Did Royals Stadium Get Bad Concrete? County Calls for Probe

Jackson County, Mo., officials have asked the chairman of the county sports complex authority to investigate a claim made by Kansas City Chiefs president Mark Donovan last week that Arrowhead Stadium and Kauffman Stadium are not alike in one aspect: concrete.

“One team got a good batch of concrete, and one team didn’t,” Donovan said at a press conference.

County executive Frank White Jr. and county legislature chair Jeanie Lauer requested the probe in a letter obtained by The Kansas City Star through an opens records request. "If Kauffman Stadium has 'concrete cancer,' as the Royals have alleged, why doesn’t neighboring Arrowhead Stadium suffer from the same when the side-by-side stadiums were built at the same time at the Truman Sports Complex?" Mike Hendricks of The Star wrote, summarizing the question at hand.

Donovan made the claim when a reporter asked why the Chiefs would want to remain at Arrowhead for decades to come — at a cost of $800 million — when the Royals have cited deteriorating concrete at their stadium, built in 1973, as one reason they can't stay there long term. “There are some real issues with their concrete. We know that because we’ve seen both studies,” Donovan added, as reported by Hendricks, who added county officials have not seen those studies. The Royals declined to release their study when The Star requested it last year.

“Given the gravity of these claims and the potential implications for public safety and financial stewardship, we formally request that the Jackson County Sports Complex Authority initiate an immediate and thorough investigation into the veracity of Mr. Donovan’s statements,” White and Lauer wrote in their letter Friday to Shawn Foster, chairman of the Jackson County Sports Complex Authority.

According to Hendricks, the Royals maintain that they have no intention of playing at Kauffman Stadium, regardless of the concrete's condition. once their lease expires. They have not said what they will do to meet their timetable of playing in a new ballpark by 2028, if a stadium sales tax fails to gain favor with voters. White and Lauer, opposed putting the stadium sales tax issue on the April 2 ballot because many questions remained unanswered.

"Concrete cancer — the formal term is alkali-silica reaction — was a key issue the team raised more than a year ago in announcing the organization’s decision to pursue construction of a downtown ballpark," Hendricks wrote. "Fixing the problem and making the kinds of upgrades the team wants to remain competitive in Major League Baseball would cost as much or more than a new ballpark, the Royals said at the time."

Because the concrete cancer issue keeps coming up, White and Lauer stated in their letter that the public needs to know whether Kauffman is in as bad shape as the team has said it is, Hendricks reported.