It is the latest plan.
Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas is singing a song in the stadium game to Major League Baseball’s Kansas City Royals franchise owner John Sherman. If you want it, here it is come and get it. Land for a stadium at the public Washington Square Park location. But there is a long, long way to go before a shovel is put into the ground. The land being available is the first step. Getting $600 million from the city needs approval and the state of Missouri has to pony up some money and that element is not in place. Then there is Sherman. He is looking to build a stadium-village. Is the plot of land the city is offering enough? The Lucas gambit is the latest move in the Kansas City stadium game. Sherman hopes to get a deal done by the end of the 2026 baseball season. Sherman has set deadlines before and those datelines have come and gone.
Sherman has eliminated Overland Park, Kansas as a possible location but a financial package by Kansas politicians expired on December 31st, 2025 and Kansas politicians are in no rush to work with Sherman’s negotiators and come up with a new financial package and might not even engage with him this spring. Sherman had until June 30th to complete a Kansas deal. Clay County, Missouri political leaders announced that Royals ownership did not accept the county’s latest offer to put a question to voters in April. Sherman’s problem began in April 2024 when Jackson County voters said no to extending a sales tax that would have funded a new Royals baseball park and renovated the National Football League Kansas City Chiefs’ franchise’s home stadium. Chiefs’ ownership took the Kansas deal. Sherman’s lease to use the Jackson County ballpark ends after the 2031 season.
Evan Weiner’s books are available at iTunes – https://books.apple.com/us/author/evan-weiner/id595575191
Evan can be reached at evan_weiner@hotmail.com
