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The Beacon | By\u00a0Josh Merchant<\/a><\/p>\n Published\u00a0April 23, 2026 at 9:22 AM CDT<\/p>\n The Kansas City Royals\u00a0announced on Wednesday<\/a>\u00a0that the team intends to stay in Kansas City, Missouri, accepting the city\u2019s offer to help finance a downtown ballpark at Crown Center.<\/p>\n That announcement comes after a two-year courtship between the Royals and Kansas City, following the overwhelming rejection by Jackson County voters of a sales-tax-funded stadium in 2024.<\/p>\n John Sherman, chairman and CEO of the Royals, said the Crown Center location will include a $1.9 billion ballpark as well as an entertainment district, bringing the total project cost up to $3 billion. He said about $2 billion of the project would be privately financed.<\/p>\n That puts the proposed stadium project as among the most expensive in Major League Baseball history \u2014 outranked only by Yankee Stadium in New York and a proposed ballpark for the Tampa Bay Rays in Florida.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re bringing a second crown downtown,\u201d Sherman said. \u201cWe will rethink, reimagine, redefine and redevelop Crown Center in an 85-acre-plus setting here that will instantly become the largest sports-anchored downtown development of its kind.\u201d<\/p>\n Sports<\/a><\/p>\n Kansas City Royals announce Crown Center as new ballpark location, in deal with Hallmark<\/a><\/p>\n A\u00a0previous Beacon story examined the local contribution<\/a>\u00a0that Kansas City taxpayers will be making over the next 30 years to pay for the stadium\u2019s construction.<\/p>\n That deal, which is still being negotiated, will require the city to take out $600 million in bonds that will be paid back using tax revenue generated by the stadium and a surrounding development district. That as-yet-undefined district will include Crown Center but is expected to stretch farther.<\/p>\n But that\u2019s not the only part of the deal that will require taxpayer support.<\/p>\n Missouri passed a law last summer that\u00a0outlines a similar contribution<\/a>\u00a0from state taxpayers.<\/p>\n When speaking to reporters after the announcement on Wednesday, Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe would not give an exact dollar amount, but it will likely total hundreds of millions of dollars.<\/p>\n \u201cThis has got to be a good return on investment for taxpayers,\u201d Kehoe said. \u201cIf the Royals left, we\u2019d get nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n The state\u2019s contribution to the downtown ballpark will likely come primarily through the so-called\u00a0Show-Me Sports Investment Act<\/a>, championed by Kehoe when he called a special session of the Missouri General Assembly last summer.<\/p>\n That law authorizes the state to provide the Royals with hundreds of millions of dollars over the next 30 years to help pay for construction of the ballpark.<\/p>\n Unlike the city\u2019s deal, which is a tax-increment financing plan, the state\u2019s contribution will be a direct subsidy based on the amount of taxes that are currently generated by Kauffman Stadium.<\/p>\n The Kansas City Council ordinance passed on April 16 directs City Manager Mario Vasquez to submit an application to the Missouri Department of Economic Development to unlock the state funding.<\/p>\n Notably, that department will not formally pledge any money until after it reviews the city manager\u2019s application.<\/p>\n At that point, the state will set a baseline number based on however much money the Royals paid in taxes to Missouri.<\/p>\n Housing & Development<\/a><\/p>\n How will Kansas City\u2019s Royals stadium plan work? Inside the finances of the $600 million bet<\/a><\/p>\n In essence, that means that tax revenue the state receives from the Royals ballpark could be redirected back to the team to help pay for the stadium.<\/p>\n However, if the downtown ballpark generates more tax revenue than the current location at Kauffman Stadium, the state will be able to keep the excess. That includes any tax revenue generated from the surrounding entertainment district.<\/p>\n The exact dollar amount is unclear, and Kehoe declined to provide that number when talking to reporters after the announcement.