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Associated Press
7 days ago
- Business
- Associated Press
Chiefs press on with stadium negotiations on both sides of the Kansas-Missouri state line
ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (AP) — The Kansas City Chiefs are making progress in stadium negotiations with lawmakers on both sides of the Kansas-Missouri state line, thought it remains unclear whether the team will stay at Arrowhead Stadium or ultimately move elsewhere. The Chiefs recently were granted an extension to an end-of-June deadline for a financing package from the state of Kansas, an indication that the NFL franchise's potential move from its longtime home in Missouri is a legitimate possibility. Missouri has countered with a funding package signed by Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe following a special session of the state legislature. 'We've had more meetings, more discussions,' Chiefs president Mark Donovan said Tuesday. 'At this point it's literally — you're taking an agreement this long and whittling it down to this paragraph and this line, and we need an agreement on this, and we're doing this on both sides. You're in that process where you're not sure which way it will go.' The Chiefs and the Kansas City Royals have played for more than five decades at the Truman Sports Complex on the east side of Kansas City, Missouri, where Arrowhead Stadium and Kauffman Stadium share parking facilities. But leases with Jackson County are due to expire in January 2031, and the two franchises have been trying to plot a course forward for years. Last year, Jackson County voters defeated a sales tax extension that would have helped to finance an $800 million renovation of Arrowhead Stadium — the home of the Chiefs — and a $2 billion ballpark district for the Royals in downtown Kansas City. Now, the franchises are pursuing their own paths in landing a stadium deal. In the case of Missouri, legislation has authorized bonds covering up to 50% of the cost of new or renovated stadiums in the state, plus up to $50 million of tax credits for each stadium and unspecified aid from local governments. Lawmakers in Kansas have authorized up to 70% of the cost of new stadiums to be built in their state. Chiefs owner Clark Hunt has acknowledged a deep sentimental attachment to Arrowhead Stadium, which was built by his father and team founder Lamar Hunt when he moved the franchise from Dallas. But the most visible face of the Chiefs ownership family also is an astute businessman, and he understands the importance of revenue streams generated by a new facility. So while a comprehensive renovation of Arrowhead remains a possibility, so does an enclosed stadium that could fulfill Hunt's desire to one day host the Super Bowl, Final Four and other big events. The Royals, meanwhile, have made it clear that renovations to Kauffman Stadium are not going to happen. Principal owner John Sherman has expressed a desire for downtown baseball, and options there still exist. But news surfaced about a month ago that an affiliate of the Royals purchased the mortgage on a large property in the southern Kansas City suburb of Overland Park, Kansas, raising the possibility of building a new stadium and ballpark district there. 'Our job, and the team around me, is to get the two best possible partnerships figured out down to the detail,' Donovan said, shortly before the Chiefs took the field for their first full-squad workout on training camp at Missouri Western. 'At that point we go to the Hunt family and say, 'Here are the options. What do you want to do?' 'It's the detail of those deals. What deal makes the most sense from a business perspective, a future perspective? What makes the most sense for our fans and the next generation? There are a lot of strong arguments on both sides.' ___ AP sports:
Daily Mail
21-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Caitlin Clark reveals what she told Taylor Swift when they watched Travis Kelce and the Chiefs play
Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark opened up about a famous photo that she took while watching her favorite football team alongside arguably the biggest pop star in the world. Earlier this year, Clark was spotted alongside pop icon Taylor Swift as the 'Cruel Summer' singer watched her boyfriend, Travis Kelce, play for the Kansas City Chiefs. Clark and Swift cheered on as the Chiefs beat the Houston Texans in the AFC Divisional round back in January. Months later, Clark attended a live taping at WNBA All-Star weekend of the 'A Touch More' podcast - hosted by sports power couple Sue Bird and Megan Rapinoe. Bird, a women's basketball icon, and Rapinoe, a women's soccer idol, asked Clark to spill the details about their conversation in the luxury suites at Arrowhead Stadium. Clark said that the photo captured a moment where Swift was asking her for an explanation about a penalty call. Caitlin is asked what she and Taylor talked about lmfao 'Honestly I love football and I know a lot about football. So I was like telling her why they threw a flag. But in the best way I don't even know everything. So I was just explaining things but yeah that was really fun.' — correlation (@nosyone4) July 21, 2025 'Honestly I love football and I know a lot about football. So I was like telling her why they threw a flag,' Clark told Bird and Rapinoe. 'But in the best way I don't even know everything. So I was just explaining things but yeah that was really fun.' 'I'm a big Chiefs fan, so getting to spend time with Taylor and then also Travis played really well that game, the Chiefs won, it was the playoffs.' Kansas City would eventually reach Super Bowl LIX, where they were decimated by the Philadelphia Eagles. Clark has been dealing with a nagging groin injury which kept her out for five games in recent weeks. Before the All-Star Game, the injury flared back up and kept her out of the festivities in Indianapolis.
