Gov. Laura Kelly (D-KS) called a special legislative session to discuss the construction of a new stadium to lure the Kansas City Chiefs away from Missouri.
This special session contains a plant that could also entice the MLB’s Kansas City Royals as lawmakers mull over the authorization of state bonds toward construction and subsequently use the revenue from sports betting, the Kansas Lottery, and tax dollars to pay them back. The proposal has both teams moving 25 miles west into the Kansas border.
“You’ve got this asset and all the businesses that move there as a result, or are created there,” Kansas Rep. Sean Tarwater said of the plan. “You’ll get commerce out of that area every day.”
The plan has the backing of the heads of both chambers in Kansas. Missouri’s Arrowhead Stadium has a lease that runs through January 2031. However, Chiefs owner Clark Hunt has teased the idea of moving the team out but hasn’t revealed the team’s future options.
Meanwhile, Missouri lawmakers are seemingly not so eager to consider competing legislation. Missouri Rep. Mark Sharp (D) wrote a letter to Gov. Mike Parson (R-MO) requesting a similar special session to finance renovations on Arrowhead Stadium to keep the Chiefs there.
“I earnestly hope you will take a highly visible leadership role in attempting to keep the Kansas City Chiefs here in Missouri where they belong and prevent the state of Kansas from luring them away from their longtime home at Arrowhead as it is trying to do,” Sharp’s letter read. Parsons has yet to announce an extra session.
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Missourians in Jackson County voted against a 3/8-cent sales tax plan that would have gone towards a new stadium for the royals and renovations on Arrowhead Stadium. After the results of the ballot were released, Hunt went public with the idea to move the Chiefs out of Missouri.
Kansas City Chiefs have won three Super Bowls in the last five years. Their kicker, Harrison Butker, has scored 37 points across four Super Bowls, which is the record for a kicker.