$3B Stadium Plan Will Keep MLB's Royals In Kansas City
Hallmark Cards Inc. may want to send one giant thank-you card to the Kansas City Royals.
The MLB team agreed to locate its planned $1.9B stadium on the Crown Center campus in downtown Kansas City, Missouri, the league and team announced Wednesday. Hallmark owns the center through its subsidiary Crown Center Redevelopment Corp., and it serves as the greeting card and media company’s headquarters.
The deal means the Royals will be relocating from Kauffman Stadium and the Truman Sports Complex, where the team has played since 1973, according to Bloomberg.
A firm timeline for the move hasn’t been released, but the build is expected to take at least several years.
Royals CEO John Sherman said the Crown Center project would include an entertainment district, bringing the total development price tag to around $3B. This would make the project one of the most expensive MLB stadiums in history, according to The Beacon, a local nonprofit news organization.
Some $2B of the project would be privately financed, Sherman told the publication.
Kansas City is expected to draw $600M in bonds that will be paid back by future tax revenue generated at the stadium and surrounding district over the next 30 years, The Beacon reported. The state government will also redirect current tax dollars generated at Kauffman Stadium to help finance the project, according to the publication.
Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas touted the fact that the new stadium will be centrally located to mass transit and downtown amenities, making it a less car-centered attraction.
“The public-private partnership between Hallmark, the Royals, Kansas City and our state ensures we connect our neighborhoods, keeps our downtown vibrant and maintains big league baseball in our city for generations to come,” Lucas said in a statement.
The Royals are the latest major sports team to spearhead a new stadium development. Nashville is slated to be home to Nissan Stadium for the Tennessee Titans, and a new 30,000-seat, $1.5B ballpark is planned for the Oakland A’s on the Las Vegas Strip.
The Royals were valued at more than $1.6B this year, a 64% increase in value since Sherman purchased the team in 2019, according to Forbes. The team generated $330M in revenue and $25M in operating income during the 2025 season, according to Royals Review.
Hallmark is expected to continue to operate its headquarters in the redevelopment, Bloomberg reported, citing sources familiar with the arrangement.
The firm has owned Crown Center since 1967 and has been headquartered in Missouri since 1910. The campus includes an aquarium, restaurants and a Lego store, according to The Beacon.
The deal comes two years after Jackson County, Missouri, residents rejected an additional sales tax that would have funded a Kansas City stadium for the Royals as well as major renovations to Arrowhead Stadium for the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs.
In December 2025, the Chiefs announced they would move to Wyandotte County, Kansas, and build a new $3B stadium there. The team was lured across state lines by incentives of more than $2B in taxpayer money.
