Downtown Council Celebrates Historic Step Toward Bringing the Royals to Downtown Kansas City
Today marks a historic milestone for Downtown Kansas City and for the future of our entire region.
The Downtown Council of Kansas City congratulates the Kansas City Royals and applauds the many business, civic, and community leaders whose vision, persistence, and advocacy have helped bring us to this moment. We also thank Mayor Quinton Lucas, City Council, and the City Manager for their leadership and commitment to keeping the Royals in Kansas City and advancing a transformational new ballpark district in the heart of our city.
For more than two decades, the Downtown Council and members of Kansas City’s business and civic community have championed the vision of being intentional in bringing Major League Baseball back Downtown. What began as an ambitious idea has steadily gained momentum through years of planning, research, advocacy and collaboration. Today, that vision is closer than ever to becoming reality.
A new Royals ballpark and surrounding district at Hallmark/Crown Center represents far more than a new home for baseball. It is a generational investment in the continued growth of Downtown Kansas City – one that will strengthen connections between neighborhoods, attract additional businesses and investment, create new opportunities for residents and visitors, and generate activity throughout the year.
Over the past two decades, Downtown Kansas City has undergone an extraordinary transformation. Public and private investment have helped turn our urban core into a vibrant, mixed-use center of business, culture, entertainment, tourism and residential life. That transformation is not finished. In many ways, we believe its most exciting chapter is just beginning.
The Royals’ decision to build their future in Downtown Kansas City will add tremendous momentum to the renaissance already underway. Together with major investments occurring throughout the urban core, this project has the potential to accelerate Downtown’s evolution for another generation and strengthen its role as the economic, cultural and civic heart of the Kansas City region.
We are particularly grateful to the Downtown business community, whose members have consistently understood that a strong Downtown strengthens the entire region. Their willingness to speak with a unified voice, advocate for this opportunity and remain committed through a long and sometimes uncertain process has been instrumental in reaching this milestone.
Again, we congratulate the Kansas City Royals for choosing to make this extraordinary investment in the future of our city. Generations of Kansas Citians have built wonderful memories with the Royals. Soon, a new generation will have the opportunity to build those memories in the heart of Kansas City, surrounded by the neighborhoods, businesses, institutions and cultural destinations that make our city special.
This is a defining moment for our Downtown Kansas City – and an extraordinary opportunity to continue the momentum and investments of the past twenty years and carry it forward for decades to come.
Welcome home, Royals.
