KANSAS CITY, Mo. — It’s been well over a year since North Kansas City officials spoke with the Kansas City Royals and city officials aren’t currently engaged in revived talks about the prospect of a new stadium and ballpark district along the north bank of the Missouri River, according to NKC’s new mayor.
“We’ve had no conversations with the team,” Mayor Jesse Smith said. “No one on this governing body is out begging the team to come to North Kansas City.”
Smith — a former city councilman, who edged out incumbent Bryant DeLong by 36 votes in the April 8 election — made his remarks April 22 at a Special City Council Meeting, where he was sworn in as NKC’s mayor.
“We haven’t been approached by the team or the developer at this point,” Smith said. “We haven’t heard, as Councilmember (Connor) Fitzgerald said, anything official since the end of 2023.”
Two North Kansas City residents, Dave Wood and Mindy Hart, addressed the city council during the public-comment period of last week’s meeting, urging transparency and to keep the city’s residents in mind above other considerations.
“You’re going to have to be a little brave when money comes calling,” Wood said.
The Royals announced North Kansas City site as one of two finalists for a future stadium in June 2023 before the club pivoted to a location in the northeast corner of the Crossroads Arts District ahead of the failed April 2024 vote.
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The North Kansas City site has re-emerged as the stadium conversation lingers over the heads of teams, taxpayers and public officials across the Kansas City region.
“We definitely sat through plenty of meetings in the past about the Royals and then everything kind of fell off,” NKC Council Member Amie Clarke said.
She acknowledged recent media reports about the re-emergence of the NKC site before noting that, if the Royals and the land owner had resumed negotiations, it wouldn’t come before the council until they were ready to ask for the city’s help with the project.
“It is my pledge during this, if we go down this road again, that we’re going to engage the residents,” Smith said. “We’re going to talk back and forth with you. We’re going to share the information we have and we’re going to get your feedback.”
He continued, “There’s some real good questions, some real boots-on-ground-affecting-the-residents things that we need to talk about before anything is going to move forward. Then, we talk about money, we talk about financing, we talk about what that will look like. But the residents will have a say and — pardon the god-awful pun that I’m going to throw out there — but if this is not a home run for North Kansas City, we’re not going to move forward.”
KSHB 41 News requested an interview with Smith to learn more about his stance, including what would he a "home run for North Kansas City" in his mind, but he declined the request through a city spokesperson.
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