Stalled American Royal project moves ahead after KCK approves key needed funding
Construction on the American Royal’s long-awaited move across state lines may soon have the financial backing it needs to start back up.
Wyandotte County’s local government on Thursday approved making a first bond issuance to finance the agriculture- and education-based nonprofit’s move to Kansas City, Kansas, from its longtime home in Kansas City’s West Bottoms. The organization is also known for hosting area rodeos, stock shows and the annual World Series of Barbecue and expects to bring those events to KCK.
The approval, which came by the Unified Government Board of Commissioners’ consent agenda adoption, was a key step in getting needed funds to continue the move, which has been in the talks among government officials for a decade.
Last spring, government officials and the nonprofit came to an agreement to keep the project moving along when they approved a 20-year, $155 million STAR, or sales tax and revenue, bond deal, created a Community Improvement District and finalized their development agreement.
But construction has stalled ever since. The Royal had, until Thursday, relied solely on private funding to get construction where it is, and it needed to have public investment to be able to continue, Jackie McClaskey, the organization’s president, previously told The Star.
As of late last year, about $120 million in private dollars had gone toward the project. Involved parties hope the newly approved bond sale will produce about $95 million public project dollars out of the $155 million promised in bonds.
As agreed upon in their development plan, American Royal must pay the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and KCK $5 million after the first bond issuance. Officials last year split the project into phases. The first phase, which will be funded using the 2026 STAR bond issuance, will include 390,000 square-feet and 1,540 stalls of barn and exhibition space.
A second bond issuance, expected to bring in $60 million in project funds, will finance Phase 2. Those plans include two indoor arenas that would seat 3,500 and 5,000 people, a 3,500-seat outdoor arena, a 79,400 square-foot education center and a 30,000 square-foot event space with classrooms and an auditorium. It will also have administrative and storage space to house the nonprofit’s daily operations.
Project scope, cost
The total project cost grew to $450 million in 2025 from the estimated $160 million when negotiations began in 2016.
And the $155 million STAR bond deal approved by commissioners in April was almost double the $80 million they first approved.
That $155 million in STAR bonds, and other public and private funding, will pay for the first $375 million of the project.
The Royal plans to build festival grounds later on, although those plans won’t be revisited until after all other construction is finished.
Sales tax break
Commissioners also approved issuing no more than $250,000,000 in taxable industrial revenue bonds for the project on Thursday, which exempts the developers from paying sales taxes on construction materials, equipment and labor throughout the five years it takes to build the facility.
That most recent incentive issues bonds just for sales tax exemption, not property taxes.
“No property tax abatement will be granted to the project via IRBs, though the American Royal expects its project will be exempt from property taxes through separate statute,” according to board documents.
The Royal has previously said it may apply for property tax exemption through the state Board of Tax Appeals, but it cannot do so until construction is completed, government officials have previously said.
The Unified Government is not obligated to make debt service payments on the bonds, according to board documents. That responsibility will fall on The Royal.
STAR bond revenues
The Unified Government and American Royal project the first project phase will generate $19.6 million in 2026 and $54 million in 2027 in new sales tax revenues. The state will collect $5.9 million of that directly and the Unified Government will collect $3 million. Remaining revenues will go toward paying off the STAR bonds.
After the second phase is completed, those sales are projected to increase to $70 million in 2028 and $91.8 million in 2031 and continue to grow from there.
The American Royal will make $1.3 million annual payments to the Unified Government, beginning in May 2027 to help pay off the STAR bond debt. This will continue through May 2045 and total about $25 million in payments. The rest of the bond debt will be paid off using increment sales tax revenues generated by developments in the project’s bond district.
The bond district includes the American Royal project, Plaza at the Speedway and its shops and vacant land north of the development, meaning incremental sales tax revenues from future projects built on the vacant land also will be used to pay off the STAR bonds.
This story was originally published January 30, 2026 at 7:19 PM.
