KSHB 41 reporter Grant Stephens covers downtown Kansas City, Missouri. He also focuses on stories of consumer interest. Share your story idea with Grant.
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Kansas City's efforts to bring the Royals downtown are expected to move forward today during two city meetings. The decisions made in both meetings will determine the future of a downtown Royals stadium at Washington Square Park.
The Finance, Governance, and Public Safety Committee will review an ordinance at 10:30 a.m. that sets the framework for negotiations. The ordinance directs the city manager to work toward a lease and development agreement with the Royals for a stadium in the Washington Square Park-Crown Center area.
The ordinance also authorizes applying for state incentives under Missouri's Show-Me Sports Investment Act and financing tools like tax increment financing. If passed, the city will use $250,000 from the Development Services Fund to help pay for the planning.
At 2:00 p.m., the Kansas City Board of Parks and Recreation Commissioners will consider a resolution allowing the city manager to put together a lease agreement of park land to the Royals. The resolution requires any stadium plan to have at least 30,000 seats, public park space and recreational amenities.
Neither meeting today green-lights construction, but together they will establish the legal and financial groundwork a stadium could be built on.
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