A formula error is being blamed for the newly confirmed cost of a new Kansas City Royals stadium, which is more than a billion dollars less than was initially reported.
A new document was obtained Monday by WDAF-TV indicated that it would cost Jackson County $5.13 billion over a 40-year time period to build a new pro baseball stadium.
A document that was reportedly leaked to the media in October had indicated the cost would be as much as $6.41 billion. The difference between October’s number and this month’s number is $1.28 billion.
Democratic Jackson County Legislator Manny Abarca told WDAF-TV that he believed the numbers were inflated in the leaked document "to scare voters."
But County Administrator Troy Schulte told the news station that the mistake "was just a formula error. That’s all it was. It doesn’t change anything about the magnitude of what we’re still spending a lot of resources for 40 years on those two facilities."
Abarca alleged that the math involved was basic, and the number mistake excuse doesn't make sense.
“Pretty basic addition there that they needed to figure out,” Abarca said.
Abarca is the chair of the Stadium Improvements Committee. The group was supposed to meet Monday, but the meeting was canceled because his son was sick. WDAF-TV talked to Abarca before he left the Jackson County Courthouse.
“I think that that’s part of, again, why this stadium committee needs to exist to create the realities of what is fact and what is fiction," Abarca said, as reported by WDAF-TV. "There’s one thing to say, ‘We’re going to voters.’ It’s another to say that, ‘We’re trying to persuade voters against or for,’ and the facts should dictate that, not anything else, right? So, these facts matter, and that’s why I called out the billion-dollar error."
The Kansas City Royals' ballpark is part of the Truman Sports Complex together with the adjacent Arrowhead Stadium, home of the Kansas City Chiefs.
Abarca said it may help the Chiefs if they start saying what kind of renovation they’d like at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium.
“I’ve been in some pretty interesting conversations that make me believe that there are other opportunities for them to come forward, and the voters deserve to know what that may be,” Abarca said. “We deserve to know what that may be so that we can weigh these options, and as quickly as they’re asking us to consider these timelines, we should know sooner rather than later.”
“Certainly an option,” Abarca told WDAF-TV when asked if that sounded like the Chiefs had an option of moving to Kansas.
In July, Chiefs President Mark Donovan said his group would be ready for a sales tax extension vote in April of 2024.
Abarca said it was his understanding Chiefs and Royals representatives may have showed up at the Jackson County Courthouse on Monday had the meeting not been canceled.
Neither team would comment on Monday’s developments, but the Royals still haven’t decided whether they want to build their new stadium in Jackson County, where Kauffman Stadium is located, or Clay County.
