{"id":2261524,"date":"2026-02-01T20:37:38","date_gmt":"2026-02-01T20:37:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2261524"},"modified":"2026-02-01T20:37:38","modified_gmt":"2026-02-01T20:37:38","slug":"kansas-city-royals-owner-downtown-stadium-still-the-goal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/kansas-city-royals-owner-downtown-stadium-still-the-goal\/","title":{"rendered":"Kansas City Royals owner: Downtown stadium still the goal"},"content":{"rendered":"

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At Royals Rally on Saturday at Kauffman Stadium, Royals chairman and CEO John Sherman took little off the table when it comes to the team\u2019s new stadium plans.<\/p>\n

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Both sides of the state line remain in play. So does a Clay County location, Sherman said.<\/p>\n

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Even remaining at Kauffman Stadium beyond the current lease that expires after the 2030 season, undesirable as it might be, remains a possibility.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThat\u2019s always a fallback position, we have that option,\u201d Sherman said. \u201cBut that\u2019s not something we intend to happen. That would be, from my perspective, kicking the can down the road relative to making sure we settle the Royals into their next generation.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Kansas <\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>
Kansas City Royals owner John Sherman speaks to the media during the Royals Rally event at Kauffman Stadium on Saturday, Jan. 31. Dominick Williams dowilliams@kcstar.com<\/span> <\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

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But a downtown location was Sherman\u2019s original vision for a new Royals home, and that remains his ideal scenario.<\/p>\n

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\u201cJust like in any business, you have to be willing to adapt and be flexible to achieve that ultimate goal,\u201d Sherman said. \u201cBut I think if you have your druthers, I would love to see us kind of in the heart of the city, in the cultural part of the city, where we can enhance maybe some things that are already going on and make it better.<\/p>\n

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\u201cSo, that\u2019s probably a soft spot, but I have to be open to other ideas, right?\u201d<\/p>\n

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Downtown appears to be the Royals\u2019 direction. Last week, Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas and Interim Jackson County Executive Phil LeVota were invited to a closed-door meeting with Gov. Mike Kehoe<\/a> to discuss plans to keep the team in Jackson County. The team has studied the possibility of a stadium at Washington Square Park near Crown Center.<\/p>\n

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Options in Kansas and Clay County appeared to have dwindled as funding deadlines passed.<\/p>\n

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Last week, the Royals announced they were no longer considering the Aspiria campus in Overland Park.<\/p>\n

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But Sherman didn\u2019t close the door on either possibility.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe made the decision to walk away from the Aspiria site,\u201d Sherman said. \u201cBut we still have opportunities on that side of the state line.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Kansas <\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>
Kansas City Royals owner John Sherman speaks to the media during the Royals Rally at Kauffman Stadium on Saturday, Jan. 31. Dominick Williams dowilliams@kcstar.com<\/span> <\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

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Sherman didn\u2019t reveal those opportunities.<\/p>\n

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Also, \u201cClay County is in play,\u201d said Sherman when asked specifically about the Northland site.<\/p>\n

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But in his first public comments in several months on the stadium issue, Sherman seemed more honed in on a downtown site. He believes the team will announce a decision on the new ballpark \u201csooner rather than later,\u201d and he continues to seek a mixed-use project.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s 81 nights, but it\u2019s also all you can do around it 365 days a year both in terms of energy and vibrancy,\u201d Sherman said.<\/p>\n

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In 2024, Jackson County voters turned down an extension of a 3\/8-cent sales tax<\/a> that would have been used to help fund a new baseball stadium and refurbish Arrowhead Stadium. Since then, the Chiefs have announced plans to build a new stadium in Kansas.<\/p>\n

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Sherman said the Royals are looking for a \u201cpublic partner\u201d to help fund a new stadium.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe\u2019re working day and night right now to find a way to make sure this team stays here for as long as any of us are going to be around,\u201d Sherman said. \u201cThe public partners is what ties you to a community.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThese are community assets. I acquired this team … because I certainly love baseball, and I Iove to compete. We love this city, and we want to make sure it\u2019s here long after we\u2019re gone.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Related Stories from Kansas City Star<\/h5>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Blair Kerkhoff<\/a><\/p>\n

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The Kansas City Star<\/span><\/p>\n

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Blair Kerkhoff has covered sports for The Kansas City Star since 1989. He was elected to the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in 2023.<\/span>\n <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.kansascity.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At Royals Rally on Saturday at Kauffman Stadium, Royals chairman and CEO John Sherman took little off the table when it comes to the team\u2019s new stadium plans. Both sides of the state line remain in play. So does a Clay County location, Sherman said. Even remaining at Kauffman Stadium beyond the current lease that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2061046,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[438036,388576,390368,311235,318102],"class_list":["post-2261524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-royalty","tag-downtown-stadium","tag-john-sherman","tag-kansas-city-royals-stadium","tag-kauffman-stadium","tag-kc-royals"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/SportsBeat-KC-Chiefs-shine-vs-Ravens-Royals-miss-playoffs.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2261524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2261524"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2261524\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2261525,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2261524\/revisions\/2261525"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2061046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2261524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2261524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2261524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}