The real big game for owners is getting huge stadium revenues.
The Super Bowl is not the biggest game of the year for the National Football League’s Kansas City Chiefs ownership. The real big game for Chiefs ownership is on April 2nd when Jackson County, Missouri voters will decide if a 3/8 of a percent sales tax that went to renovations of the Chiefs stadium and Major League Baseball’s Kansas City Royals franchise’s baseball park in 2007 should stay on the books. The owner of the Major League Baseball Kansas City Royals franchise John Sherman and the National Football League Kansas City Chiefs franchise owner Clark Hunt have told Jackson County, Missouri politicians. We will stay in Kansas City and Jackson County if voters say yes in an April referendum to extend the tax to fund either new or renovated venues for the two sports businesses. Sherman wants a ballpark built downtown while Hunt will take a renovated stadium in the Truman Sports Complex.
The money collected from the tax would help fund stadium projects for Hunt’s Chiefs and Sherman’s Royals. Sherman’s stadium-village plan would be covered under the proposed sales tax extension. Sherman was kicking the tires at a North Kansas City site outside of Jackson County. There have been reports that the state of Kansas may also want to get into the stadium game. Hunt likes his stadium but the modern NFL stadium has all sorts of bells and whistles that produce revenue that a renovated 52-year-old stadium might not be able to offer. Hunt wants a mid-21st century state-of-the-art facility but he believes the present stadium can be renovated and could last another quarter of a century. The football team’s lease to use the present stadium with Jackson County, Missouri ends in 2031. Sherman wants a stadium built within five years but first the voters have to say yes.
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