Kansas City Royals Chairman David Glass and his family have reached an agreement under which John Sherman, a Kansas City, Missouri-based entrepreneur, and a group of local investors will acquire the Kansas City Royals franchise. Sherman and the co-investors will mark the third owner of the Royals since their inception in 1969 when Ewing Kauffman brought Major League Baseball back to Kansas City after a one-year absence. Closing of the transaction is subject to satisfaction of customary closing conditions, including MLB approval.
“The decision to sell the Royals was difficult for our family. Our goal, which I firmly believe we’ve achieved, was to have someone local, who truly loved the game of baseball and who would be a great steward for this franchise going forward. In John Sherman we have found everything we were looking for in taking ownership of this franchise,” said David Glass, the team’s Owner and Chief Executive Officer since he acquired the team in April, 2000. “John Sherman and his group far exceeded our hope for the next caretaker of Royals baseball. His love for Kansas City and the game of baseball is well documented as are his philanthropic endeavors in the surrounding communities. A native of this area, John has made a huge impact in our business community and is so passionate about baseball that he purchased an ownership stake in the Cleveland Indians three years ago to begin his relationship with this great game. We are truly blessed to have someone of John’s stature and business acumen available to us from the metropolitan area to take the reins of this organization going forward.”
“As for my family, it has been an amazing run since we gained control of the franchise in 2000,” Mr. Glass continued. “I will miss this more than anyone realizes because I grew up loving this great game and was awarded a fantastic opportunity to own one of the 30 Major League clubs. We watched this club painfully come up 90-feet short in 2014 and then ultimately win that coveted World Series trophy in 2015. I will never forget the thrill of seeing over 800,000 people of this community come together on one sunny November day to salute the newly-crowned World Champions. It’s been a fantastic ride and I want to thank our great fans for supporting us through the years but now it’s time for someone else to oversee this franchise into its next championship and in John Sherman, we’ve found the perfect individual.”
“I am enormously grateful to David and the Glass Family for this extraordinary opportunity,” said John Sherman, “and am humbled by the chance to team up with a distinguished group of local investors to carry forward and build on this rich Kansas City Royals legacy. Our goal will be threefold: to compete for a championship on behalf of our fans; to honor their passion, their experience and their unwavering commitment; and to carry their hopes and dreams forward in this great Kansas City region we all love – – – for decades to come.”
John Sherman is an entrepreneur, civic leader and philanthropist whose footprint in the Kansas City region has spanned the broadest reach. He has founded two successful businesses based in Kansas City, Missouri. Since 2016, Mr. Sherman has been active in Major League Baseball as an owner and Vice Chairman of the Cleveland Indians Baseball Club and a member of the MLB Audit Committee.
Sherman has served and supported the Kansas City community extensively, and has been recognized with numerous honors for his business, civic and philanthropic leadership. He is past chair of the Civic Council of Greater Kansas City and the Truman Library Institute; he is also a trustee of both the Kauffman Foundation and theNational World War I Museum and Memorial. He was named as both University of Missouri-Kansas City’s Entrepreneur of the Year and an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year. John and his wife Marny are founders of The Sherman Family Foundation, which actively supports educational investment in the Kansas City region.
In 2014, he was inducted into the inaugural class of the University of Missouri’s Bloch School of Business Entrepreneurs Hall of Fame with a group that included Ewing Kauffman, the original owner of the Kansas City Royals and Lamar Hunt, a founder of the American Football League (AFL) and former owner of the Kansas City Chiefs.
