Could the Royals play in Kansas on the state line?

Imagine a home run hit into another state.

Kansas lawmakers made their push to lure the Royals and Chiefs across the state line this week, approving legislation to allow the state to finance up to 70% of stadium project costs through the STAR bond program. There is no plan in place yet, and there is still a long way to go before either team gets the moving trucks, but that hasn’t stopped some from imagining where the teams could play in Kansas.

While most have envisioned the Chiefs playing out at the Legends complex in Kansas City, Kansas, developer Robb Heineman, who co-owns Sporting Kansas City, has teamed with the architecture firm MANICA to produce a vision of the Royals heading downtown - but on the Kansas side.

In the proposal, the new Royals ballpark would sit in the West Bottoms, right on state line, but on the Kansas side. As Sam McDowell at the Star puts it:

A player could launch a baseball from Kansas and deposit it into another state entirely.

A shot from Kansas to Missouri.

The area is currently industrial, and the footprint of the envisioned ballpark sits mostly on land owned by two different owners, much less of a headache than the land needed to be assembled in the Crossroads. There would also be enough land for the ballpark district the Royals would desire, but Heineman’s vision would have that on the Missouri side of the state line.

The firm drew up a rendering of what a potential ballpark, and the location of the ballpark on the west side of downtown allows for a downtown skyline. Other downtown locations the Royals were contemplating could not have the same skyline, since ballparks generally face east.

The rendering - which is just a vision, nothing set in stone - includes a version of the iconic Crown Vision, something that was missing in the renderings for the proposed ballpark in the Crossroads.

Could this be a compromise solution that allows Kansas to help finance a stadium, but gives the Royals their downtown location? Kansas lawmakers may not be too keen on financing a stadium that hands ancillary development across the state line to Missouri. There would need to be cooperation across many jurisdictions - Kansas, Missouri, Jackson County, the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, and the city of Kansas City - which will be very difficult to coordinate. Highway access isn’t great - only 670 feeds directly into the area, and it would require infrastructure upgrades.

But it is a vision, and perhaps an opportunity for both states to work together to keep the Royals in Kansas City.