Sherman wants to build a stadium at Crown Center.
The owner of Major League Baseball’s Kansas City Royals franchise, John Sherman, has a spot in Kansas City where he thinks he will build a new venue for his business. The ballpark will be part of a stadium-village that Sherman is developing with the Hallmark Cards. The stadium could cost $1.9 billion and the entire project has a price tag of $3 billion. There will be a public contribution to the stadium-village but at this point it unknown how much public money will be thrown into the project and where the taxes that will be collected in the village will go, whether it is to a municipality or to the village developers. Sherman chased a new stadium for years. Kansas City politicians wanted Sherman’s business somewhere in the city. The city came up with one location and Sherman came up with the Crown Center area.
Sherman eliminated Overland Park, Kansas as a possible location. A baseball park financial package offered by Kansas politicians expired on December 31st, 2025 and Kansas politicians decided not to work with Sherman’s negotiators and come up with a new financial package. 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 ballpark-village question to voters in April. The Clay County politicians did leave the door open to continue negotiations but nothing materialized. 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’s Kansas City Chiefs’ franchise’s home stadium. Chiefs ownership took the Kansas deal. Sherman’s lease to use the Jackson County ballpark does not end until the final out of the 2031 season.
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