KSHB 41 reporter Tod Palmer covers sports business and eastern Jackson County, including Independence. Share your story idea with Tod.
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With another Royals season on the horizon next week, the publicly discussed options for a new baseball stadium have narrowed to the point that Washington Square Park remains the last one standing.
But that’s fine with Jim Price.
“I don’t have a problem with it,” he said. “My only thing is access.”
Price and his family were headed through the park to the streetcar Wednesday afternoon, which he acknowledged would ease his biggest concern. But mostly, he’s just excited for another Royals season.
“We go three or four times a year, but we watch almost all of them on TV,” he said.
Price, a retired plumber, worked on a lot of the buildings that form the downtown skyline, which he’d love to see from his seats at a future Royals game.
“What a great venue that would be,” Price said. “Even Western Auto would pay for that, if they were around anymore.”
Unfortunately, there’s bad news for fans weary of the years-long stadium conversation; it remains on the back burner for now, even with dwindling options.
The Kansas Legislature is currently working through the details of a plan that would land a new Chiefs stadium in Wyandotte County and a new team headquarters in Olathe.
The boundaries of the proposed STAR Bonds district, from which roughly $2.5 billion would be extracted during the next 30 years to pay for the $4-billion overall development, were more contentious in WyCo than Olathe, but they also don’t leave much, if any, room for the Royals.
The Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas, and the city of Olathe signed off on giving up certain future tax revenue for the Chiefs' projects in February, leaving only a portion of southern Johnson County available for a possible Royals stadium development.
But after pressure from neighbors and existing businesses, the team announced that it would not build at Aspiria, even though the club took over the former Sprint Campus mortgage last spring.
Technically, Kansas has until June 30 to engage in negotiations with the Royals, but Kansas House Speaker Dan Hawkins set a Dec. 31, 2025, deadline for negotiations. The Chiefs met it; the Royals didn’t.
Now, Hawkins’ office said he has no plans nor any intention of calling the Legislative Coordinating Council into session again to hash out a deal with the Royals.
That dynamic also has taken root north of the river.
The Royals have explored a site in North Kansas City for a sprawling mixed-use district, but Clay County officials said they haven’t had any contact with the team since late last year, and there’s no plan to put a countywide sales tax to a vote, a necessary step to fund the concept.
Washington Square Park has been discussed as a possible stadium site for several years now, but it’s emerged in recent months as the city’s preferred destination, especially with Kansas and Clay County seemingly out of the running.
There has been talk that movement toward a deal was possible before the Royals’ home opener, but a new priority — convincing voters to extend to 1% earnings tax on April 7 — is Kansas City’s priority at the moment.
If the city and the Royals are going to reach a deal for a new stadium at Washington Square Park, it seems like mid-April would be the soonest it could happen.
The site isn’t without its challenges — including railroad tracks to the north, an underground creek that runs through the property and elevation changes — but it may be the best the Royals can hope for at this point.
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