The Kansas City Royals must love keeping secrets. After announcing to everyone in 2022 that they were leaving their current ballpark, it took two years for them to finally tell us where the new one would be built. But anything else? Good luck. Things got so bad last year that the team owner had to write a public letter telling everyone to relax and just wait for the new ballpark to be announced. Months later, we still know very little.

This week, KRPS did a fantastic story detailing the absurdity of the Royals refusing to give everyone the full amount of information.

“The team has yet to share its full plan for funding the stadium, and experts warn that lack of transparency could lead to extra spending on unnecessary upgrades…That lack of transparency, experts say, could lead to more lavish spending on upgrades like video screens the size of houses, retractable fields that roll around on motorized wheels or luxury suites with kitchens and multiple bedrooms” — KRPS, 03/08/24

The list of questions could go on and on. This is borderline deplorable for the team to be giving out so little information, all the while having the public vote on whether to give the team $1 billion from the extension of a sales tax. How on earth could anyone vote on this question with so little information? The Kansas City Star Editorial board reminded its readers that the Royals wanted this massive amount of money, even though they asked “at the last minute” and still had not agreed to a community benefits agreement.

Would anyone argue that the public is being forced to accept so much on faith?

“This conversation has been going on for years, and at every step has been mishandled…So as of right now, we see no reason to support another subsidy for billionaires…Missouri Gov. Mike Parson said recently that there is no money in this year’s proposed budget to fund the stadium projects. What the city is going to do we have no idea, either…But who is paying for what? Is this the best possible way to spend these tax dollars? What’s the breakout of costs and responsibilities? By all means, gentlemen, get back to us with some answers, and with Election Day less than a month away, now would be good. Surely, you aren’t trying to wait until the last minute to minimize scrutiny of the details” — Kansas City Star, 03/05/24

As the Missouri Independent wrote in a story, voters do not have the right information to make such a decision. Worse? The details that the public wants to know about will only “be made public…after the vote is complete”.

Let’s look at just a few questions that we have no answers for as the public votes:

• Who is funding what in the new ballpark?
  • Nobody has given us any breakdown as to who pays for what.
• There are specific infrastructure upgrades required outside the location of the Royals new ballpark. Who pays for that?
  • According to The Kansas City Star, “The Royals aren’t sure”.
• How much will the team be investing in the ballpark?
  • The Royals have not given a specific answer. They have stated that they will spend $1 billion of their own money, but no documents show that.
• The Royals have said that the overall project may cost over $2 billion. The Sales Tax extension would give them $1 billion. Who pays the other billion?
  • According to The Star, this topic “went unexplained at an afternoon news conference at Kauffman Stadium”.
• The Royals have said that they will not only buy the land where the new ballpark will sit, but land all around the new location. What happens if the owners of these lands would rather not sell?
  • The team “left unclear what would happen if some property owners were unwilling to sell”…or, as the Kansas City Star wrote, “Like everything else about this deal, it’s TBA”
• The tax measure was put on the ballot before the Royals signed a lease extension with the city. The Royals “promised to reach (a lease) agreement with the county by the end of this month”. What happens if they don’t?
  • Nobody knows.
• The Royals previously said that they would release their lease agreement with the city on March 1. Where is it?
  
  • The Royals have not released it.

This week, I saw a story about the Royals new ballpark that caught my eye. Maybe others knew this already, but I did not. Not only do the Royals want the $1 billion from the sales tax extension, “but they’ll need another $700 million to make the (ballpark) happen”. The team is therefore talking to officials from Kansas City and the state of Missouri to “fill a $700 million funding gap with taxpayer dollars”. The team wants another $700 million because a significant amount of money can’t be used right away by the team even if the sales tax extension is passed. Why? The Royals can’t use the sales tax money until the city pays off the $200 million debt from a previous sports complex that was constructed. Additionally, the team likely will take out a loan to pay for construction costs. This means they require a lot of money upfront.

Let’s circle back to the Royals asking the state of Missouri for money. To start with, just going on what I have read so far, it doesn’t seem like many in the Missouri State Legislature seem that enthusiastic about giving money to the Royals. The Governor of Missouri will need the legislature to give the team any money, so what they think is important. Moreover, I would have assumed that the Royals had spoken to key state leaders before this story got into the public domain. Yet, the chairman of the budget-writing committee has said in interviews that “he hadn’t had any conversations with the Royals about a potential funding partnership”. Other politicians seemed to be as informed as the public with the details. Several told the Star newspaper that they were “still unclear about details”.

The Royals seem just as good at informing the politicians as they are with the public.

But what should really worry local taxpayers is this fact. When voters approved the sales tax in 2006, local leaders were given a “sources and uses statement” by the Royals/Chiefs that detailed the exact amount coming from the teams, city, state, and anyone else. This doesn’t exist for this election. In fact, not only does this not exist, but the city has stated publicly that the Royals have not even asked the city how much it could or would give if the team wanted an additional $700 million. Why is this such bad news? Because it means that the city will need to go into extreme measures to find this money if the Royals spring it on them late in the game. The details lacking are just shocking. The fact that the city does not have this document is also why numerous local officials do not think this sales tax extension should be approved.

The post The Kansas City Royals ask taxpayers to give them $1 billion. Then ask for additional $700 million…maybe more? appeared first on Subsidy Stadium.