Missouri House backs new stadium aid for Chiefs, Royals

The Missouri House on Tuesday endorsed a new framework of financial incentives to try to keep the Kansas City Chiefs and Royals from possibly leaving the state by helping fund new or renovated stadiums for them.

The legislation, which has the backing of Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe, would authorize the state to issue bonds valued at up to half the cost of the stadium projects and allow tax credits of up to $50 million. But the plan doesn’t list a total cost or a location for the stadiums, leaving those details to be negotiated later.

Missouri lawmakers are scrambling to try to counter an offer from neighboring Kansas, which authorized its own package of incentives last year after voters in Jackson County, Missouri, turned down a sales tax extension that would have helped finance a $2 billion ballpark district for the Royals in downtown Kansas City and an $800 million renovation of the Chiefs’ Arrowhead Stadium.

The clock is ticking for Missouri lawmakers. The state Senate would still need to approve the plan before a Friday deadline to wrap up work in the annual legislative session.

But the legislation encountered immediate resistance when it was brought up Tuesday in the Senate. Republican state Sen. Mary Elizabeth Coleman denounced it as “special interests for billionaires” and foreshadowed a lengthy debate that ended without a vote Tuesday night.

The Chiefs and Royals have played for more than 50 years in side-by-side football and baseball stadiums built in eastern Kansas City, drawing fans from both states in the split metropolitan area. Their stadium leases run until 2031, but Royals owner John Sherman has said the team won’t play at Kauffman Stadium beyond the 2030 season.

Missouri has experience with losing professional sports teams. The National Football League’s Rams were the most recent to depart, leaving a publicly financed domed stadium that had lured the team to St. Louis to return to a gleaming new stadium in Los Angeles that opened in 2020.


(AP Photo Charlie Reidel)