CBA Watch: Kansas City and San Antonio — What Major Sports Deals Can Teach Us About Community Benefits
WHAT EXISTS
Kansas City: community benefits inside a major project agreement
On August 20, 2026, the Kansas City Council passed an ordinance authorizing agreements connected to a proposed new Royals stadium, including a community impact partnership agreement. The ordinance also reaffirms the City’s intent to provide $600 million toward the project.
For RRCBA, the important question is not whether Wichita should copy Kansas City. It is how communities define what they expect when significant public resources help make a private or quasi-private development possible.
San Antonio: community input after the commitment
San Antonio approved a Community Advisory Committee in August 2026 to guide public input on a proposed Downtown Sports and Entertainment District, including how $75 million in community benefits funding from Spurs Sports & Entertainment would be allocated over 30 years.
The committee can include representatives from neighborhoods, small businesses, labor and the arts. That model raises an important governance idea: residents can have an ongoing role in implementation and oversight, not only a one-time opportunity to comment before a deal is signed.
WHY IT MATTERS
Major projects create leverage points. Public money, tax treatment, land, infrastructure, zoning, bonding authority and other approvals can help make development possible. The community-benefits question is what measurable public return should accompany that support.
WHY THIS MATTERS RIGHT NOW IN WICHITA
This is not a foreign concept inside Wichita’s own economic-development framework. The City’s Industrial Revenue Bond guidelines list “Community and Workforce Development Benefits” as an additional consideration worth 25% in the property-tax-abatement calculation. Wichita’s broader incentive toolkit also includes IRBs, Economic Development Exemptions, Community Improvement Districts, Tax Increment Financing, Opportunity Zones and other redevelopment mechanisms.
RRCBA is also actively building its understanding of these tools. Recent correspondence with Councilman Joseph Shepard documents work to connect RRCBA with City Planning and Economic Development staff so the organization can better understand tools such as IRBs and CIDs. That is relationship-building and policy education — not a claim that the City has adopted an RRCBA CBA requirement.
Public investment creates leverage. The question is whether the public return is clearly defined, measurable and shaped with meaningful community input.
WHAT WE SHOULD WATCH
What public contribution, incentive or approval makes the project possible?
What benefits should be negotiated in return?
Which residents, businesses and organizations help define those benefits?
Are local hiring, workforce development, small-business contracting, housing, public space or other commitments measurable?
Who participates in oversight after the deal is signed?
How are results reported publicly?
YOUR MOVE
RRCBA’s role is to help residents understand the tools early enough to participate before the important decisions are already finished.
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