What high-stakes Kansas meeting could reveal about Chiefs’ stadium plans
.JPG "Kansas State Capitol building in Topeka, Kansas.")
Monday’s high-stakes meeting at the Kansas Statehouse could play a pivotal role in deciding which side of the Missouri border the Kansas City Chiefs will build their future on.
Top Republican and Democratic lawmakers in Topeka are expected to discuss the status of a possible massive subsidy deal to lure the Chiefs across the state line at the meeting of the Legislative Coordinating Council, or LCC.
Poaching the Chiefs would be the culmination of an ambitious campaign by Kansas officials over the last year and a half to capitalize on Missouri’s inability to lock in a deal with the team. It could set into motion one of the largest economic development projects in Kansas history and inflame the passions of fans and taxpayers across the Kansas City metro.
The meeting comes hours before Gov. Laura Kelly is reportedly planning to hold a “special announcement” with lawmakers. It comes 18 months after the Democratic governor signed a bill into law authorizing the state to pay for up to 70% of new stadium costs with future sales tax revenue generated by the development.
David Toland, Kansas’ lieutenant governor and commerce secretary, is expected to provide LCC members with an update Monday on the status of negotiations with the Chiefs. The Commerce Department said on Thursday that officials are “aggressively pursuing” a new Chiefs stadium in Kansas but that no deal had been reached.
What about Missouri?
Missouri’s plan, approved this summer, would pay for up to 50% of stadium costs for the Chiefs and the Royals, who have also made no firm commitment to either state.
Jackson County Executive Phil LeVota said on Friday that he spoke with Chiefs President Mark Donovan after news of the LCC meeting broke. LeVota said he remained confident that “the Chiefs are going to stay in Jackson County,” and accused Kansas leaders of “playing politics.”
Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas told The Star that the city and its partners have offered the Chiefs “north of $1.5 billion with identifiable and backed sources of funds to maintain the legacy of Arrowhead Stadium” while upgrading its facilities.
“Any decision to depart from such a legacy home would have no reflection on the outstanding people of Kansas City and Jackson County who for fifty years have given their passion, energy, and public investment into building the Chiefs into one of America’s finest sports brands,” Lucas said.
Process for a Kansas stadium
One edge Kansas has over Missouri in the stadium jockeying is that a multi-billion-dollar project could be set into motion without a local tax referendum, like the 40-year stadium sales tax extension that Jackson County voters rejected in 2024, which would have paid for a new Royals stadium and major upgrades to Arrowhead Stadium.
A domed Chiefs stadium is estimated to cost around $3 billion, not accounting for any practice facilities.
Kansas’ Sales Tax and Revenue, or STAR bond, stadium subsidy law authorized Toland to negotiate a deal for top lawmakers to approve or deny. Although no referendum vote would be required in Kansas, local officials would have to green-light any proposal for a stadium and surrounding development.
In an interview Thursday, Kelly told The Star that local buy-in will be an important factor for any stadium project to succeed in Kansas.
“I’ve always been a big believer that in anything we do, and I would suggest anything a major business does, it’s important to listen to the people, to really hear the people, and then to craft whatever policy or project that you’re thinking about with those things in mind,” Kelly said.
Fans and officials on both sides of the state line have stressed the potential economic windfall of locking in stadium deals. But decades of research show stadium projects rarely earn back the amount of public aid that goes into them.
STAR bonds have mixed record in Kansas
A new Chiefs stadium would be by far the largest economic development project to make use of Kansas’ STAR bond incentive program, which normally only allows for 50% of new tourist attractions to be publicly funded through future sales tax revenue. STAR bond projects have seen mixed results over the last 20 years.
Some projects, including the racetrack and Children’s Mercy Park, where Sporting KC plays, have spurred development and generated return on investment in the form of tourism dollars.
But others haven’t fared so well. The Prairiefire museum in Overland Park defaulted in 2023 after bondholders were unable to make a $15 million payment. Schlitterbahn Waterpark Kansas City, another STAR bond project, was permanently closed after the 2016 death of a 10-year-old child on the park’s signature waterslide.
Kansas lawmakers who support using STAR bonds emphasize that taxpayers aren’t on the hook if the projects don’t make enough money to pay back the debt. They note that under state law, Kansas and local governments can’t be forced to raise taxes or make direct payments to pay off the bonds during a default.
Although that’s true, experts say it downplays the risk of borrowing costs rising if a STAR bond project defaults and investors start to see state-issued bonds as unreliable.
This story was originally published December 22, 2025 at 5:30 AM.
