Measuring the Impact of a New Kansas City Royals Ballpark

Client Challenge

The City of Kansas City was evaluating a proposed $1.9 billion downtown ballpark that would serve as the new home of the Kansas City Royals — a 34,000-capacity MLB venue with the potential to reshape a significant portion of the urban core. To inform public discussion, ground funding conversations and quantify what the project could mean for city tax revenue and employment, Kansas City needed an independent economic and fiscal impact analysis covering both the three-year construction period and decades of ongoing operations.

Approach

Victus Advisors conducted a 30-year economic and fiscal impact analysis specific to the City of Kansas City. The work included gross-to-net direct spending modeling for both construction and ongoing stadium and team operations, IMPLAN economic modeling calibrated to the Kansas City economic area, and a stadium event and attendance model covering Royals games, major non-baseball events and community programming.

Benefits to Client

The analysis quantified the project's long-term economic and fiscal value to Kansas City. Over a 30-year horizon, Victus projected net present values of roughly $7.6 billion in total economic output, more than 260,000 total job years and $6.9 billion in labor income — supported by stadium operations generating over $23 million in annual incremental city tax revenue in Year 1. These findings equipped Kansas City leadership with a data-driven case to carry into funding discussions, policy conversations and public engagement on one of the largest civic investments in the city's history.