Kansas City Chiefs rep downplays relocation reports in hearing with Missouri lawmakers
A representative of the Kansas City Chiefs side-stepped a question from a Missouri lawmaker Wednesday about reports that the team is considering a move to Kansas, but said the team’s main priority was renovating Arrowhead Stadium in Missouri.
Anne Scharf, director of civic affairs for the team, signaled to Missouri Senators that the Chiefs had no immediate plans to leave Arrowhead — where the team’s lease is until 2031.
“Our lease agreement is for nine years,” she said. “We’re committed to that lease agreement.”
Scharf’s answer was in response to a question from Sen. Barbara Washington, a Kansas City Democrat, during a Senate hearing on legalized sports betting. Last week, Chiefs president Mark Donovan “said the team has considered options in state of Kansas,” according to a tweet from Kevin Clark, who covers the NFL for The Ringer.
Donovan’s comments sparked an immediate response from Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly, who suggested that Kansas would be willing to use economic incentives to lure the Chiefs across the state line — potentially reigniting a longstanding economic border war between the two states.
Scharf, in her answer, indicated that reports about the team receiving offers from Kansas developers were already known to the public. She said, however, that an article in The New York Times — whose website does not show any coverage of Donovan’s comments — did not “include what led up to that particular comment.”
“Nothing that was shared last week at an NFL meeting that was covered by national news outlets had not been shared repeatedly with local news outlets for the past year,” she said.
A search of online news articles found no mention of the Chiefs’ potential relocation prior to Donovan’s comments.
Washington countered that the president’s comments were “new to us” and asked for a commitment that the team would not leave.
“The old man never ever, ever, bless his soul, Mr. Hunt, would have never said that he would leave us,” she said, referring to Chiefs’ late founder and owner Lamar Hunt. “We just want to put on the record that we love the Chiefs and we want the Chiefs to be committed to us.”
Scharf said the team was commissioning a study to determine how to renovate Arrowhead.
“Our first step is to figure out what’s possible at Arrowhead,” she said. “It’s very special to the Hunt family. It’s very special to the community. We know the community has done a lot to support it up till now. It’s 50 years old so we have to do our homework.”
Washington, reached by phone Wednesday, said she understood that Scharf likely was not in a position to commit to the Chiefs staying in Missouri.
“I would love for us to have a written commitment from the Chiefs, but I know we’re not going to be able to get that,” she said.
Washington said the state has to take Donovan’s comments seriously and keep the Chiefs in Missouri. Lawmakers, she said, have not yet discussed whether to offer the team incentives to say and she didn’t know if she would support it.
“We need to make sure we’re doing everything we can to keep the Kansas City Chiefs,” she said.
Sports betting
Wednesday’s Senate hearing came as Missouri and Kansas compete to be the next state to approve the practice.
In Kansas, legislation legalizing sports betting nearly failed in the House last week when lawmakers learned of an 11th hour move to place 80% of the revenue in a fund earmarked for attracting major sports teams. The Senate adjourned before voting on it.
The Missouri House last month passed a bill, the furthest any sports gambling proposal has ever gotten in the state. Senators on Wednesday said they would prefer to see the bill include a higher tax rate and increased funding to stop problem gamblers.
In Missouri’s bill, each of the state’s six major professional sports teams would be able to operate a betting platform or “skin.”
Referring to the Chiefs rumored move, some Senators suggested that those platforms be tied exclusively to the team’s location.
This story was originally published April 6, 2022 at 3:43 PM.
