Proposed Kansas City Royals Stadium Would Rank Among MLB’s Most Expensive
The Royals’ $1.9 billion Crown Center ballpark would rank as MLB’s fourth-most expensive stadium, costing double recent projects like Atlanta’s Truist Park.
KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI — The Kansas City Royals’ proposed $1.9 billion ballpark at Crown Center would become the fourth-most expensive Major League Baseball stadium ever built, according to cost analyses that show the facility’s price tag far exceeding most recent ballpark construction projects.
The proposed Crown Center stadium would cost more than double the price of Truist Park, which opened in 2017 in Atlanta, even when adjusted for inflation. The Kansas City project would nearly quadruple the cost of Coors Field, which opened in 1995 in Denver.
Only three baseball stadiums would surpass the proposed Crown Center ballpark in total cost: the proposed $2.3 billion Tampa Bay Rays stadium, the under-construction $2 billion Las Vegas Athletics stadium, and Yankee Stadium in New York, which cost $1.3 billion in 2009 or $2.1 billion when adjusted to 2025 dollars.
Subsidies Drive Stadium Cost Increases
While the Royals have not provided detailed cost breakdowns beyond their $1.9 billion estimate, economists point to growing public subsidies as a primary driver of stadium inflation. Kansas City Hall has offered up to $600 million to help finance the ballpark.
“Subsidies raise prices in nearly every single real-world policy context,” said Geoffrey Propheter, a public finance professor at the University of Colorado-Denver.
The current Kauffman Stadium at Truman Sports Complex, which opened in 1973, cost $37 million to construct. When adjusted for construction material inflation, that equals $271 million in 2025 dollars.
Stadium Plans Evolve Over Three Years
The Royals’ ballpark plans have expanded in both scale and cost since 2023. The team first unveiled their vision for a downtown stadium and entertainment district in Kansas City’s largely empty East Village downtown that year. The combined stadium and district would have cost “more than $2 billion” and covered 27 acres.
The 2024 plan relocated to the Crossroads area with a slightly smaller 18-acre footprint but maintained a similar $2 billion price tag for the stadium and entertainment district. Jackson County voters overwhelmingly rejected a sales tax proposal to finance that plan.
Following the voter rejection, the Royals returned to planning discussions. During the team’s April 22 announcement of the Crown Center proposal, Royals Chairman and CEO John Sherman referenced input from former Mayo clinic officials in the revised planning process.
The Crown Center location represents the third iteration of the Royals’ stadium plans, with each version maintaining costs approaching or exceeding $2 billion when combined with accompanying development projects.
