Clark Hunt and John Sherman ask Jackson County for $1.7 billion
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) - Royals Majority Owner John Sherman and Chiefs Owner Clark Hunt sat down with KCTV 5 ahead of the April 2nd election to answer questions important to Jackson County voters.
The 3/8 cent stadium sales tax extension with a sunset in 40 years will raise $1.7 billion for the Royals to relocate to the east Crossroads and renovations to Arrowhead Stadium.
The teams’ Community Benefits Agreement promises $266 million back to those taxpayers. They will also forgo the money they receive from the parks levy and they agreed to pick up the insurance payments on the stadiums.
Subtract the kickbacks they have promised against the tax, and Jackson County taxpayers will be writing a check worth a little over $30 million a year to the Chiefs and the Royals.
“This will create an economic boom for the region, both during the construction period, and I think our projects will be back-to-back, so this creates a tremendous amount of jobs,” Sherman said. “When you think about power and light, and helping existing city assets, you think about the extension and putting a lid on (Interstate-670 and the south side of the downtown loop) – quieting the greenway down and making that a beautiful park. It’s transformational.”
Hunt echoed Sherman’s sentiment.
“In addition to the several billion dollars that will be spent as part of the construction phase and the tens of thousands of jobs that it will create; the two teams together have an annual economic impact of almost $1.5 billion,” Hunt said.
When the stadiums were originally voted on in 1967 the teams promised to build a rolling roof, but there were insufficient funds to make that happen.
For these two new projects, even if the vote es, there is already a documented shortfall of between $650 to $700 million.
“First, it’s important to get a yes vote, and once we have that, then we’ll the governor and continue the discussions from there,” Hunt said. “When the sports complex was approved it was a 100% publicly financed project, and then in 2006, when we did the renovations at that time, both clubs put in significant money. Our family; we’ve invested several hundred million dollars into Arrowhead, and if the sales tax es on Tuesday, we’ve committed to invest at least $300 million into the renovation.”
Figures for the demolition of Kauffman range between $20 and $30 million. The teams said they would pay for it, and ultimately create a larger parking lot for Arrowhead.
“A good example of what we’re thinking about is the Great Lawn in Arizona at the NFL stadium there,” Hunt said. “We’ll really be able to elevate the tailgating experience, and then throughout the year it’s possible that we could bring in performing arts to do concerts in a venue that we would build out on that side of the stadium.”
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