Incentives carrot dangle for Chiefs-Royals

Article posted by Coliseum, June 9^th, 2025

Image: Coliseum GSVA

The Missouri (US) Senators on June 5^th approved a plan to provide over $100 million in aid for the tornado-ravaged St. Louis and authorized hundreds of millions of dollars worth of incentives to try to persuade the National Football League (NFL) team Kansas City Chiefs and the Major League Baseball (MLB) team Kansas City Royals to continue playing in Missouri in new or improved stadiums.

‘NFL’ stated that the 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 while residents in St. Louis are struggling to recover from the May storms that caused an estimated $1.6 billion of damage.

The Kansas City Chiefs are a professional American football team based in Kansas City, Missouri (US). The Chiefs compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference West Division.

The 76,416-capacity Arrowhead Stadium is an American football stadium in Kansas City, Missouri, United States. It primarily serves as the home venue of the Kansas City Chiefs of the National Football League (NFL).

The Kansas City Royals are an American professional baseball team based in Kansas City, Missouri (US). The Royals compete in the Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League Central Division.

The 37,903-capacity Kauffman Stadium is a ballpark located in Kansas City, Missouri (US) and the home of the Major League Baseball (MLB) team Kansas City Royals. It sits adjacent to the Arrowhead Stadium, home of the National Football League (NFL) team Kansas City Chiefs.

‘NFL’ further stated that though the 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 the 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.

The 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 the Kansas lawmakers last year to authorize bonds for up to 70 percent of the cost of new stadiums in their State.

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

While testifying on June 3^rd to a Senate Committee the 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 the 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, Buffalo, and New York.

Averred AuBuchon, “Throughout the United States the States are funding stadiums. They are a big economic development. They are a big business.”

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

Pointed out Patrick Tuohey, Senior Fellow at the Show-Me Institute, a free-market think tank, “What the teams are doing is playing Kansas and Missouri against each other. When the Cities and the States do this they hollow out their tax base for the benefit of the wealthy billionaire team owners … they lose the ability to provide public safety, basic services.”

The Royals’ lobbyist Jewell Patek said that even with the State incentives a planned stadium district likely would need voter approval for the local tax incentives in either Jackson or Clay Counties which couldn’t happen until later this year.

He made no guarantee that the Royals would pick Missouri over Kansas but Patek added, “We love the community, we love the State … we think this is a step in the right direction for the State of Missouri.”

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