Royals are again evaluating North Kansas City as possible stadium site: sources
The Royals’ ongoing search for a new baseball stadium has returned to an old location.
And it invokes a familiar phrase: In or around downtown.
The Royals have evaluated the possibility of a stadium and surrounding ballpark district in North Kansas City — Clay County — multiple sources told The Star.
On Monday, the Missouri Senate passed legislation that would allow Clay County to create a sports complex authority, aiding such a path.
Turns out, the Royals are a step ahead of that process.
It is unclear when they renewed their interest in a site north of the river — or to what degree they’re actually considering it now — but multiple sources told The Star that the Royals have talked with the Merriman family, which controls a site encompassing nearly 100 acres in North Kansas City. The Royals also previously tasked developers to study the site.
Whether anything new comes of those talks remains to be seen.
If that all rings a bell in the never-ending stadium discussion involving the Royals and Chiefs, well, it should. The Royals announced the North Kansas City site as a finalist for their stadium project back in August 2023, months before they reversed course and put a Crossroads District location on the ballot instead.
Jackson County voters rejected resoundingly the Crossroads proposal, which was paired with a Chiefs renovation project at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium.
Since that vote’s failure, the Royals haven’t publicly commented on any sites; nor have they ruled any out. There is constant behind-the-scenes debate, particularly among elected officials and influential parties, over which site to characterize as a proverbial leader in the clubhouse.
Asked by The Star last month if he envisioned any scenario in which the Royals would continue to play baseball at Kauffman Stadium beyond their current lease’s expiration in 2031, team owner John Sherman said he did not.
With Kansas City officials, the Royals have talked most frequently about Washington Square Park, a downtown location near Crown Center and Union Station that Mayor Quinton Lucas has called his preference since the failed vote in April 2024.
And ever since Kansas state officials passed a supercharged version of STAR bonds last summer, the Royals have explored and studied sites on that side of the state line, including one at the former Sprint Campus.
Those sites did not garner serious consideration in the first go-round.
A North Kansas City option did.
Its two obvious selling points back then would remain attractive today: space and land control.
The Merriman-owned location, which sits south of Armour Road and west of Interstate 29, offers far more size than any downtown spot, though it is notably not in downtown Kansas City. When they’d announced the Clay County possibility as an original finalist, the Royals touted its acreage, lured by their desire to build a surrounding ballpark district that could include restaurants, hotels, apartments and surface-level parking.
The financial discussions, key in whichever setting the team pursues, are not yet evident with a North Kansas City location, and that’s only relevant if the option intrigues the Royals. It did two years ago, when the two sides had discussed putting a full-penny sales tax on the ballot, though many were skeptical about the public’s appetite for that.
Future discussions could include alternatives for financing a project, but that’s a considerable box yet to check.
This notion does appear to have at least some momentum at the state level, albeit far shy of any sort of finish line. The Missouri Senate easily passed the sports complex authority bill, 26 to 6, allowing Clay County to create a sports complex authority similar to the one in Jackson County.
And there’s some important context for that: Previously, nothing involving the stadiums had passed with ease through the Missouri Capitol.
In fact, with only four weeks left in this year’s legislative session, the Clay County legislation is the only stadium-related bill to pass either chamber this year — a sign that the Northland could be a priority for state lawmakers. They could potentially see it as an avenue to help keep the Royals in the state while also creating the path in Jackson County for the Chiefs.
House Speaker Jonathan Patterson, a Lee’s Summit Republican, expressed interest in the Royals potentially moving to Clay County in an interview with The Star this week.
“I do think that North Kansas City site in Clay County is attractive in that it takes off half the pressure on Jackson County,” said Patterson, arguably the most powerful lawmaker in the Missouri General Assembly.
That’s a noted contrast from the lack of movement on stadium-related bills designed to keep the teams in Jackson County. And this has frustrated some Kansas City-area lawmakers.
“No bill has moved in the Legislature that has anything to do with Jackson County, keeping professional sports teams there,” Rep. Mark Sharp, a Kansas City Democrat, told The Star. “The only bill that’s moved involves Clay County. So there’s nothing being done.”
Financially, there’s nothing that has been done to date.
As the end of the legislative session draws near, Missouri state lawmakers have yet to fully approve any funding mechanisms to keep the Royals or the Chiefs in the state — in either county.
This story was originally published April 16, 2025 at 3:54 PM.