Missouri Senate passes incentives to keep Chiefs, Royals from moving

Missouri senators on Thursday authorized hundreds of millions of dollars worth of incentives to try to persuade the Kansas City Chiefs and Royals to continue playing in Missouri in new or improved stadiums.

Lawmakers are acting with urgency in a special session because the professional sports teams face an end of June deadline to accept a competing offer from Kansas.

Though House approval is still needed, the Senate vote marked a major hurdle, because the stadium incentives stalled there last month. 

The future of the Chiefs and Royals has been up in the air for a while.

The teams currently play professional football and baseball in side-by-side stadiums in eastern Kansas City in Jackson County, Missouri, under leases that run until January 2031.

Jackson County voters last year 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.

That prompted Kansas lawmakers last year to authorize bonds for up to 70% of the cost of new stadiums in their state.

Missouri’s counterproposal would authorize bonds for up to 50% of the cost of stadium projects while also providing up to $50 million of tax credits to go with unspecified support from local governments.

While testifying Tuesday to a Senate committee, Chiefs lobbyist Rich AuBuchon described the Missouri offer as “legitimate” and “competitive.” If the Chiefs stay in Missouri, he said they likely would begin a $1.15 billion plan to renovate Arrowhead Stadium and upgrade the team’s practice facilities in either 2027 or 2028. It would take three years to complete.

AuBuchon pointed to other recent publicly financed stadium projects in Baltimore, New Orleans, Nashville and Buffalo, New York.

However, many economists contend public funding for stadiums isn’t worth it, because sports tend to divert discretionary spending away from other forms of entertainment rather than generate new income.


(AP Photo Charlie Reidel)