<\/p>\n But in 2024, the entire Truman Sports Complex\u00a0generated about $40 million<\/a>, including sales, income, use and entertainers taxes at both Arrowhead Stadium and Kauffman Stadium.<\/p>\n In previous years, that number hovered between $25 million and $35 million, but 2024 was an unusually high year.<\/p>\n Despite the Royals playing more games per year, the Chiefs tend to pay more in taxes than the Royals \u2014 in part because Arrowhead Stadium has a higher capacity, and in part because of concerts like Taylor Swift, Beyonce and Morgan Wallen.<\/p>\n Kehoe estimated that the Royals generate between $15 million and $17 million in tax revenue for the state every year.<\/p>\n Importantly, that only includes the state\u2019s taxes. Any taxes that the Royals pay to the city or the county are not included in the baseline number, under last year\u2019s stadium financing law.<\/p>\n That baseline number \u2014 somewhere around $15 million or $17 million \u2014 is the maximum amount of money per year that state taxpayers will pitch in for the downtown ballpark. The state\u2019s law caps the incentive at 30 years, which is expected to be the length of the Royals\u2019 stadium lease.<\/p>\n Over 30 years, that adds up to somewhere between $450 million and $510 million in state tax revenue.<\/p>\n That number is a far cry from the $900 million that Missouri\u00a0House Speaker Jonathan Patterson of Lee\u2019s Summit told Fox 4 KC<\/a>\u00a0the state could contribute.<\/p>\n \u201cI think if you look at the numbers,\u201d Patterson told Fox 4 KC, \u201cand there was an audit in 2023, the teams generate almost $60 million, and so if you take half of that, then it would be $30 million, then times 30 years, it could be that number. I think those are good estimates that you\u2019re working with.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s unclear what audit he\u2019s referring to in that interview. Official documents from the Jackson County Sports Complex Authority only show the teams\u00a0generating $35 million for the state<\/a>\u00a0in 2023 \u2014 not $60 million.<\/p>\n The total cost of the new Royals ballpark is expected to be about $1.9 billion.<\/p>\n Kansas City plans to take out $600 million in bonds to contribute to the project. That number does not include interest. Assuming a 4.5% interest rate, the city will end up\u00a0spending an additional $517 million on interest payments<\/a>, for a total of $1.117 billion.<\/p>\n As for Missouri, the state has not confirmed an exact number yet. But if we assume that the baseline tax revenue currently generated by Kauffman Stadium is about $17 million, the state would contribute a maximum of $510 million over 30 years.<\/p>\n But unlike Kansas City\u2019s contribution, Missouri\u2019s number includes interest.<\/p>\n Assuming a 4.5% interest rate, the state\u2019s annual appropriation could theoretically support\u00a0about $274 million<\/a>\u00a0of project costs.<\/p>\n So with Kansas City contributing $600 million and the state contributing $274 million, that leaves about another $1 billion unpaid.<\/p>\n That\u2019s the gap that the Royals will need to close, either by contributing $1 billion themselves or by finding\u00a0other public subsidies from the state<\/a>\u00a0or Jackson County.<\/p>\n At the Wednesday announcement, Sherman estimated that out of the total $3 billion project cost (including the stadium and the entertainment district), two-thirds will be privately funded by the team and other private investors.<\/p>\n \u201cDestiny appears to have its eyes on us,\u201d Sherman said Wednesday. \u201cIt\u2019s not how we drew it up, but this is exactly where we wanted to land in our search for a generational home for the Kansas City Royals. \u2026 I can\u2019t wait to get to work on this.\u201d<\/p>\n This story was originally published by\u00a0<\/em>The Beacon<\/em><\/a>, a fellow member of the KC Media Collective.<\/em><\/p>\nThe Kansas City Royals are officially moving to Crown Center. But it remains unclear how much money Missouri taxpayers will contribute \u2014 Gov. Mike Kehoe said it will likely total hundreds of millions of dollars.<\/h2>\n
Missouri\u2019s contribution<\/h2>\n
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<\/figure>\nHow much are the Royals putting in?<\/h2>\n