Royals CBA details shared at small meeting organized by Jackson County legislator

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) - They exist. That was the reason Jackson County Legislator Manny Abarca cited for organizing a town hall at the Westport-Roanoke Community Center Tuesday.

Four stacks of papers sat on a table at the entrance: a Community Benefits Agreement from the Royals, a CBA from the Chiefs, a Letter of Intent from both teams and summary letters of the CBAs from each.

They added up to 60 pages in all. A week ago, Abarca shared the summary letters on his X and got heat for calling the letters legally binding. This was his response.

Many at the meeting said they came to get the documents. Not all said they wanted them in order to decide how to vote. Some were already firmly for or against the extension of the 3/8 cent countywide sales tax to partially fund the construction of a new baseball stadium and renovations at Arrowhead. They wanted the documents so they had proof to bolster their side when trying to persuade friends and colleagues.

“We got a nice stadium now, but in the long run, all Major League Baseball’s going to [downtown stadiums],” said Manuel Hernandez.

Reginald Greene was around before the Royals came to KC in the 1970s. He lived near Municipal Stadium, where the Kansas City Athletics played. They left for Oakland and are now attempting to leave Oakland for Las Vegas.

“I’ve been through this before,” Greene said. “We lost the Athletics because of the stadium. We lost the Kansas City Kings [basketball team] because there was no new stadium. We lost the Kansas City Scouts [hockey team]. People forget that. Everybody goes where the money is.”

Another person who came already decided but was in search of the full in black and white was Magda Werkmeister. She’s an organizer for KC Tenants. The group recently funded an ment for the Vote No campaign.

“My biggest concern is that if this tax es, we would be paying for our own displacement,” she said, referring to concern about residential rents rising as a result of development. She also noted that a sales tax is considered by economists to be a regressive tax, meaning it disproportionately affects lower-income people because it is based on spending, even for necessities, unlike a property tax.

Another resident attending said he was still on the fence. Kyle Talbot is a realtor who has a popular Instagram page under the name moving_to_kc.

He describes himself as pro-development, but he’s yet not convinced by this one, and he’s no fan of getting detailed documents at this point in the game.

“These are both very thick documents written by attorneys,” Talbot remarked. “And we have a week, less than a week now, to digest all of this information to make an informed decision on how we should vote for this, and I don’t think that’s fair.”

The CBAs provided Tuesday are only the agreements with the county. There are others being negotiated, including agreements with organized labor, the Kansas City Public Schools and the Crossroads Community Association, which represents the neighborhood where the proposed baseball stadium would go.

The full documents are detailed here:

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