Actor Eric Stonestreet owns part of the Royals

New Royals owner John Sherman will be introduced to the public in a press conference today, and while he is the chairman and CEO of the club now, he is just one of many in the ownership group, made public today. Among the most famous names in the Royals ownership group is actor Eric Stonestreet, of TV’s Modern Family. Stonestreet is a Kansas City, Kansas native and a Royals fan, returning each year for the Big Slick Celebrity Softball tournament at Kauffman Stadium.

Many of the other names in the ownership group are much less well-known, but they do have a lot of Kansas City connections. JE Dunn is a major construction company in town, and they and the Dunn family will own part of the team. That could be significant if the club looks at eyeing a relocation downtown, as Dunn owns land near the East Village, an area that has been suggested as a potential downtown ballpark site.

The Lockton family is a Kansas City family that founded Lockton Companies, a major insurance company. Michael Haverty is an Atchison native and railroad executive. Mariner Kemper is the CEO of UMB Bank and part of the Kemper family that has been a major player in civic and philanthropic causes in Kansas City.

Brooks Sherman is no relation to John Sherman, but he was an executive at Inergy, one of the companies John Sherman founded. Other Inergy execs that are part of the ownership group include Bill Gautreaux and Carl Hughes.

Paul Edgerley is one of the few out-of-town investors as a Massachusetts native and Bain Capital executive, but he does have a local connection as a graduate of Kansas State University, and he has experience in sports ownership as part owner of the Boston Celtics. Terry Matlack teamed up with Edgerley to create a major equity fund in town. Rob Kaplan is a former Wall Street banker and the co-chair of the Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation in California. Out of Los Angeles is Dan Dees, who serves as the Co-Head of Global Investment Banking at Goldman Sachs.

Peter and Veronica Mallouk are executives at Creative Planning, a financial services company in town. Alan Atterbury is the founding CEO of Midland Loan Services and is active in civic and philanthropic causes in Kansas City. James “J.B.” Hebenstreit is the Chairman of Bartlett and Company, a grain merchandising and storage, flour and feed milling, and cattle feeding company based in Kansas City. Don Wagner is the General Partner of Wagner Investments and is an active in civic causes, serving as a Commissioner on the Board of the Kansas City Police Department. Kent McCarthy is the president and founder of Jayhawk Capital Management based in Mission, Kansas. Mark Demetree is the co-founder and Operating Partner of Silverhawk Capital Partners in Overland Park. Jay Pack is president of the Pack Family Partnership.

Also involved in the ownership group is Seventh Inning Stretch, LP, a California-based baseball ownership group headed by Tom Volpe that owns a number of minor league teams.

John Sherman also released a statement before his press conference today.