A Royals stadium ordinance just steamrolled through city government. The public has a few small critiques.

At the beginning of Kansas City’s April 26 city council meeting, Pastor David McDaniel’s opening prayer seemed to foreshadow a foregone yet historic decision in the minutes to come.

He called for attendees to “embrace curiosity” rather than oppose the historic decision. Ultimately, this would be to the dismay of a near majority of the meeting’s audience.

In a continued effort to bring a Kansas City Royals ballpark downtown, the city council passed Ordinance 260339.

It authorizes the council and City Manager Mario Vasquez to begin negotiations with Royals ownership on a proposed stadium in Washington Square Park, near Crown Center and Union Station. Meanwhile, the City will arrange appropriations for a $600 million bill, which will total $1.9 billion in tandem with Royals ownership and the State of Missouri’s Show-Me Sports Investment Act—should the proposal qualify for the latter.

According to a press release from Mayor Quinton Lucas’ office, Kansas City’s contribution is structured to draw “from revenues generated at and around the stadium, not from the general fund.”

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Lucas introduced the ordinance one week ago at the April 9 city council meeting.

Since then, it cleared a unanimous vote on April 14 by the City’s Governance and Public Safety Committee and Kansas City Board of Parks and Recreation Commissioners (the latter would own the lease of the proposed stadium’s property).

Organizer Terrance Wise speaks after the stadium negotiation ordinance passes // Photo by Kylie Volavongsa

While there were efforts in 2024 to build a Royals stadium in the nearby Crossroads, public voters shut that vote down with a resounding 16-point margin.

This time around, the city council meeting seemed to proceed with confidence that this 2026 proposal would succeed. Which, also, is to say that their priorities were already beyond constituent input.

Before the vote on the ordinance, the council held a decision for the immediate adoption of another ordinance proposed by 1st District council member Nathan Willett. This called to relocate Washington Square Park’s existing Korean War veterans memorial while prioritizing its visibility. Additionally, before the real vote, a passed amendment to the stadium ordinance itself also guaranteed that further developments would go to city council for approval. This had the support of council member Johnathan Duncan, who previously opposed the Washington Square Park proposal.

Less salient to the council were the audience’s many protestors. Supporters and representatives of the Missouri Workers Center filled the seats with red shirts and paper signs that displayed the overwhelming percentage of previous Jackson County district votes against a 3/8th sales tax extension as part of the 2024 proposal for a downtown Royals stadium in the Crossroads.

Seats emptied after a large attendance of protestors // Photo by Kylie Volavongsa

Unlike the 2024 public vote, this year’s was limited to the city government, and the result was almost unanimous. There were only two exceptions: a ‘No’ from Willett, while 1st district council member-at-large Crispin Rea presently abstained. All that’s left for the proposal is for the City Council and Royals to agree on final arrangements.

In the crowd: a laugh, shaking heads, and complaints that rose to a roar just outside of the chamber. Rather than a stadium, they believed, the City should put more funds towards improvements to public transportation, roads, and affordable housing.

“Today, they seem focused on billionaires’ playgrounds and economic development over our people, and that ain’t right,” says organizer Terrance Wise. “If you leave this space, you have the right to be angry. You have the right to be frustrated. But you don’t have the right to give up and quit.”

Wise declared another action to take place on May 1, on the grounds of Washington Square Park.

Missouri House candidate Hartzell Gray also showed in support of the Missouri Workers Center.

“In a country with the greatest disparity of wealth in human history, and a city that is corrupt—a city hall that is incestuous and corrupt—you mean to tell me that you’re going to have the leverage to give out a $600 million bailout as we’ve got bus fares that are now being reinstated and routes cancelled?”

“You want to give these billionaire clowns $600 million. Where’s our bailout? Where’s the working class bailout? Where’s the urgency? It’s a damn shame.”