What’s Missouri’s next play to keep Chiefs, Royals after stadiums plan dies?
Even as Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe aggressively pushed a funding plan for the Kansas City Chiefs and Royals this week, he laid the groundwork for what would come next if he failed – a special session.
That scenario now appears accepted as likely among lawmakers and state officials after the Senate adjourned its regular session Wednesday without voting on the funding plan, which could finance up to half the cost of a new stadium or stadium upgrades for one or both teams.
Its success is far from guaranteed.
When Kehoe emerged from a closed-door gathering of House GOP lawmakers earlier in the week, he said past governors of both parties had been willing to call special sessions for major projects. It was a strong hint that he, too, would be willing to recall lawmakers to Jefferson City if he came up short.
“I think our economic development proposal on the west side of the state is that significant,” Kehoe said.
But 48 hours later, Republicans and Democrats are furious at each other, and bitter feelings exist between the House and Senate. The acrimony risks derailing a special session focused on stadiums, which Kehoe could call at any time but that some lawmakers expect will take place in June.
The Missouri Senate’s more collegial atmosphere this year, after pointed infighting in recent years, collapsed on Wednesday. The Republican majority broke Democratic filibusters to place a new abortion ban before voters and passed a bill repealing sick leave protections approved by voters in November.
Senators then immediately adjourned without any of the well-wishing speeches that often occur in the final minutes of the session.
“From this point forward, if I have anything to say, everything is going to be so hard around here, it’s gonna be very hard,” Senate Minority Leader Doug Beck, a St. Louis-area Democrat, said.
Beck and other Democrats signaled that a special session on stadiums will be a difficult task, at least in the Senate, because of anger over how Republicans acted. Filibusters are very rarely broken in the Senate, a chamber that prizes at-times lengthy deliberation; the last time senators voted to cut off debate was in 2020.
Kehoe’s plan marked the most ambitious effort to keep the Chiefs and Royals in Missouri since Jackson County voters in April 2024 rejected a stadiums sales tax. Kansas lawmakers have since approved a sweeping proposal to offer supercharged bonds to finance up to 70% of the cost of new stadiums for one or both teams.
The Missouri plan, which relies on bonds and tax credits that could pay for up to half the costs of upgrading or building new stadiums, would allow the teams to apply for the aid but the state would have to sign off on each project. Under the plan, the total amount of state funding will be capped at 30 years and cannot exceed 50% of the total project costs. The proposal would also require contributions from local governments.
Decades of academic research has consistently found that stadiums and arenas are not major drivers of economic development. But elected officials often embrace them, portraying stadiums as significant economic development projects.
Missouri lawmakers offered the stadiums proposal as an amendment to legislation that would have authorized Clay County to create a sports authority. The underlying bill also didn’t pass, but the Clay County provision appears to have passed on another bill on Thursday.
Clay County leaders saw the sports authority as a key step toward making the county a viable option for the Royals. The team has considered a North Kansas City stadium site.
Stadiums compete with other priorities
The stadiums proposal enjoys bipartisan support, as well as some bipartisan opposition. The House passed the measure 108-40 just hours after it was unveiled.
Still, some Kansas City Democrats have made clear that stadiums can’t be prioritized over “the will of the voters” – a reference to the Republican-led efforts to seek a new abortion ban after voters overturned the old one in November and the repeal of sick leave protections.
Senators of both parties are also angry that the House didn’t vote last week on a budget bill containing hundreds of millions for projects across the state. They included $48 million to help build a new mental health hospital in Kansas City. Lawmakers may seek a deal to fund at least some capital projects in exchange for support of stadiums legislation.
“I believe in the greater good,” Sen. Barbara Washington, a Kansas City Democrat, said. “And while the Chiefs do bring a significant economic impact, as well as the Royals, the greater economic good is to put a hospital down in the rural parts of our state, is to make sure that we have obstetrics care north of U.S. 36, to make sure that we get the $48 million that we still need to do the mental health hospital in Kansas City.”
“Those things are more important to me and to my colleagues than the Chiefs.”
Peverill Squire, a University of Missouri political science professor who has long followed Missouri politics, said senators probably don’t want to come back and deal with the House again soon. Everybody will be happy to get out of Jefferson City, he predicted.
“I suspect there probably won’t be a lot of enthusiasm among state legislators to have a special session anytime soon,” Squire said.
Senate Republican leaders didn’t hold any news conferences after the end of session on Wednesday, breaking with tradition. Instead, GOP leadership sent out a statement that included no mention of stadiums.
Sen. Kurtis Gregory, a Marshall Republican who sponsored the underlying sports bill, said a special session is an option. “I don’t think that we want to let this opportunity pass us by,” he said.
Kehoe’s office hasn’t responded to requests for comment.
Becky Nace, a former Kansas City council member who led a successful campaign opposing the Jackson County stadiums sales tax last year, said she wasn’t surprised the General Assembly didn’t pass the plan. Nace said lawmakers hadn’t conducted due diligence on the proposal, which was rushed through the legislative process without public hearings.
For Nace, who wants both teams to remain at the Truman Sports Complex, the legislative proposal echoed the failed Jackson County plan. Once again, she contends, officials are pushing to authorize aid for the teams without details and commitments from the teams about the scope of any stadium projects and their location.
“Kind of a blank check just like the voters were asked to pass in April,” Nace said, referring to the Jackson County vote in April 2024.
Kansas vs. Missouri stadium plans
The proposed program offers funding for stadium development by covering annual bond payments up to the amount a team generated in state tax revenue in the year prior to when it took effect. The program would dedicate funds for bond payments up to the amount of revenue “historically generated by the teams.”
The proposal would set a minimum project cost of $500 million to qualify and stadiums must have a seating capacity of more than 30,000. A new Royals stadium would cost more than $1 billion. A new Chiefs stadium could cost up to $3 billion. When the team brought forth a plan to renovate Arrowhead Stadium a year ago, the Chiefs projected that cost at $800 million.
The Missouri proposal isn’t as generous as the Kansas law, which would allow bonds to finance up to 70% of the cost of new stadiums, compared to 50% in Missouri. But Geoffrey Propheter, a professor at the University of Colorado-Denver who has studied sports and urban affairs, said Missouri possess a greater ability to offer local funding.
Jackson County already has a 3/8th-cent stadium sales tax, for instance. “It’s very unlikely you’d see Wyandotte or Kansas City, Kansas, being able to throw money into pot just because of how different the tax bases are,” Propheter said.
The clock is ticking on the Kansas law – for now. Top Kansas lawmakers must vote by June 30 to extend the state’s stadium financing program for another year, giving the Chiefs and Royals more time to negotiate an agreement with state officials.
Missouri supporters of the stadiums funding plan don’t want to take any chances.
“We need to compete with Kansas,” Rep. Chris Brown, a Kansas City Republican, said. “We need to compete now.”
This story was originally published May 15, 2025 at 2:55 PM.
