Chiefs, Royals said they’d involve public on stadium plans. It’s still not happening | Opinion

Jackson County voters overwhelmingly rejected a sales tax extension for professional baseball and football stadiums in April. After the vote, the Kansas City Royals, the Kansas City Chiefs and local politicians promised to learn from the results, and return with new options in the months to come.

Instead, 2024 ends with lots of chatter about stadiums, but little public engagement on a plan. That lack of public discussion is deeply regrettable, and a serious mistake. It jeopardizes progress on the stadiums in 2025.

It’s true that both teams have held private talks with officeholders in Missouri and Kansas since the failed vote. The Royals, we’re told, have met with Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas to discuss options, including a site near Union Station. Kansas locations are also reportedly on the table.

The Chiefs have talked with fans and county officials, and are still deciding whether they want a new stadium or a renovated Arrowhead. Team officials promise a decision of some kind by the spring.

These conversations are worthwhile. Yet there is little evidence either club, or responsible public officials, have pursued serious stadium dialogues with the people most affected by the issue: the public.

Shutting out meaningful public participation in the stadium debate is the wrong approach.

That’s true even if the teams pursue stadiums without a public vote. A new Royals stadium anywhere near the Kansas City urban core would likely need zoning and permits even if the team paid every dime of the cost, which it won’t. And residents in Kansas neighborhoods will undoubtedly demand some say in a baseball stadium project if the team builds across the state line.

A new Chiefs stadium in western Wyandotte County would be simpler, but financing would still be a public concern. And any move by the team before the end of the current leases with Jackson County would require renegotiation and a likely payment to the county, an issue fraught with politics.

A year ago, both teams and their media boosters acted as if the public’s needs were irrelevant to the discussion. The Royals picked an unpopular site and negotiated a lukewarm community benefits agreement that excited no one. The Chiefs unveiled a renovation plan for their current stadium that put voters to sleep.

After the failed vote, we fully expected the teams to reopen a dialogue with interest groups and stakeholders in 2024. Instead, we’ve seen months of backroom negotiations aimed at producing what seems to be another take-it-or-leave it stadium blueprint in 2025.

Would Missouri give money for ballpark?

Mayor Lucas and others have said the 2025 Royals plan could be considered without a full public vote. Setting aside the obvious — the possibility of a petition-led initiative — would Kansas City Council members simply rubber-stamp whatever the Royals and the mayor come up with?

Former Mayor Sly James tried that approach with the new terminal at Kansas City International Airport, and his plan collapsed. It took public pressure to open up airport discussions and develop a plan the public could endorse.

There’s more. Will Missouri legislators, facing their own budget problems, endorse significant aid for a new ballpark? Would the potential Union Station site provide any real help for downtown Kansas City?

Will the team include any community benefits in a new deal? We simply don’t know.

The Chiefs are reportedly still considering a new stadium in western Wyandotte County. Such a project would be massively expensive: A new stadium for the Buffalo Bills, under construction now, will cost at least $2.1 billion, including $850 million from state and local taxpayers. A new Chiefs stadium would cost more than that.

That would be, by far, the biggest sales tax revenue bond program in Kansas history. Will state lawmakers endorse the final deal if costs increase?

These questions might have been discussed with the public, in public, in 2024. They were not.

The region (and this newspaper) are not anti-Royals or anti-Chiefs: We applaud the teams’ successes on the field. We enjoy watching the games. We like to celebrate when they win.

But the days when franchise owners could simply declare their intentions and watch as the public falls in line are over. The teams and local officials should consider the public as full partners in this decision, starting as soon as possible, or 2025 will be another wasted year.

This story was originally published December 29, 2024 at 5:06 AM with the headline "Chiefs, Royals said they’d involve public on stadium plans. It’s still not happening | Opinion."