Where Will The Royals Future Home Be? They Still Don’t Know

The Kansas City Royals took to X (formerly Twitter) to announce a delay in picking a site for their new ballpark. However, I think the real story will take place next April.

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In their press release, the Kansas City Royals talk about how the site selection process for their new stadium is moving forward thoughtfully and directly, including meetings with county officials from Clay and Jackson counties regarding discussions on the team's next lease.

The Royals are saying the lease terms and what they think they can get from both counties are a big part of their evaluation, so it seems they want to know exactly what each county is willing to offer before making a decision. They also apparently want the voters of the chosen county to know what they'll be on the hook for before they head to the polls to approve or deny John Sherman's dream stadium.

What's really frustrating for me about this whole thing is I still don't really have an understanding of why the team needs a new ballpark. There are some vague statements from the team that building new will cost less than the rehab work the stadium needs. But not much beyond that.

Further, does anyone actually think any of the renderings of either site are so knock your socks off that they seduce you into wanting the team to build it so you can see a game there? I don't.

My point of all of this is, that there's plenty of things the team can be doing to get people like me, who think the Royals don't need a new taxpayer-financed stadium, to get on board. It could be really detailed drawings of a cool new facility. A really detailed explanation of why the K is quickly becoming obsolete. Specific reasons why a new build, if necessary at all, shouldn't be built at the Truman Sports Complex. Or how about simply putting a better product on the field? Winning takes care of a lot of problems and builds a lot of goodwill among fans.

That said, the real story will be written in April when voters go to the polls in whatever county they decide to build Sherman's new stadium. I suspect the team and Major League Baseball will cajole, threaten, and bully their way to a new publicly financed ballpark if the fans and politicians don't get on board. But I think it would be great if voters tell the Royals and Major League Baseball that if John Sherman wants a new ballyard, he can pay for it and own it and leave the taxpayers out of it.