KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Arguments over money in professional sports are more common than home runs and touchdowns.
The latest disagreement is how much it will cost to build a new stadium and ballpark village development for the Kansas City Royals.
The Royals think $1 billion pays for their new stadium and another $1 billion builds their Ballpark Village.
But this week, a report placed the costs as high as $6.4 billion.
"That, that is an insane number," said Dan Tarwater, looking at the report from the county.
He's a former Jackson County legislator and even he's stumped.
This report claims the price tag associated with a new ballpark districtwould be billions more than what the club has estimated, as much as $4 to $6 billion.
The Royals responded to the report in a social media post.
— Kansas City Royals (@Royals) October 27, 2023
"I’m in insurance," Tarwater said. "I insure, you know, a lot of buildings around Kansas City. It doesn’t cost $4 million to insure a new stadium."
In fact, Tarwater said it wouldn't cost that much to insure all the federal buildings in Jackson County.
He noted insurance rates on a brand new stadium wouldn't go up 10% every year, despite what the newest report claims.
"To put it in simple terms, with your home, when you put a new roof on your house, your insurance rates go down," Tarwater said. "Why? "Because the insurance company’s not going to need to buy you a new roof."
Tarwater said taxpayers have nothing to be concerned about.
"These numbers have nothing to do with the taxpayers, what they’re paying," Tarwater said.
The Royals have said the stadium and the surrounding district will cost $2 billion to build, with half of the money coming from the Royals and private donors.
The other half would come from an extension of a 3/8 cent sales tax already being used to help fund the current stadiums at the Truman Sports Complex.
If the new stadium and ballpark district were to be built in Jackson County, there may be a vote to extend that 3/8 cent tax. If it were to pass, taxpayers would only have to pay that tax and that tax only. Nothing more.
"It’s all in the contract," Tarwater said. "So, when they come back three years later and say, "Yeah, we need another billion dollars," Tarwater said. "All you do is you say, here’s your contract. There’s nothing in here that says that."
The team has not announced a decision for the location of a new stadium and Tarwater said this report could impact its location.
"Their decision may not be where’s the stadium going to go in Kansas City," he said. "Their decision might be we can’t negotiate with you."
For now, fans will have to wait for the team's decision.
"These numbers came from the county, so these numbers are coming from one side of the negotiation," Tarwater said. "That looks like, to me, when you put out something like this, that you want the negotiations to stop."
Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas posted this response Friday morning on X.
"Yesterday, there was a leak which said county estimated new stadium is between $4B and $6B. Seemed unrealistic and a sign to some, me included, of bad faith negotiation. Given the same county folks are negotiating with Chiefs, I’m concerned current tactics could lose both teams."
KSHB 41 has reached out to Jackson County officials
They have yet to respond.
