It\u2019s official: a team that called the Truman Sports Complex home is moving to a brand new stadium. Interestingly, the first team to declare their intentions to move was not the Kansas City Royals, who have been broadcasting their intentions of building a new stadium for years<\/a>. Rather, it\u2019s the Kansas City Chiefs who broke the ice first, announcing a new stadium and headquarters project<\/a> in Wyandotte County, Kansas.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n This is obviously big news for Chiefs fans and will take some time to process, but baseball fans have one clear question: what does this news mean for the Royals?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n At the moment, the Chiefs stadium does not officially impact the Royals\u2019 decision. But we can sure infer some things from this, so let\u2019s cover a few of them real quick.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The reason why the Chiefs chose Kansas, as Kansas City Star columnist Sam McDowell put it very well in his most recent column<\/a>, comes down to one thing and one thing only: money. The state of Kansas will provide the Chiefs organization $1.8 billion, which is the largest ever public subsidy for a U.S. sports stadium project<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Kansas is providing this money through a mechanism called STAR Bonds. These bonds are paid back via sales tax revenue generated from the project\u2019s district. But since the money owed to the Chiefs is so extensive, the district boundaries are looking to be very, very wide.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Kansas isn\u2019t exactly the most populous or the richest state in the union. So does the state also<\/em> have STAR Bonds available to fund an additional, say, $700 million for the Royals? That\u2019s pretty dicey. It could happen. But where would the district be?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Perhaps because of this crunch, Kansas senate president Ty Masterson did not respond with a particularly forward answer when asked about the Royals. \u201cIt\u2019s more complex than it looks on the surface,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n With Missouri having just lost an NFL franchise, major leaders in the state do not want to see the Royals go across the border. Kansas City mayor Quinton Lucas made remarks about the news.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n One quote pops out very clearly:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cOur unified, hardworking, and exceptional team will continue our strong efforts as we work to retain the Kansas City Royals in a transformational downtown facility.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n It\u2019s not as if Missouri didn\u2019t offer a big incentive package, and had the Chiefs stayed in Missouri they would have been compensated for renovations of Arrowhead. But with the Chiefs gone, one of the obstacles for negotiating with the Royals is now gone.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n It is more likely today than it was a week ago that the Royals will stay in Missouri, either downtown somewhere or at the North Kansas City site. Missouri is eager to retain the Royals, while there are serious issues with the Royals\u2019 potential Kansas stadium location as well as the state\u2019s ability to conjure up money to keep the Royals.<\/p>\n<\/div>\nKansas financing might become more difficult<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The pressure is on Missouri<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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So what does this all mean?<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n