The stadium game is in overtime.
The owner of the National Football League Kansas City Chiefs franchise, Clark Hunt, and the owner of Major League Baseball’s Kansas City Royals franchise, John Sherman, have all the cards in the stadium negotiations game. Kansas is giving the two owners a year to study if it makes sense to take the Kansas subsidy offer to move to the state. Missouri Governor Mike Kehoe signed a bill that would give state money to keep the two in his state. Hunt wants to renovate his Missouri Chiefs stadium while Sherman wants a new baseball park in downtown Kansas City or other areas in the Kansas City, Missouri area.
The stadium problems began in April 2024 when Jackson County, Missouri voters said no to extending a sales tax that would have funded a Royals’ downtown stadium and a renovation of Hunt’s Chiefs’ football venue. There is really nothing new from Kansas where local politicians have indicated that they might want the Chiefs and Royals’ businesses in their state. Kansas lawmakers are still mulling over a proposal that would see STAR bonds used to help pay 75% of the cost of building two stadiums in Kansas. Additionally, sports gambling and lottery gaming and sales tax revenue from businesses in the stadium development districts would cover bond debt. Another source of revenue to pay off the debt would come from a liquor tax. Kansas lawmakers could use a mechanism that would allow up to 100% of sales tax revenue on alcoholic liquor sales within a stadium district to pay off bonds for the structures. Missouri politicians will pay up to 50 percent of the construction costs of two venues in an attempt to keep Hunt’s franchise and Sherman’s business in the state. The stadium game is now in overtime in Kansas and in Missouri. But the clear winners are Hunt and Sherman.
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