floor of City Hall.
“I think there’s an opportunity to really make a difference at that site,” he said.
Certainly, he has a full plate of other issues to tackle, from making sure the city is prepared for the World Cup, to fostering construction of affordable housing, to improving morale among the city’s 4,000-person workforce in the wake of his predecessor’s firing by the City Council.
But few issues are as important and politically daunting as the effort to keep the area’s two marquee professional sports franchises within Kansas City limits, he said.
Vasquez and other city officials are now mostly onlookers to the legislative back-and-forth during the special session in Jefferson City this month. But their turn at center stage could be coming soon.
All eyes on Jeff City
Early Thursday morning, the state Senate passed a package that would unlock state incentives for potential stadium renovations and construction. The Chiefs want a makeover for Arrowhead, while the Royals want a new home.
Missouri’s House of Representative still needs to pass the bill before it moves to the governor’s desk. Then Kansas City and Jackson County officials will have to come up with a plan to fulfill their financial obligations, if Gov. Mike Kehoe signs it into law.
Vasquez doesn’t know what form the local aid proposal might take, he said. But as someone who came up through the planning and development ranks at City Hall, he has given a lot of thought to where a new Royals stadium should be built and what benefits might accrue to the city by building it where he thinks it should go.
He’s confident that spot is directly north of Crown Center in what is now Washington Square Park, as well as over the sunken parking lot adjacent to it along the KC Terminal Railway tracks.
“I think it’s going to help us strengthen the core of the city,” Vasquez said. “Bringing an attentive customer base or a captive audience to Crown Center strengthens Crown Center, and by extension strengthens the core.”
Potential of Crown Center
Those railroad tracks are a wide gulf that separates Crown Center and Union Station from the Crossroads and downtown, but a ballpark would solidify the tie, Vasquez says, and provide a boost.
Crown Center also has lots of underused surface parking lots that once were filled with workers at Hallmark that are south of the shopping center.
That area could be developed, Vasquez said, as part of the ballpark entertainment district that the Royals have envisioned growing around a new stadium. It’s been central to their plans since announcing they would leave Kauffman Stadium when their lease expires in 2031, if not before then.
“What I see there is the opportunity to create the critical mass and density that makes the entire district function as a ballpark district,” he said.
Crown Center Redevelopment Corporation President Stacey Paine said the organization is not prepared to comment at this time without a specific plan.
Connecting downtown
North of the tracks, the Crossroads could also benefit, Vasquez said, noting the increased foot traffic that a ballpark would supply would help some of the empty buildings and vacant lots in the area — and create an opportunity to “go vertical” in the core neighborhood.
“The Bob Jones building, it’s been empty for a long time, so there’s an opportunity there,” he said. “There’s an opportunity to…really begin to extend what we started with the South Loop, SOLO as Mayor Kay Barnes called it.”
During her two terms in office in the 2000s, Barnes promoted the idea of having a continuous, vibrant commercial district from the River Market to Country Club Plaza, which she called River-Crown-Plaza. The real estate development that occurred along that 5 1/2-mile-long corridor during the ensuing two decades has filled in a lot of the gaps.
But some remain, and a Royals ballpark at Washington Square Park would strengthen that connection, Vasquez said. He sees few drawbacks to that location.
Crossroads on board
Nicholas Grunauer, president of the Crossroads Community Association, told The Star that the Washington Square Park plan addresses many of the concerns neighborhood residents and businesses had during the last round of proposals for a Royals ballpark in the Crossroads, including the potential of business displacement and building teardowns.
The Washington Square site is “the” site: not just for the neighborhood or downtown, but for the whole downtown core and the region, he said.
It would complement other investments, like the streetcar, and link together other amenities like Crown Center and the National WWI Museum and Memorial. The prospect of “catalytic investment” from a potential ballpark is exciting, he said.
Grunauer said the Crossroads is the strongest it’s ever been, but there’s still a long way to go to fill vacant lots and bring more density.
The area benefits when there are large events in town, he sai,d and the 81 Royals home games each year would be no exception.
Meanwhile, Gruneauer said the neighborhood has shown it can accommodate large crowds— perhaps with some tweaks.
Parking and transit
Vasquez echoed the area’s ability to handle the traffic.
“Some people talk about the transportation concerns,” he said. “But we’ve got enough parking garages all over the city. The streetcar’s right there.”
There could also be commuter trains on game days to Union Station from suburban communities, Vasquez said.
The Washington Square Park site is also a little less than a mile away — and right on the streetcar line — from the future Roy Blunt Luminary Park that the city plans to build over the south part of the downtown highway loop, he said.
The South Loop park project recently cleared a major hurdle to starting construction: a finding of no significant environmental impact from the federal government.
The city’s application for a federal infrastructure loan to help cover the costs and get the project rolling remains pending, and Vasquez said the city will soon be meeting with financial advisors as part of the government program to go over the final details.
Vasquez envisions baseball fans gathering there before grabbing a ride down Main Street on the streetcar or taking a short hike to catch the Boys in Blue in action.
“You can come to the Luminary Park, and, you know, have your drinks, and walk down Grand Avenue to the game on game day,” he said. “So the opportunity to really strengthen the core of the city. And by extension, the core of the metro is huge by bringing baseball downtown.”
Learning from last year’s vote
Vasquez said he recognizes that there would be objections from those who want the Royals to stay put at the Truman Sports Complex, and those who for other reasons voted against the 40-year stadiums sales tax measure last year.
But the Washington Square Park site would not be saddled with the same negatives as that ballot measure, if voters are once again asked to approve public financing.
Unlike the Royals’ 2024 proposal to build a stadium and ballpark village in the East Crossroads area, which would have displaced some businesses, the Washington Square Park proposal wouldn’t have that working against it, he said.
Some voters also complained that the Royals’ proposal was poorly thought out. And they objected to the hard-sell advertising campaign in which it felt like the Chiefs and Royals were threatening to leave town if the measure wasn’t approved, even though neither had any intention of doing so.
Yet 42% of Jackson County voters still did vote for the package. That number makes Vasquez believe the public would be even more receptive to a better proposal.
“It’s not my place to be the political strategist here,” he said. “But I’m thinking give (voters) a better plan, a better location, better financing, clarity of objective and make a good campaign, and you might be able to peel off 9% or whatever percentage you need to make this be a go.
“I’m not sure that we’re there yet.”
This story was originally published June 9, 2025 at 6:00 AM.
