KC and Missouri team up with Royals on stadium plan. What about Jackson County?

Though the Truman Sports Complex will likely sit empty by 2031, Kansas City baseball will remain in Jackson County.

The Kansas City Royals announced Wednesday that the team intends to move to Crown Center south of downtown Kansas City in partnership with Hallmark Cards. Jackson County officials have been largely silent on the move, though county leaders have rallied behind the concept of a downtown baseball stadium as the Royals’ fate wavered.

The Royals’ impending move to Crown Center was largely brokered by city officials, not the county. County leaders have not said whether Jackson County will join Kansas City and Missouri in contributing public funding to the $3 billion stadium and surrounding entertainment district.

However, Jackson County leaders say they have remained active behind the scenes in conversations surrounding the stadium’s future in recent months.

Interim County Executive Phil LeVota told The Star Wednesday that he’s “proud” the Royals will not leave the county.

“This is a big win for our community and a reflection of what can happen when we come together with a shared vision,” LeVota said. “...I’m excited about what this means for the future of downtown Kansas City and our entire county.”

LeVota, who took office in September for a 14-month temporary term, said that he was “proud to bring the stability in Jackson County that was missing before in previous stadium efforts.”

“I was able to work with the governor and the mayor early on to talk about what keeping the Royals in Jackson County would look like,” LeVota told The Star. “It’s great to see all the fruition of a lot of people’s hard work come together today.”

Members of Jackson County Legislature were unavailable to comment on the stadium announcement Wednesday.

Keeping a home team

The Royals’ incoming move to Crown Center ends a monthslong period of uncertainty as to whether either Kansas City sports team would remain in county limits, though the baseball team has talked of a potential downtown stadium for years.

When the Chiefs finalized their plan late last year to move to Kansas by 2031, LeVota said that he hoped the football team would keep Jackson County in mind. Shortly before the Chiefs announced their move, LeVota floated a last-ditch financial proposal that would have created a new sales tax to fund a new stadium.

The Chiefs and Royals both currently benefit from a countywide sales tax, which will expire in 2031. Voters rejected another sales tax for the teams in 2024, kicking off both the Royals’ and Chiefs’ searches for new stadiums to call home.

Former County Executive Frank White Jr. took issue with the Royals’ proposal and timeline that year, which some have attributed as a factor to his recall in September 2025. LeVota and others have accused White of eroding the county’s relationships with both teams.

Reimagining Truman Sports Complex

LeVota declined to share whether Jackson County expects to contribute financially to the new Royals stadium.

However, he previously said that if the Royals were to move downtown, he would support a community benefits agreement and some kind of input from the voters who “knocked down” the proposed 30-year county sales tax in 2024.

The county recently launched a 15-member task force devoted to the redevelopment of the Truman Sports Complex. About two months remain in the group’s 90-day timeline to draft a proposal for the future of the 400-acre site.

LeVota previously described the sports complex, including Arrowhead and Kauffman stadiums, as a “generational asset” that the county intends to prevent from falling into blight when the Chiefs and Royals no longer call it home. He said that the task force will have an actionable plan for the site’s future by August or September, and that possible reuses could include either the demolition or partial revitalization of one or both stadiums.

The potential tax burden to Jackson County residents, both for the reuse of the current stadiums and the new construction of a new Royals stadium, is unknown.

This story was originally published April 22, 2026 at 4:14 PM.