It looks like the Royals won’t be joining the Chiefs in moving to the Kansas side of the metro, at least not with the help of special state incentives designed to entice the professional sports teams to the state.
Earlier this week, Topeka-based news stations KSNT and WIBW both reported Kansas House Speaker Dan Hawkins affirmed that the opportunity for the Royals to use the special stadium incentive package offered in Kansas had passed.
Hawkins chairs the Legislative Coordinating Council, the bipartisan group of Kansas legislative leaders from both chambers tasked with approving state stadium incentives. Though the stadium incentive law passed in 2024 is active through June 2026, the LCC voted to impose a deadline of Dec. 31, 2025, for teams to submit plans.
That date passed without a formal request from the Royals, Hawkins said.
“That day has also come and gone,” Hawkins said in a televised interview with WIBW, adding that the LCC voted not to extend the Dec. 31 deadline.
Where does that leave the Royals?
Unless something changes, that means the Royals are unlikely to come to the city of Overland Park — one of the team’s possible locations — or the state of Kansas as a whole.
If the team did decide to come to Kansas still, it would be without the special sales tax and revenue (STAR) bond package designed to cover up to 70% of the cost of constructing a new stadium.
Meanwhile, the Royals remain mum about their plans for a new ballpark and where that might be.
In an emailed statement to the Post, Sam Mellinger, vice president of communications for the MLB team, said “the Royals continue to work hard on finding the best solution,” but he declined to comment further.
Speaker Hawkins, as well as Kansas Senate Minority Leader Dinah Sykes of Lenexa, who also sits on the LCC, had not returned the Post’s request for comment at the time of publication.
Rep. Brandon Woodard, the House Minority Leader from Lenexa and another member of the LCC told the Post, when asked about a Royals stadium plan, pointed back to comments made by Hawkins, affirming a Royals deal would not come before the LCC.
Overland Park floated as potential Royals stadium site
Over the past year or so, the Aspiria campus in central Overland Park was publicly identified as one of a handful of possible locations for the Royals’ future stadium as the team looks to vacate Kauffman Stadium at the Truman Sports Complex when its lease runs out in five years.
In addition to the Overland Park site, the Royals have had their eye on other locations on the Missouri side of the Kansas City metro area, including downtown Kansas City as well as North Kansas City in Clay County.
Formerly home to the Sprint Corporation, the 200-acre campus at 119th Street and Nall is owned by Wichita-based developer Occidental Management, though an affiliate of the Royals acquired the mortgage on the site last spring.
As the possibility of a stadium at the campus — long envisioned as a mixed-use hub with office, entertainment, dining, retail and housing — started to firm up in late 2025, pushback from neighbors and even the nearby city of Leawood grew more intense. The range of concerns offered by residents ran the gamut, from the site’s proximity to schools and hospitals to traffic and general safety worries.
Via an informal poll of readers, the Post found that roughly 60% of respondents did not want to see a new stadium at Aspiria.
At the time of publication, the city of Overland Park had not returned the Post’s request for comment.
Keep reading: The Chiefs are coming to Kansas. Where does that leave the Royals?
