Raytown braces for economic impact if Royals, Chiefs leave Truman Sports Complex

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — KSHB 41 reporter Tod Palmer covers sports business and eastern Jackson County, including Independence. Share your story idea with Tod.

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The Kansas City Royals and Chiefs plan to vacate the Harry S. Truman Sports Complex by 2030 and 2031, respectively.

Built in the early 1970s, the stadiums are located in Kansas City and owned by Jackson County, but Raytown may feel the effects of the Truman Sports Complex’s demise as much or more than any other city in eastern Jackson County.

"Because we are only two miles south of there (the stadiums), we have an amazingly huge amount of traffic that comes through here the entire time that stadium has been open,” Mayor Mike McDonough said. “A lot of our restaurants, bars, gas stations and grocery stores are impacted, because people come through here and they stop to get stuff for the famous tailgating and stuff that they do, buy gasoline and beer and whatever else they're going to take with them.”

RELATED | KCMO City Council approves rezoning, financing for new downtown stadium

Jackson County released tentative renderings for concepts to reimagine the stadium property. Both anticipate keeping Arrowhead Stadium open for concerts, college football games and other large-scale events — possibly even building an F1 race course — while adding a transit hub, entertainment district, convention center and hotel, apartment units and other amenities.

"There might be other things they can use there — like they do now, concerts and things like that — but it won't come anywhere close to being able to replicate what we have now between the ball games, concerts, and other events that they have there," McDonough said.

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Rochell Handley, who lives near the Truman Sports Complex, has watched the teams evolve over decades and said the planned departures sting.

"I've been in Kansas City for a long, long time, so I remember when the Chiefs — you couldn't even watch them on TV because they didn't have the capacity to put people in seats — so you only had the radio to listen to them,” she said. “Then, once you get a little bit of success, you jump ship.”

Handley's late husband, Henry, was a die-hard fan of the Chiefs and Royals. He loved to catch their games, and Mizzou games as well, on TV, so she decorated the living room of their home as a man cave.

“He confiscated this as his man cave,” she said with a laugh. “He just needed his seat and the TV.”

Handley wishes the stadiums weren’t leaving the area and hopes it doesn’t become a blighted, unsightly property.

"The location is great for anybody because it's right off the highway between the two, so there's so much potential there," Handley said.

Both McDonough and Handley agree that redevelopment of the site is long overdue.

"No matter what happens, that redevelopment needs to happen, and I salute those that are involved in trying to get some kind of an idea of what they might be able to do with that property, rather than just let it sit there and rot," McDonough said.

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Jackson County

Handley echoed that sentiment.

"We know that they (the Chiefs and Royals) did not utilize all of the property that they could have and should have,” she said. “For all their whining and complaining about stuff, the organization that is, they didn't utilize all that they needed to do there either.”

Still, the prospect of the stadiums sitting idle carries a deep sense of loss for those who grew up in their shadow.

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"You grew up here, I grew up here,” McDonough said. “Until the trees got tall enough, I could see it out of my office all the time. It's just going to be sad that that won't be there.”

The KCMO City Council passed a series of ordinances Thursday related to funding and rezoning a downtown stadium for the Royals, while Kansas approved a STAR bond agreement with the Chiefs late last year, promising to build a domed NFL stadium and team practice facility/headquarters across the state line.

This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.

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