KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Jackson County Legislature will likely be involved in the Kansas City Royals moving away from the Truman Sports Complex.

“This would be directly square in my district likely,” Jackson County 1st District Legislator-Elect Manny Abarca told FOX4 Wednesday. 

The 1st District could be where the Royals build their new stadium downtown. The President and CEO of the Downtown Council, Bill Dietrich, said he doesn’t think the problems with traffic seen at Busch Stadium in St. Louis would be seen here.

“When you have multiple uses, it’s all about circulation management, traffic management,” Dietrich told FOX4 Wednesday. “You have to come up with good ways to manage the flow in and out, and we’re capable of doing that.”

Jackson County is the owner of the stadiums though. Every time a person spends money in the county currently, 3/8th cent of $1 in sales tax money goes to improving the current stadiums. That expires in 2031.

In Tuesday’s letter, Royals Chairman and CEO John Sherman said they would not ask Jackson County citizens to contribute any more tax dollars than they already do.

That could mean the current 3/8ths cent of $1 tax would be extended as long as voters approve it. The legislature would be the group to put something like that on the ballot. Abarca supports that.

“Ultimately, the voters will make that decision,” Abarca said. “It will be up to the Kauffman folks to sell it, and so I don’t think that’s a bad place to be in right now anyways. I think that’s the best place we could be.” 

In an interview with FOX4 Tuesday night, Mayor Quinton Lucas said he thought an extension of that sales tax could be put on the ballot in April for people to vote on in all of Jackson County.

County Administrator Troy Schulte told FOX4 Wednesday, though, the measure would likely not be seen on a ballot that soon because a new legislature will just be sworn in at the beginning of next year.