Missouri’s plan to keep Chiefs & Royals stadiums passes legislature. What now?
The Missouri House on Wednesday approved a sweeping stadium incentives package intended to keep the Kansas City Chiefs and Royals inside state lines, sending the plan to Gov. Mike Kehoe’s desk for his nearly certain signature.
The vote marked a seismic moment for the Kansas City region, signifying a major retaliatory shot from Missouri amid an attempt by Kansas to lure the teams across State Line Road.
Missouri’s plan, which passed the House on a vote of 90 to 58 would allow Missouri to pay for up to 50% of new or improved stadiums for the Chiefs and Royals using tax revenue generated by the teams toward payment of bonds. Kansas’ bonds program, on the other hand, could pay for up to 70% of new stadiums.
“We need to be moving Missouri forward,” said Rep. Chris Brown, a Kansas City Republican who handled the bill in the House. “And keeping these teams in Missouri is certainly a way to do that.”
The vote capped off a special session, called by Kehoe, intended to keep the Chiefs and Royals in their home state of Missouri. Lawmakers also approved disaster relief for residents affected by recent tornadoes in St. Louis and millions of dollars for construction projects across the state, including nearly $50 million towards a new mental health hospital in Kansas City.
Supporters of the stadium incentives package have consistently cast the plan as vital to keep the teams, saying the funding plan is equal to the amount of revenue Missouri would lose if the teams leave for Kansas.
Shortly after the vote, the Chiefs said in a statement that the team was grateful for Kehoe and state lawmakers “for taking this significant step forward.”
“The passing of this legislation is an important piece of the overall effort,” the team’s statement said. “While there’s still work to be done, this legislation enables the Chiefs to continue exploring potential options to consider remaining in Missouri.”
However, the plan also ran into sharp criticism from opponents who framed stadium subsidies as corporate welfare for rich team owners. While supporters have touted the teams’ economic impact, decades of research show stadiums aren’t major drivers of economic development.
“We are not in the business of making businesses more profitable at the expense of the people back home,” said Rep. Darin Chappell, a Rogersville Republican.
“Most of the people in my district can’t afford a ticket to either sporting event,” Chappell said. “They are more concerned about putting food on the table and fuel in their tank and paying their rent and paying their taxes.”
Proponents of the plan quickly celebrated Wednesday’s vote in Missouri’s fight to keep the teams inside state lines.
“We are a world class city,” said Rep. Mark Sharp, a Kansas City Democrat. “We are a championship city, and without these franchises, we can’t be a (World Cup) host city without these franchises...We wouldn’t have had the NFL Draft. We wouldn’t have had championship games.”
But the incentives package does not guarantee the Chiefs and Royals will stay in Missouri. During committee hearings over the past week, lobbyists for both teams would not commit to staying even if the plan passed.
The lack of firm commitment could put pressure on officials in Kansas City, Jackson County and Clay County to put together additional funding packages for the teams. Missouri’s plan requires local commitment, which could come in the form of a local tax vote just months after Jackson County voters rejected a similar tax.
A lobbyist for the Chiefs made clear in hearings over the past week that, if the team stays, they plan to renovate Arrowhead Stadium, estimating those renovations at $1.15 billion. The Royals, however, have been less clear about their stadium plans if they stay in Missouri.
The Royals’ talks with Kansas City officials have largely concentrated on a site at Washington Square Park. City officials, including Mayor Quinton Lucas and City Manager Mario Vasquez, have touted the downtown location as the perfect spot for the team.
Lucas, in a statement after the Missouri vote, said that Kansas City would “continue its work with the Royals to build a robust and responsible area development and incentive plan to keep the Royals in Kansas City, Missouri—building on a generation of investment and growth in Downtown Kansas City.”
Missouri’s financial support, along with Kansas City’s resources and experience in large developments, will allow Kansas City “to move the long conversation on the future of local sports facilities to completion,” Lucas said.
The city will also provide “necessary assistance” to the Chiefs, Jackson County and Clay County to build a “long-term future for Arrowhead Stadium,” Lucas said.
But the Royals have also had conversations about other Missouri locations, including North Kansas City in Clay County, The Star previously reported. State lawmakers recently approved a bill to create a Clay County sports complex authority in the hopes of potentially luring the team to the Northland.
Revelations about a recent real estate deal tied to an Overland Park site in Kansas have also intensified speculation about the Royals’ intentions — and their preferred stadium location.
Inside Missouri’s plan
While the plan passed through the House on Wednesday, it faced a rockier road in the Senate.
After hours of closed-door negotiations with some hard-right Republicans, the Senate agreed to add language to the bill that required certain Republican-led counties, which excluded Jackson and Clay counties, to allow local residents to vote on some form of property tax cut ballot measure by 2026.
The Senate, largely viewed as the package’s largest hurdle, approved the bill on a vote of 19 to 13 just before 2:30 a.m. on Thursday. That vote all but guaranteed the bill’s passage during the special session.
Kehoe, a former car salesman, spent multiple days during the session trying to strike a deal on the plan and move it across the finish line. The Republican governor is poised to sign the bill into law, which will likely come by the end of the week.
If Kehoe signs the plan, the law would take effect at the end of October. Under the plan, Missouri wouldn’t just hand the teams a blank check for new stadiums. The teams would have to prove to the Missouri Department of Economic Development that their stadium plans qualify for the new incentives program.
The proposal sets 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 anywhere between $1 billion and $2 billion, the team’s lobbyist told lawmakers this week.
Total state dollars will not exceed 50% of total project costs, according to the legislation. The program benefit won’t last longer than 30 years and contributions from local governments are also required.
Under the bill, state incentives would be clawed back if a team relocates its stadium, headquarters or training facility outside Missouri.
As the bill heads to Kehoe’s desk, supporters of keeping the teams in Missouri will have their eyes on the end of June. That’s when Kansas’ supercharged bonding plan is set to expire, marking a key deadline for when the teams could decide whether to leave or stay after their leases expire in 2031.
Before lawmakers voted on the measure, Brown, the bill sponsor, urged his colleagues to support it, pointing to the teams potentially leaving for Kansas. He framed that possibility as an impediment to Missouri’s overall progression as a state.
“It would be, in my mind, two major steps back if we somehow let these teams leave,” Brown said.
This story was originally published June 11, 2025 at 2:39 PM.
