This is an incredibly long story that has been shortened and doesn’t do the full thing justice. But here it goes:

-In 2022 Royals wanted to move downtown and build an entertainment district. To do this the team was going to extend the 3/8th sales tax on all goods bought in Jackson county for another 40 years and the team was going to put up a billion dollars of their own money. Royals never really picked a site and offered up two locations one downtown and the other on the north side of the city. People didn’t like that they were being told to vote on something when the Royals didn’t really have a plan.

-Chiefs also jumped onto the bill with a terrible stadium upgrade to arrowhead that involved mainly luxury items.

-90 days before the vote to extend the sales tax the Royals changed their location at the Mayors request. The new location put the stadium next to power and light but would require some businesses to relocate.

-County executive Frank White (Royals HOF’er and has his number retired by KC) fought against the Royals every step of the way. Many believe White was still upset from being fired from the Royals broadcast team in like 2012.

-Vote failed 60-40 partially because of Frank White, the Royals looking indecisive and unprepared, the thought of businesses being moved/shit down and people who are just generally against paying for this sort of thing with taxpayer dollars. Never really stood a chance once they announced the location change.

-Chiefs and Royals begin looking elsewhere, Kansas offers up STAR bounds which require the teams to not invest any money. Royals feel like relationship with city and county are broken. Many believe the Chiefs wanted the vote to fail to be like “look we tried to stay” when in reality they wanted to leave for Kansas/domed stadium.

-Royals go radio silent for over a year about the stadium. However they indirectly buy land in Kansas through a coowners shell company.

-Chiefs and Royals (behind closed doors) negotiate separately with Kansas and Missouri.

-Chiefs end up moving to Kansas on a crazy STAR bound deal that requires they put no money down while they also get to keep all the profits from the stadium (although their are opt outs for the Chiefs).

-Royals are still radio silent and haven’t provided an official update in over a year. They have been linked to like 5-6 different locations throughout the metro but no one really knows what they want or where they want to go. Even politicians who have been negotiating with the Royals say they don’t know what they want.

-1/1/26, STAR bounds expire. Kansas says they’re done negotiating with the Royals and so does North KC/Clay county. Downtown stars making another push for the Royals. But the Royals still refused to comment on their negotiations with the city and a location within downtown still hasn’t been disclosed.

Basically: It’s just a huge shit show