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The Kansas City city council\u2019s finance committee and city Board of Parks and Recreation Commissioners both yesterday approved<\/a> Mayor Quinton Lucas\u2019s plan to open talks with the Royals<\/strong> on a new downtown stadium, which would involve $600 million in city money<\/a> and possibly $750 million or more<\/a> from the state. The full council meets tomorrow to vote on the ordinance, and since a majority of councilmembers are sponsors of the bill, we can be pretty sure how that will go.<\/p>\n After that, though, the stadium plan still has tons of unanswered questions. Some of that is intentional: The ordinance doesn\u2019t actually set a deal for a downtown Royals stadium, it just authorizes the city manager to negotiate one, at which point a whole bunch more approvals will be necessary. But Lucas and the council also appear to be trying to put forward a stadium plan that is both solid and ephemeral, promising that it will keep the Royals in town for decades while providing only the most nebulous of details about how it would do so, and who would pay for what.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s run through some of the more pressing questions, and see what we can come up with for answers:<\/p>\n Where would the $600 million in city money come from?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n While the ordinance itself is silent on this matter, Mayor Lucas has been anything but, vowing that \u201cthis isn\u2019t money that\u2019s coming from a general fund source<\/a> somewhere else. Instead, this is money, largely in our contemplation, generated currently at Kauffman Stadium. \u2026 If I never go to the ballpark, I\u2019m not paying for this team.\u201d<\/p>\n Money generated currently at Kauffman Stadium goes into the general fund, so portraying taking an equal amount of money and instead giving it to the Royals as not costing non-baseball fans anything is quite the leap of obfuscation. But beyond that, Lucas has floated the idea of creating a tax increment financing district around not just the stadium but potentially the entire Crown Center area<\/a> to funnel off that $600 million worth of tax revenues \u2014 and depending on how big that district is drawn, it could easily capture spending that isn\u2019t by baseball fans, but just by Kansas Citians who happen to be going out to eat or even visiting the aquarium in the general vicinity of a baseball stadium.<\/p>\n What about the state money?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n The Kansas City Star cites \u201cpreliminary documents\u201d as saying the stadium itself would be 60% publicly funded and 40% privately funded<\/a>, which for a $1.9 billion stadium would come to $1.14 billion from public sources, leaving the state to cover $540 million. Lucas, though, has said that the state\u2019s Show-Me Sports Investment Act passed last June<\/a> could cover 50% of the stadium costs, which would come to more like $950 million. That act, however, provides for siphoning off all state taxes collected on spending at the stadium and on income by team employees and using them to pay off stadium costs, so the actual state cost may depend on how much money officials calculate they can find in this pot \u2014 assuming, that is, they don\u2019t choose to go the Kansas route and define \u201cat the stadium\u201d as anywhere in one entire corner of the state<\/a>.<\/p>\n What do Kansas City residents think of the plan?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Yesterday\u2019s council meeting was open to public testimony, and KCUR reports<\/a> that many citizens \u201cechoed similar concerns that city leaders are undermining their vote against a downtown stadium, and that taxpayers\u2019 money could be better spent on city services like schools, transportation and affordable housing\u201d while \u201cmany business leaders and union members spoke in support of the plan, saying it will create more jobs and bring more economic development to the area.\u201d Samples:<\/p>\n The Kansas City Star adds: \u201cMore than one speaker referenced economic studies that have shown stadiums are not major engines for economic development. Numerous opponents referenced the 2024 vote in which Jackson County residents soundly rejected a stadium tax that would have funded a new stadium in the Crossroads District, a vote that has long plagued city and team officials.\u201d (Yes, \u201cplagued\u201d \u2014 the will of the voters can be such a headache<\/em>, right?)<\/p>\n Will a stadium and surrounding Royals development district fit on the proposed site?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n This is an excellent question, and one that neither the council nor the press coverage seems to be talking about. Washington Square Park itself is only five acres, not nearly big enough for a stadium; with the addition of some surrounding buildings and a nearby parking lot<\/a>, a stadium might barely be squeezed in, though renderings show it as an extremely tight fit<\/a> with the stadium overhanging an adjacent street. For a stadium district, meanwhile, Sherman would likely have to buy part of all of the surrounding Crown Center<\/a>, and possibly redevelop part of it for any baseball-adjacent uses he\u2019d seek.<\/p>\n\n