Editing Kansas City Royals (section)

===1995–2002: Decline in the Post-Kauffman Era===
At the start of the 1990s, the Royals had been hit with a double-whammy when General Manager [[John Schuerholz]] departed in 1990 and team owner [[Ewing Kauffman]] died in 1993. Shortly before Kauffman's death, he set up an unprecedented complex succession plan to keep the team in Kansas City. The team was donated at his death to the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation and Affiliated Trusts with operating decisions of the team decided by a five-member group chaired by [[Wal-Mart]] executive [[David Glass (businessman)|David Glass]]. According to the plan the Royals had six years to find a local owner for the team before opening ownership to an outside bidder. The new owners would be required to say they would keep the team in Kansas City. Kauffman had feared that new owners would move it noting, "No one would want to buy a baseball team that consistently loses millions of dollars and had little prospect of making money because it was in a small city."<ref>{{cite web|author=Published |url=http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/article/52015 |title=New Royals Owner: Greater Kansas City Community Foundation – SportsBusiness Daily, SportsBusiness Journal |publisher=SportsBusiness Daily |access-date=May 18, 2011}}</ref>  If no owner could be found the Kauffman restrictions were to end on January 1, 2002, and the team was to be sold to the highest bidder.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/baseball/mlb/news/1999/11/10/royals_sale_ap|title=Baseball rejects Prentice's bid for Royals|work=CNN|date=November 11, 1999|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110629004757/http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/baseball/mlb/news/1999/11/10/royals_sale_ap/|archive-date=June 29, 2011}}</ref>  In 1999, New York City lawyer and minor league baseball owner [[Miles Prentice]], vowing not to move the team, bid $75&nbsp;million for the team. This was the minimum amount Kauffman had stipulated the team could be sold for.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-19413094.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121106012228/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-19413094.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=November 6, 2012|title=Royals board approves team sale to Prentice group}}</ref>  MLB rejected Prentice's first bid without specifying any reason.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.sabr.org/cmsFiles/Files/OTL2000-2.pdf |title=Microsoft Word – newsltr.002 |access-date=May 18, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110205153442/http://www.sabr.org/cmsFiles/Files/OTL2000-2.pdf |archive-date=February 5, 2011 }}</ref><ref>"Baseball strikes out Prentice; Royals must again start hunt for bidders", Kansas City ''Star'', November 11, 1999</ref>  In a final round of bids on March 13, 2000, the Foundation voted to accept Glass' bid of $96&nbsp;million, rejecting Prentice's revised bid of $115&nbsp;million.<ref>"Lengthy sale process could prove beneficial", Kansas City ''Star'', March 15, 2000, Jason Whitlock author</ref>

During the interregnum under Foundation ownership, the team declined. In the 1994 season, the Royals reduced payroll by trading pitcher [[David Cone]] and outfielder [[Brian McRae]], then continued their salary dump in the 1995 season. The team payroll, which had previously remained among the league's highest, was sliced in half from $40.5&nbsp;million in 1994 (fourth-highest in the major leagues) to $18.5&nbsp;million in 1996 (second-lowest in the major leagues).<ref name=salary>{{Cite news|last=Dutton |first=Bob |title=Royals to Open 2010 Season With $70.1&nbsp;million Payroll |newspaper=Kansas City Star |date=April 4, 2010 |url=http://www.kansascity.com/2010/04/04/1856456/royals-to-open-2010-season-with.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100409055851/http://www.kansascity.com/2010/04/04/1856456/royals-to-open-2010-season-with.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=April 9, 2010 |access-date=April 5, 2010 }}</ref><ref name=USAToday>{{Cite news | title = USA Today Salaries Database | newspaper = USA Today | url = http://content.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/salaries/totalpayroll.aspx?year=1996 | access-date = April 5, 2010 | date = October 24, 2007 | url-status = live | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20091110134148/http://content.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/salaries/totalpayroll.aspx?year=1996 | archive-date = November 10, 2009 | df = mdy-all }}</ref>

As attendance slid and the average MLB salary continued to rise, rather than pay higher salaries or lose their players to free agency, the Royals traded their remaining stars such as [[Kevin Appier]], [[Johnny Damon]] and [[Jermaine Dye]]. By 1999, the team's payroll had fallen again to $16.5&nbsp;million.<ref name=salary/>  Making matters worse, most of the younger players that the Royals received in exchange for these All-Stars proved of little value, setting the stage for an extended downward spiral. Indeed, the Royals set a franchise-low with a .398 winning percentage (64–97 record) in 1999, and lost 97 games again in 2001.

In the middle of this era, in 1997, the Royals declined the opportunity to switch to the [[National League (baseball)|National League]] as part of a realignment plan to introduce the [[Arizona Diamondbacks]] and [[Tampa Bay Rays|Tampa Bay Devil Rays]] as expansion teams. The [[Milwaukee Brewers]] made the switch instead.

In [[2002 Kansas City Royals season|2002]], the Royals set a new team record for futility, losing 100 games for the first time in franchise history. They fired manager [[Tony Muser]], and he was replaced by [[Tony Peña]].