Royals drop six new renderings of Crown Center ballpark alongside ‘hometown design team’

An updated look at the Kansas City Royals’ vision for the baseball club’s future stadium and ballpark at Crown Center includes nods to the past — CrownVision, fountains, the Little K and other traditions that came to define the team’s beloved Kauffman Stadium — while also creating a future-ready experience, said Brooks Sherman.

“This new neighborhood ballpark in the heart of Kansas City will lift our hometown’s profile and create jobs and economic activity that will benefit the community and Royals fans,” Sherman, president of real estate and development for the Royals, said Thursday ahead of a ballpark reveal event in downtown Kansas City.

Team officials were joined by leaders from Populous, the global design firm and Kansas City-based company working behind the scenes on the stadium and ballpark initiative as its architect of record.

“We think of Populous as our hometown design team, but they are also the world’s leader in sports architecture,” said Sherman, who noted the club’s decades-long relationship with Populous, a firm that previously created designs for a stadium envisioned for the Crossroads, as well as renderings released this spring when the Crown Center location was first announced. “Kansas City and Royals fans deserve the best, and we’re proud to help provide it.”

The Crown Center site connects the Royals to an established downtown destination, provides the scale to build a true neighborhood around baseball and brings Hallmark alongside the Royals as a generational, Kansas City-born partner, the team said.

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The ballpark’s entrance features limestone framed by a layered screen of light-colored materials, metal and terracotta. Above, a lightweight fabric canopy preserves the tradition of open-air baseball while helping manage Kansas City’s summer heat by shading about 65 percent of seating during late-afternoon conditions.

“The new ballpark is distinctly Kansas City, drawing inspiration from the city’s character, landscape and architectural heritage,” the Royals said in a release. “Fitting comfortably within the existing limestone bluff, its exterior architecture embraces elements that have defined Kansas City’s landmarks for decades, including Municipal Auditorium, Union Station and the Liberty Memorial.”

In the outfield, the right-field entertainment building and left-field Royals headquarters building will connect to the ballpark through two continuous 360-degree concourses, opening the seating bowl to views of Kansas City while creating a distinctive setting for the iconic Royals fountains and CrownVision scoreboard.

“More than a ballpark, this will be a destination where memories are made, where generations of fans can celebrate the traditions they cherish and where Royals baseball connects to the heart of downtown as the team and the city begin an exciting new chapter in our hometown,” said Earl Santee, senior principal and founder at Populous.

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