Yahoo
08-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
If the Chiefs choose to renovate Arrowhead Stadium, here's when and how
On Monday morning, Chiefs team president Mark Donovan phoned one state governor, a brief conversation to preserve the prospect of prolonging a half-century relationship. On Monday afternoon, a legislative body in a different state passed an extension for a bill designed to lure the Chiefs and Royals across the border. Advertisement Missouri by morning. Kansas by afternoon. A decision by ... ? 'You and your timeline questions,' Donovan quipped, jokingly, when I asked that. Then he did share a detail: If the Chiefs opt to renovate Arrowhead Stadium rather than build a domed venue in Kansas, they would likely target an April 2026 ballot in Jackson County. That's as opposed to November. 'I think given the timeline, it would be difficult to hit the November date at this point,' Donovan said, because any ballot measure proposal would need to be filed more than two months in advance. That's only relevant if the Chiefs opt to stay at Arrowhead Stadium. Advertisement And that's only plausible if they can reach an agreement with the Jackson County Legislature on a ballot measure — a legislature that has some important, even unprecedented, business at the moment. That legislature unanimously voted Monday to schedule a special election in August to let voters decide whether to recall county executive Frank White after the certification of nearly 43,000 signatures seeking the measure. Even acknowledging its uncertainty, a special election result could change the conversation about the stadiums in Jackson County, given it could change who's conducting the most important conversations about the stadiums in Jackson County. White vetoed a measure to put a stadium sales tax extension on the ballot ahead of the April 2024 vote, before the legislature overrode that veto and put the item in front of Jackson County voters. And then those voters sided with White, resoundingly rejecting the Chiefs' and Royals' combined measure. Advertisement Which ought to be the primary takeaway: No matter the deal reached to secure a place on the ballot, or who is securing that deal, what's left unchanged is the very thing that turned down the two teams the last time. The voting public. That's where — and why — next April could come into play. The Chiefs are set on giving themselves ample time to provide voters with a clear plan, and the public ample time to determine their support for it. Waiting until April could offer that advantage to whichever team opts for it. It could amplify some pressure, too. The Kansas Legislative Coordinating Council (LCC) extended the state's stadium incentives package offer Monday afternoon, backed by STAR bonds. They'll now give the teams until the end of 2025 to grab that offer. Advertisement That's one deadline, for now. Here's another: If the Chiefs renovate Arrowhead Stadium, it would likely require 3-4 years of construction, the team estimates, because they would still need to use the facility in the meantime. That would limit when they'd be able to work on it. Their current lease expires at the end of the 2030 season, roughly 4 1/2 years after a potential April 2026 election. If the Chiefs instead pursue a new stadium in Kansas, they would likely attempt to finalize details and begin building before April 2026 — and not have to work around football games to do it. You can get a sense of all the moving parts in play, right? Advertisement And to think, much of that — the extension of a Kansas deadline, a phone call with the Missouri governor and step toward a potential shift in county leadership — occurred in a single day. 'We need to know a lot,' Donovan said when asked what's still outstanding. 'We are so far down the line in both sides that now it's the details. Now it's literally getting down to the final points and making sure everybody's in agreement on what we need to do and that we have all the pieces lined up.' Some of those points are significant. While we know the Chiefs would make an ask of Jackson County taxpayers to renovate Arrowhead Stadium, we don't yet know what form that would take. With the Chiefs and Royals having separated, extending the existing 3/8th-cent sales tax is almost certainly off the table. Might the Chiefs try for a quarter-cent? Advertisement That's the nature of discussions the Chiefs are having in both states — privately. They are not publicly tipping their hand for their future stadium plans, and neither have the Royals, for that matter. It has transformed an economic debate into an all-out bidding war, with two states fully engaged. 'Our job is to go to the Hunt family and suggest, 'Here are your two options,'' Donovan said of the Chiefs' ownership. 'They both make sense. Let's make the decision that's best for our fans and our organization.'
