KANSAS CITY -- Two years after a memorable season that ended with a trip to the playoffs, Royals fans are left watching two of their division rivals battle it out in the ALDS.
“Obviously a very disappointing season. Nobody’s happy about that,” club owner John Sherman said Monday in his end-of-season press conference at Kauffman Stadium. “The work has begun to kind of get that turned around.”
The road back to prominence will include a new stadium, with the goal to have Opening Day in a new downtown stadium in 2030. Sherman also wants to host the All-Star Game within the first few seasons of its existence. Demolitions are planned to begin in 2027, though the Royals’ lease won’t expire at Kauffman Stadium until the 2030 season.
The new ballpark is part of a larger Crown Center project with Hallmark, which has its headquarters in Kansas City after being moved there in 1910.
“We’re bringing together in this project two iconic Kansas City brands to do something special for the city that we love,” Sherman said. “It would be bigger and better than anything we could have done on our own. It keeps Major League Baseball in Kansas City for generations, fulfilling Ewing Kauffman’s promise that the Royals are Kansas City’s team.
“This is what great cities do. We coalesce around big ideas. You think about this one -- it’s business, civic leadership, labor, neighborhoods, surrounding businesses, large and small, as well as political leadership. There’s tremendous collaboration and support for a project that will be very special for Kansas City.”
Sherman estimated the cost of the stadium, team offices and infrastructure at $1.9 billion, with another $1 billion in private investment planned for the first phase of the surrounding district. He said every city dollar is matched with three dollars in private investment.
"There are no new taxes," Sherman said. "It is financed out of growth, and this project is transformational for fans, players and community."
Sherman said this development is just the latest in a string of growth from the city. Kansas City opened the Kansas City International Airport’s new terminal in 2023, hosted the 2023 NFL Draft and opened the NWSL’s CPKC Stadium for the Current in 2024, the first privately financed stadium built exclusively for a professional women's soccer team. And it was a host site for the 2026 World Cup this past summer.
These developments, Sherman said, “put Kansas City on another level.”
“Our project at Crown Center builds upon that momentum,” Sherman said. “Others have said what we have created here is the very best public-private partnership, the best public-private co-investment. It’s a rare combination of the city and state to come together to finance a visionary project.”
Addressing the team itself, Sherman echoed Wednesday’s sentiments from general manager and president of baseball operations J.J. Picollo, saying the club’s bullpen is a top priority going into the offseason, along with “stabilizing” the starting rotation. The Royals took significant blows to their pitching staff throughout the season with injuries, ending 2026 with seven pitchers on the 60-day injured list.
While Sherman said he believes the Royals do have a strong core, he and Picollo are exploring making splashes this offseason to add to the roster.
“I think we’ll tend to be more opportunistic on that this year,” Sherman said. “[We’re] not going to spend money just to spend it, but if it’s something that we think will make our team better -- particularly in a critical area that we need to improve on -- I want to work with those guys.”
Sherman and the Royals don’t feel that the payroll is a restriction in itself. The frugal division rival White Sox and Guardians are in the postseason, as are the AL- and NL-best Brewers and Rays. Sherman said he admires those clubs, but there’s more of a “big picture” that goes beyond spending.
“They’ve got some secret sauce we’re trying to figure out here,” Sherman said. “You want to integrate and try to figure out what they’re doing. We’re definitely doing a lot right. But if you look at the big picture, the Brewers have never won a World Series and they were in our expansion class in 1969. Cleveland’s got the longest drought, going back to 1948.
“I think that certainly, depending on what division you’re in, if you do some things right, you can get in,” Sherman added. “I do think it’s hard to go all the way to win a championship, although I think any of those teams could do it this year.”