Did the Royals miss their chance to build a Kansas stadium?

The Kansas City Royals’ years-long plan to build a new stadium hasn’t yet settled on a location.

But is one option narrowing?

The Kansas financial incentive package that lured the Chiefs across the state line doesn’t technically expire until June 2026.

But the influential council of state lawmakers who approved the Chiefs’ deal previously voted to close both teams’ window of opportunity on Dec. 31. And the top lawmaker responsible for setting that council’s agenda in 2026 says he has no plans to extend that deadline beyond Wednesday to accommodate the Royals.

“Time’s up — as I’ve said before, today is the deadline for STAR Bond proposals,” Kansas House Speaker Dan Hawkins, a Wichita Republican, said Wednesday in a statement to The Star. Hawkins takes over as chair of the Legislative Coordinating Council, or LCC, on Thursday.

While the Royals didn’t reach an agreement in Kansas before the LCC-imposed deadline, they still haven’t ruled out a move across the state line, either.

Royals stadium options

They have long explored a potential site at the Aspiria campus near 119th Street and Nall Avenue in Overland Park, and the club still considers that among its possible destinations. A Royals affiliate purchased the mortgage of the 200-acre campus in May, giving the team some financial leverage over the site.

The team, which has played at Kauffman Stadium since 1973, has concurrently maintained its interest in sites in downtown Kansas City and just across the river in North Kansas City.

The downtown option — the Royals’ original vision more than four years ago — is gaining public and political support after the Chiefs announced last week their intentions to move to Wyandotte County in Kansas. That move sent shock waves across Missouri among its state, county and city leaders, who collectively have appeared as motivated as ever not to let the Royals follow suit.

Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas has reiterated his desire for a downtown stadium at Washington Square Park, a site in the mix for more than a year that sits north of Crown Center and east of Union Station, which was aglow in Royals blue over the weekend. The Union Station social media team released a statement advocating for a Royals move next door. Lucas wore a Royals hoodie sweatshirt during a Facebook Q&A over the weekend.

Public funding in Kansas

The emotion about keeping the Royals in Missouri has perceptibly changed in the last 10 days. But has the offer changed? And have the Royals changed their plans?

The team has consistently said it is exploring all options for a new stadium and surrounding development project, including the three aforementioned sites. That remains true in both Kansas and Missouri after the Chiefs’ revealed their plans last week.

The Kansas incentive package specifically authorizes the state to subsidize as many as two new professional stadiums, but it’s unclear how big of an appetite its leadership would have for another multi-billion dollar stadium project backed by public funds.

While some in Kansas have crowed about poaching the team from Missouri, other residents are more critical of the deal’s generous terms for Chiefs ownership. Another stadium deal would undoubtedly bring more scrutiny and additional questions about the projects’ financial viability.

The failure to meet Kansas lawmakers’ self-imposed year-end deadline complicates, if not shrinks, the Royals’ path to joining the Chiefs in Kansas.

“With the 2026 legislative session just around the corner, our focus has to stay on the priorities that matter most — lowering the cost of living and cutting waste, fraud, and abuse in the state budget,” Hawkins said in his statement.

Path to STAR bonds

The LCC is empowered to make important state decisions while the Kansas Legislature is out of session. The sales tax and revenue, or STAR bond, legislation approved in 2024 gives the LCC unilateral authority to approve a stadium deal up until June 30, even while the full Legislature is in session.

After Wednesday, though, the prospect of the LCC entertaining a Royals deal — no matter when it’s presented — would require Hawkins to reverse course.

If he did, it wouldn’t be the first time. The original STAR bonds proposal was set to expire last summer before the LCC exercised a one-year renewal to extend the window. In the lead-up to the July meeting, Hawkins repeatedly said he didn’t want to see the offer extended.

Ultimately, he relented but made the motion to cut off stadium negotiations on Dec. 31.

Nicole Norvell, a spokesperson for the Kansas House Democrats, said Wednesday that she’s unaware of any discussion about an emergency meeting of the LCC or an effort to extend the deadline into 2026.

A spokesperson for the Kansas Department of Commerce declined to say whether David Toland, the state’s lieutenant governor and commerce secretary, will continue communicating with Royals officials about stadium options in January and beyond.