Forbes
02-07-2025
- Business
- Forbes
How Kansas Is Making Its Latest Push For The Chiefs' Next Stadium
A general overall aerial view of Arrowhead Stadium on Dec. 25, 2023 in Kansas City, Mo. (Photo by ... More) This month could be a pivotal one in determining whether the Kansas City Chiefs will move across state lines for the next decade. The Chiefs' current home — GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium — resides on the Missouri side of the border, but Kansas has been making a huge push over the last year to land the Chiefs and/or the Kansas City Royals. 'I'm actually cautiously optimistic,' Ty Masterson, the president of the Kansas Senate, exclusively shared. On June 21, 2024, Kansas governor Laura Kelly signed into law an expansive plan to issue STAR (sales tax and revenue) bonds to help fund the new stadiums. It had been reported that June 30, 2025 was the deadline for that deal, but Masterson noted that, though the original statute did have that expiration date, there was a provision in that law to be able to extend it up to a year. To discuss that extension, the Legislative Coordinating Council (LCC) did not have to necessarily meet before June 30, and the next available time when legislators were free was July 7. That July 7 LCC meeting will feature leaders from both chambers, including the president, vice president, majority leader and minority leader of the state Senate. On the House of Representatives side, it will have the speaker of the house, speaker pro tempore, majority leader and minority leader. 'It's bipartisan,' Masterson said. Masterson was the recipient of the request from Chiefs president Mark Donovan who asked for the extension because of delays in responses from the Kansas governor's office. 'We would like to thank the Kansas legislature and the Legislative Coordinating Council (LCC) for our constructive conversation,' the Chiefs said in a statement. 'We continue to make significant progress toward a mutually beneficial agreement. However, these projects are complex and require due diligence on both sides. The LCC confirming to meet soon about an extension enables us to continue finalizing large pieces of the puzzle that would be required for this project in the state of Kansas.' Kansas has a couple of advantages over Missouri. The Sunflower State has a unique funding system, and under its proposal, state lawmakers would issue bonds for up to 70% of the estimated cost of the stadium project. That is a greater percentage than the Missouri plan, which enables covering 50% of the costs and was passed last month. And if the Chiefs start their stadium from scratch in Kansas — rather than just renovating their current one in Missouri — they could build a dome, which potentially gives them the opportunity to host lucrative national championships and Super Bowls. Chiefs owner Clark Hunt, however, has said that the favorite place in the world for his father, Chiefs founder Lamar Hunt, was Arrowhead Stadium. 'There is some sentimental value to Arrowhead in Missouri,' Masterson said. 'All things equal: I would expect them to stay in Missouri, but all things aren't equal.' Having the Chiefs stay in a renovated GEHA Field while the neighboring Royals, who share a parking lot, moved downtown was the initial plan for both teams, whose current stadium leases go through the end of the 2030 season. But by a measure of 58% to 42% in April of 2024, Jackson County, Mo. residents voted against the 3/8 cent sales tax to help fund the Royals' move to the East Crossroads district and the Chiefs' renovations at their existing stadium. Frank White, the Jackson County executive and eight-time Gold Glove winner for the Royals, was one of the biggest detractors of that proposal. 'It's just not an equitable situation,' White exclusively shared. 'I can't just rubber stamp this deal because I played sports. I was elected to be a good steward to the taxpayer dollars, and that's my goal.' The failure of that measure in Missouri opened the door for the state of Kansas to potentially swoop in and snare one or both of Kansas City's major professional sports teams. 'We appreciate the effort that the Kansas legislature made to really supercharge STAR bonds to make it make sense for a professional sports team to come over there and take advantage of that,' Donovan said. 'We don't take that for granted.'
New York Times
17-06-2025
- Business
- New York Times
Missouri governor signs package to help finance Chiefs, Royals stadium projects
Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe signed a legislative package Saturday intended to persuade the Kansas City Chiefs and Kansas City Royals to remain in the state amid ongoing discussion of the teams' futures along the Missouri-Kansas state line. The Chiefs and Royals have played in side-by-side stadiums on the east side of Kansas City (Mo.) for five decades and shared a lease at the Truman Sports Complex that runs through Jan. 31, 2031. As the expiration date nears, legislators in Missouri and Kansas have battled to present the best financial framework to attract the teams to their respective sides of the state line. The Chiefs are considering renovating Arrowhead Stadium or building a state-of-the-art venue, likely a dome. The Royals, who play at Kauffman Stadium, intend to be in a new ballpark before the lease ends. Advertisement The new legislation from Missouri, approved by lawmakers at a special session last Wednesday, authorizes the state to cover up to 50 percent of stadium construction costs through state-issued bonds, and it authorizes the use of up to $50 million in tax credits for each stadium. Local governments would also have to provide an unspecified amount of aid to help finance stadium projects that both teams have voiced interest in. Last year, the Chiefs and Royals put forward a plan to voters in Jackson County, Mo., agreeing to remain in the county for at least the next 25 years if voters agreed to an extension of a three-eighths-cent sales tax to help finance a renovation of Arrowhead Stadium and the construction of a new downtown ballpark. However, voters rejected the extension of the sales tax, further raising questions about the teams' futures in Kansas City. Then, legislators in Kansas added pressure by approving state bonds last summer that would cover up to 70 percent of new stadium costs in their state. The bonds expire June 30, an unofficial deadline for both franchises to decide their futures, but could be renewed for another year. In a statement to The Associated Press, the Chiefs described the recent Missouri legislative vote as a 'significant step forward' that enables the team to continue exploring options to remain in the state. Kansas City (Mo.) Mayor Quinton Lucas, a lifelong Chiefs fan, said in August he believes the teams will remain in Missouri. 'The way that we do our stadium obligations in Missouri is that they are publicly owned as compared to what you see in Kansas,' Lucas said in August. 'That makes a very big difference (in) tax implications long term. If you look at the economics, if you look at the plans the teams have said before, both teams will be in Kansas City, Mo., for years to come.'
