Marny Sherman, the wife of Kansas City Royals owner John Sherman, deeply criticized Jackson County in posts to her Facebook page on Wednesday morning. The comments came out after voters defeated a sales tax referendum to help finance a new Royals ballpark in Kansas City’s Crossroads District.
The post on Facebook indicated that “Neither team (Royals and Chiefs) will work with Jackson County again”, adding that “they had been working behind the scenes for two years attempting to get a location approved”. Mrs. Sherman criticized the lack of leadership in Jackson County, which will cost the city two treasured assets. In a more pointed comment, she directly criticized the process, saying “If you don’t support the Chiefs after 3 Super Bowl wins why would they stay? We will be lucky if both teams wind up in Kansas. At least still in the area!”
While expressing disappointment in Tuesday’s results, neither the Chiefs or the Royals have directly threatened a move from out of the market, saying instead that the teams were reorganizing their efforts and checking on their options. In the wake of the Jackson County decision, neighboring Clay County has publicly indicated their interest in reaching out to the Royals to reignite ballpark talks in North Kansas City, while Wyandotte County, Kansas, the home of both the Kansas Speedway and Children’s Mercy Park, are indicating general interest in building stadiums for either team, but wish to have the teams reach out first in that scenario.
