Royals to put stadium sales tax on the ballot, Clay County voters already hate it

Missed this yesterday amid all the excitement about the Kansas City Royals‘ dueling stadium renderings: Royals President of Business Operations Brooks Sherman told KSHB-TV that the team plans to put a sales tax surcharge on the ballot next spring. If team owner John Sherman (no relation) chooses a site in downtown K.C., this would be an extension of the existing 0.375% sales tax surcharge in Jackson County that’s helped fund past Royals and Chiefs stadium spending; if he picks North Kansas City, it would be a new 1% surcharge in Clay County.

How’s that likely to go over with voters? Not too great, according to early polling:

Only 22% would support a new tax with 70% opposed to it, according to a survey obtained by KSHB 41 of 300 registered Clay County voters by Bold Decision, a Washington D.C. research firm.

It’s a long way between now and next spring, and it’s worth noting that a decent number of Clay County registered voters would be fine with hosting the Royals — 47% in favor, 37% opposed, 15% undecided — leaving aside the question of how to pay for it. But a 48-point gap is going to be a lot to close, and one has to wonder if the poll numbers will influence Sherman’s site decision, which will reportedly come later this year.

That’s assuming, of course, that Jackson County voters would be any more amenable to handing over 30 years’ worth of sales taxes to the Royals owner to fund his $2 billion dream stadium. And, for that matter, that the Chiefs would even let Sherman have the sales tax money all to himself — the NFL team has hinted at splitting the proceeds, but this is a question Sherman has ducked before.

There’s also the question of exactly what he’s hoping to build around the stadium, and where. One of Tuesday’s renderings includes a prominent pedestrian bridge, and Fox4KC astutely noted that it appears to lead to a neighborhood on the far side of the 71 Highway East Loop that is currently home to several homeless shelters, rehab centers, and thrift stores. Asked why the Royals would want a bridge to there, team VP Sarah Tourville said they want to make sure “there’s authenticity we bring to the neighborhood that we’re complimentary to what’s already there” and Brooks Sherman said “our location in East Village would certainly enhance our ability to develop over there and we would participate in it and expect it to do well,” all of which certainly sounds like code for “we would like to move the poors elsewhere so we can build sports bars.”

As for who’ll pay for all this, Sherman told the Kansas City Star earlier this week that he’s “still discussing” how much public money he’ll ask for and from whom; asked if he can commit to private money paying for “the bulk of the stadium,” he replied, “I think I said certainly a bulk of the stadium,” which… isn’t an English idiom? For now, it appears, Sherman is going to keep kicking the tires of as many potential subsidies as he can think of — he mentioned infrastructure as an additional cost in that same Star interview — and see what he comes up with, which is very much par for the billionaire course.