How Kansas Is Making Its Latest Push For The Chiefs' Next Stadium

Forbes

3 days ago

A general overall aerial view of Arrowhead Stadium on Dec. 25, 2023 in Kansas City, Mo. (Photo by ... More)
This month could be a pivotal one in determining whether the Kansas City Chiefs will move across state lines for the next decade.
The Chiefs' current home — GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium — resides on the Missouri side of the border, but Kansas has been making a huge push over the last year to land the Chiefs and/or the Kansas City Royals.
'I'm actually cautiously optimistic,' Ty Masterson, the president of the Kansas Senate, exclusively shared.
On June 21, 2024, Kansas governor Laura Kelly signed into law an expansive plan to issue STAR (sales tax and revenue) bonds to help fund the new stadiums.
It had been reported that June 30, 2025 was the deadline for that deal, but Masterson noted that, though the original statute did have that expiration date, there was a provision in that law to be able to extend it up to a year.
To discuss that extension, the Legislative Coordinating Council (LCC) did not have to necessarily meet before June 30, and the next available time when legislators were free was July 7.
That July 7 LCC meeting will feature leaders from both chambers, including the president, vice president, majority leader and minority leader of the state Senate. On the House of Representatives side, it will have the speaker of the house, speaker pro tempore, majority leader and minority leader.
'It's bipartisan,' Masterson said.
Masterson was the recipient of the request from Chiefs president Mark Donovan who asked for the extension because of delays in responses from the Kansas governor's office.
'We would like to thank the Kansas legislature and the Legislative Coordinating Council (LCC) for our constructive conversation,' the Chiefs said in a statement. 'We continue to make significant progress toward a mutually beneficial agreement. However, these projects are complex and require due diligence on both sides. The LCC confirming to meet soon about an extension enables us to continue finalizing large pieces of the puzzle that would be required for this project in the state of Kansas.'
Kansas has a couple of advantages over Missouri.
The Sunflower State has a unique funding system, and under its proposal, state lawmakers would issue bonds for up to 70% of the estimated cost of the stadium project. That is a greater percentage than the Missouri plan, which enables covering 50% of the costs and was passed last month.
And if the Chiefs start their stadium from scratch in Kansas — rather than just renovating their current one in Missouri — they could build a dome, which potentially gives them the opportunity to host lucrative national championships and Super Bowls.
Chiefs owner Clark Hunt, however, has said that the favorite place in the world for his father, Chiefs founder Lamar Hunt, was Arrowhead Stadium.
'There is some sentimental value to Arrowhead in Missouri,' Masterson said. 'All things equal: I would expect them to stay in Missouri, but all things aren't equal.'
Having the Chiefs stay in a renovated GEHA Field while the neighboring Royals, who share a parking lot, moved downtown was the initial plan for both teams, whose current stadium leases go through the end of the 2030 season.
But by a measure of 58% to 42% in April of 2024, Jackson County, Mo. residents voted against the 3/8 cent sales tax to help fund the Royals' move to the East Crossroads district and the Chiefs' renovations at their existing stadium.
Frank White, the Jackson County executive and eight-time Gold Glove winner for the Royals, was one of the biggest detractors of that proposal.
'It's just not an equitable situation,' White exclusively shared. 'I can't just rubber stamp this deal because I played sports. I was elected to be a good steward to the taxpayer dollars, and that's my goal.'
The failure of that measure in Missouri opened the door for the state of Kansas to potentially swoop in and snare one or both of Kansas City's major professional sports teams.
'We appreciate the effort that the Kansas legislature made to really supercharge STAR bonds to make it make sense for a professional sports team to come over there and take advantage of that,' Donovan said. 'We don't take that for granted.'