Kansas City mayor says stadium plan nearing ‘a big, fancy announcement’
After a funding proposal for a new Kansas City Royals stadium cleared two hurdles on Tuesday, Mayor Quinton Lucas cast the votes as a major step towards an announcement from the team.
Lucas, in a brief gaggle with reporters on Tuesday, said City Council’s expected approval of the funding plan would be the final step ahead of “a big, fancy announcement.” The mayor then referenced another announcement that has haunted Missouri officials: the Kansas City Chiefs’ announced move to Kansas in December.
“When do we get to a Chiefs-esque announcement?” Lucas said. “With the steps that have been taken now, after Thursday, probably any day after we’re ready to do that.”
Lucas made the comments after a pair of meetings in which the city’s Finance, Governance and Public Safety Committee and the Board of Parks and Recreation Commissioners greenlit the project. The full City Council is scheduled to debate the plan at 2 p.m. on Thursday.
The underlying proposal would allow City Manager Mario Vasquez to negotiate a deal of up to $600 million for a $1.9 billion stadium project at Washington Square Park near Crown Center and Union Station.
Earlier on Tuesday, a top Royals official offered the team’s strongest endorsement yet of the plan in an interview with reporters, calling the proposal “a great project that will ultimately come to pass.”
The comments from Brooks Sherman, the team’s president of real estate and development, were likely a welcome sign for Lucas and other city officials. But the Royals still have not formally announced a move downtown or thrown their full-throated support behind City Hall’s plan.
In addition to the lack of a formal announcement, the project’s full financial picture is still unclear. The Royals and city officials are hoping to secure state funding for the project, but it’s uncertain how much money the state will contribute and whether Jackson County will contribute at all.
The city’s proposal authorizes Vasquez to apply for state funding from a sweeping stadium financing package signed into law last summer that required a local funding source, but how much the state might provide is not yet public.
This story was originally published April 15, 2026 at 2:12 PM.
