Missouri’s stadium plan may be in jeopardy. One reason? Royals’ Pride month post
A sweeping incentives plan to keep the Kansas City Chiefs and Royals in Missouri could be in jeopardy even before lawmakers begin debating the proposal this week.
The stadium funding plan, unveiled last month by Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe, is poised to run into resistance from both sides of the political aisle. That opposition puts the proposal on a difficult path as lawmakers returned to Jefferson City on Monday for a special session.
Missouri’s special session marks the most pivotal moment in the state’s fight over the teams with Kansas. Approval of the plan could shape the future of the Kansas City metro and decide which state, on either side of State Line Road, will spend millions in tax incentives to secure the teams for years to come.
But the proposal first has to survive the Missouri Senate during a special session that will also involve disaster relief for St. Louis tornado victims and millions for construction projects across the state, including roughly $50 million for a new mental health hospital in Kansas City.
It all adds up to a potentially volatile session.
On the Republican side, a hard-right group of senators called the Freedom Caucus is promising to derail the stadiums plan if Kehoe doesn’t expand the session to include their priorities. They want tax cuts and legislation that would make it harder for voters to amend the state constitution.
“If Governor Kehoe and legislative leaders insist on using taxpayers’ hard-earned dollars for a half billion-dollar (or more) handout to billionaire sports team owners in a stand-alone bill, the Missouri Freedom Caucus will vote against such a proposal and will consider utilizing any tools at its disposal to stop it,” Sen. Rick Brattin, a Harrisonville Republican, said in a statement on behalf of the Freedom Caucus.
One Freedom Caucus member, Sen. Nick Schroer, a Defiance Republican, and at least one prominent former member went a step further over the weekend and attacked the Royals for a social media post in support of Pride Month, which commemorates the struggle for LGBTQ rights. The team’s post said “baseball is for everyone,” along with a rainbow flag.
“If you’re going to stay in the state of Missouri and take the tax dollars… I don’t think that we should be — that we should be, you know, utilizing these resources to shove sexuality down the throats of our kids,” Schroer said during a radio interview Monday morning.
When the Senate gaveled in Monday afternoon, senators filed a slew of unrelated bills, a sign that some lawmakers would attempt to effectively hijack the session with other priorities. One bill, filed by Brattin, would allow people to donate money to pay for stadiums, similar to a GoFundMe, instead of using taxpayer money.
On the Democratic side, senators have largely not criticized the stadiums funding plan itself. However, the chamber’s top Democratic leader told reporters on Monday that Democrats will not discuss the stadiums plan until the chamber addresses the tornado disaster relief and the construction projects.
“Until that happens and it’s through the House and on the governor’s desk, then we can talk about (the stadiums funding),” said Senate Minority Leader Doug Beck, an Affton Democrat.
Beck also suggested that Democrats will push Kehoe to expand his special session call to include more money for tornado relief victims. Right now, the package includes about $25 million.
Democrats are also furious with Republicans for breaking a filibuster in the Missouri Senate to place a constitutional amendment on the ballot to again ban abortion in the state, just months after voters narrowly overturned a ban. Republicans also broke a filibuster to repeal sick leave protections approved by voters last November.
Missouri’s ticking clock
Any opposition to the stadiums funding plan could put the future of the teams at risk, as Missouri lawmakers face a ticking clock.
While state law allows special sessions to last up to 60 days, the end of June looms over the Missouri Capitol. When Kansas lawmakers passed, and Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly signed, a plan to lure the teams across the state line, the bonds program included a June 30 expiration date.
Under that deadline, the Chiefs and Royals must decide by then whether to try to use the Kansas program to move across the state line. Supporters of keeping the teams in Missouri want lawmakers in Jefferson City to have a competing offer on the table.
But the political landscape became even more rocky last week amid revelations that the Royals were tied to a recent real estate deal tied to Overland Park in Kansas. A team spokesperson confirmed that a Royals affiliate purchased the mortgage for the former Sprint campus, now Aspiria, through “an arms-length bidding process,” signaling its continued interest in a Kansas-based stadium.
The constellation of issues surrounding the plan in Missouri poses one of the first major tests for Kehoe and his leadership. When the first-year governor announced that he was calling lawmakers back into session, Kehoe framed the funding plan as necessary to keep the teams.
“I believe that (if) Missouri does not put some sort of offer forward, I’m not speaking for either those teams, I think the risk is real that they don’t stay here,” he told reporters at the time.
This story was originally published June 2, 2025 at 3:16 PM.
