Royals owner Sherman discusses a variety of topics

SURPRISE, Ariz. -- As the Royals speed toward Opening Day with just over two weeks to go until they are Kansas City bound, team owner John Sherman feels optimistic about the state of his team and organization as he embarks on his third full season as the CEO and chairman of the club.

“It’s Spring Training, right?” Sherman said Monday. “Hope springs eternal. I think this is an optimistic time of year anyway. I feel like we’re making progress since we came in here. We’re trying to get better every day. I think we got better last week. But we’ll see what we have. … I think we have a core group of veterans. We’ve got an army of young pitchers developing, and we’ve got some new guys that are going to help us.”

Referencing last week, Sherman was talking about the Royals’ trade for lefty reliever Amir Garrett and signing of veteran starter Zack Greinke. Both moves bolstered the pitching staff that includes a slew of young arms as the Royals look to improve their 74-88 finish in 2021.

For the first time since Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association reached a new Collective Bargaining Agreement, Sherman spoke with the media Monday in Surprise for about 20 minutes. He covered a variety of topics, including CBA negotiations, game streaming options, the progress on a downtown ballpark -- and even his excitement for top prospect Bobby Witt Jr.’s debut, which could come as early as Opening Day.

It’s fair to say he gets that question often.

“When [the fans] ask, ‘When’s he going to come up?’ I always say that’s above my paygrade,” Sherman said with a smile. “Somebody else makes that decision. But as a fan, I’m ready to see him. I think there’s some anticipation that that day may be fairly soon, but we’ll see. … He just seems like a rare talent and a really great makeup and the kind of player that we want to be a Kansas City Royal.”

Sherman’s take on new CBA
The CBA negotiations spurred a three-month long lockout and a delay to Opening Day, which will now be April 7 instead of March 31, but the full 162-game season is still intact. Sherman, an owner of a small-market team in Kansas City, said he thought the deal that was agreed to was “fair for the league and for the players.”

“When we set out, our primary objectives were competitive balance, pay the players fairly and to the best we could, align our interest to grow the game together,” Sherman said. “And there are some things that I like better about it than other parts of it. But when you think about competitive balance, the players respected some things that are important to us. The six-year path to free agency was important to us. It’s really important for a small-market team. The three years to arbitration.”

Sherman was not happy that regular-season games were put in jeopardy during the negotiations.

“I think that uncertainty and frustration, and when we had to cancel some games, certainly that was concerning,” Sherman said. “I’m glad we figured it out when we did. And we’re going to get the whole 162. I think that’s important for our fans, for our club and for our community.

“Certainly, always concerned about fans. We want to earn their trust and not just want them to come to the ballpark but also to watch us when they’re not at the ballpark as well.”

Making games widely available
Sherman was asked about local media rights distribution and what the Royals are doing to make games more widely available to fans. It’s a highly complicated issue involving the clubs, their regional sports networks and TV providers. Fans can watch games on MLB.TV, but if they’re “in-market” for that team based on where they live, some games are blacked out.

Sherman acknowledged the complexity of the issue, but emphasized the importance of changing the system.

“No question,” Sherman said. “It’s not clear how we get there. It’s a complicated path. But the commitment is there, and I’m confident we’ll get there.

“Reach is more important than revenue for us. And that’s in baseball. A lot of what you heard during the CBA was all we cared about was revenue, but reach is more important than revenue right now. The revenue will come if we connect with more fans over time. So that’s kind of the strategy that we’re employing, but how we get there, there’s turbulence. But certainly, we want to make it easy for people to connect and see our games.”

Progress on downtown ballpark
Sherman revealed late last season that the Royals were exploring other options for a new ballpark, and downtown Kansas City has been the main target. The Royals currently reside at the Truman Sports Complex in Jackson County, about 20 minutes outside of downtown, and share the parking lot with GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium, where the Kansas City Chiefs play.

The Royals’ lease at Kauffman Stadium expires in 2031, so the organization has a committee exploring what a downtown ballpark would look like. That committee has connected with architecture firms and conducted economic impact studies, as well as began to get feedback from Kansas Citians.

“The way I look at it, we’re one of only 25 cities in the United States with a Major League Baseball franchise,” Sherman said. “Four cities have two, and there’s one in Canada. These are really valuable assets for a community. So why shouldn’t we want to optimize the value of this asset on behalf of our community?”

Sherman understands the love for Kauffman Stadium as it is; he and his wife, Marny, had their first date at a Royals game at The K in the late 1970s. But he also understands the economic value of a downtown ballpark on the surrounding community and people.

“I love Kauffman Stadium. It’s a great place to play baseball,” Sherman said. “And if you think about [Royals founder] Ewing Kauffman and [Chiefs founder] Lamar Hunt got together to do that, whenever it was 50 years ago, it was a really innovative concept. But now with baseball, and again, it’s a great place to play, but we think we can do more. … You can do a lot for a community in terms of economic impact. So that’s what we’re studying. Looking forward to getting feedback that will help drive those decisions.”