How much would new Royals stadium really cost? NKC taxpayers want transparency

While the Kansas City Royals stay quiet about any decisions related to where they hope to build a new baseball stadium, some local elected officials are beginning to talk more openly with their constituents about what the possibility of a ballpark north of the river could mean for them.

North Kansas City residents packed Cinder Block Brewery for a town hall meeting earlier this week to discuss their concerns and questions about a new Royals stadium possibly coming to the Northland.

Mayor Jesse Smith called the meeting — which more than 50 people attended — after Missouri lawmakers passed an incentive package that paves the way for the Royals and Chiefs to renovate or build new facilities in the state. Kansas also has a competing incentive package on the table for the teams.

One of the sites the team is reportedly considering is south of Armour Road and west of Interstate 29 on more than 100 acres of land. If the Royals were to select North Kansas City as their new home, the stadium could be a part of a larger development district including restaurants, hotels, apartments and surface parking.

That matters to area taxpayers because the Missouri stadium package includes a requirement for financial support from local governments too, which means that the city or county where a new stadium is located would need to help pay for the project through a sales tax or some other mechanism.

Besides Smith, several current and former City Council members, as well as Clay County commissioners Scott Wagner and Jason Withington attended the NKC town hall to help answer residents’ questions.

Many attendees echoed concerns and lessons learned after Jackson County voters last year rejected a sales tax that would have helped the Royals build a new stadium in the Crossroads near downtown.

Some voiced skepticism about the seriousness of the team’s interest in the Northland, while others felt as though North Kansas City residents are being left out of the conversation about a potential stadium’s pros and cons.

The real cost of a stadium

Smith told residents that the Royals have asked officials in Clay County to start looking at local public funding options to help pay for a potential stadium.

That could include, though not necessarily, putting a countywide sales tax on a future ballot similar to the one that failed in Jackson County last year. No official steps toward this have been taken yet as the team has not yet told the public where it would like to go.

In recent weeks, officials have referenced a poll that was conducted among Clay County voters about their appetite for a stadium and their willingness to pay for it with a sales tax. However, it’s unclear who paid for the poll, how many people received and participated in it, and what the exact results were.

At the town hall meeting, Anne Dickinson, a resident of North Kansas City, asked the room who had received the mysterious poll. Only two people of more than 50 attendees raised their hands.

Dickinson was among a number of residents who raised concerns about the cost of building a stadium and the impact on taxpayers’ wallets, especially if the overall cost would be more than officials initially planned on.

Wagner, one of the county commissioners, said that neither the county nor the city know yet what kind of support the team wants from them.

The Royals have not publicly shared any details about the price tag of their project, but team representatives have estimated vaguely that it could range from $1-2 billion.

“In Missouri, it is a state, county, city, team effort. So four pieces go into that,” said Wagner.

The officials assured residents that the Royals will not be able to ask for additional money from taxpayers once a deal is made with the city and county, even if the price of the project goes up after that point.

“The county commission has adequately expressed to the Royals that the team will cover the shortfall,” said Withington, the other county commissioner in attendance. “The taxpayers will not be on the hook for a shortfall.”

Beyond the stadium itself, Dickinson feared that North Kansas City would need to take on the cost of broader infrastructure improvements needed to accommodate such a development.

“When we’re talking about having to increase our fire department and our police department and our water infrastructure to have this stadium here…I’m all for development. I just don’t really know that I want the Royals stadium as the development,” said Dickinson. “Who’s really, actually paying for all this?”

Mayor Smith said if a first responder station needs to be moved or needs more responders, the cost will be wrapped up in the negotiations with the team. This does not guarantee that they will be able to recruit enough people and provide competitive salaries, he clarified.

“I’m a big baseball fan,” said Smith. While he is personally in favor of being able to walk to the games and be a part of the tailgates in his home city, he still wants to look into ways the city can benefit from such a project.

“We’re going to have to find a way to fund the wastewater, sewer, all the less sexy stuff that we do need to fix infrastructure-wise,” he said.

Transparency and timeline

Most of the other questions residents had revolved around timing and a lack of details.

Several residents asked if they would see any surprise questions on their ballots.

Others alluded to changes that happened at the last second in the Royals plans for a stadium in the Crossroads. In the final days leading up to that Jackson County vote, the specifics of the plan were still in flux and factors as significant as which streets and businesses would need to close to make way for a ballpark were still up in the air.

The mayor and commissioners said that if they were to put a question before Clay County voters, there would not be any changes to their ask in the days before the election.

“There will not be a tax put in front of the people of Clay County until we know, one, what is the benefit for the entire county to do so? And two, what is the benefit for North Kansas City?” Wagner said.

Withington, the western commissioner at-large, had the same questions and said he would not support a stadium plan if the questions weren’t answered.

Smith said the team has publicly said it has no deadline to make a decision about where it plans to build a new stadium, but team leaders have said they hope to have more information to share by the end of the summer.

The deadline to get a question on the November ballot is August, but officials and the team could wait until after that to move forward and consider elections next year as well.

When the team comes to the county and city with a deal, that’s when the negotiations will start, according to Wagner.