The Kansas City Chiefs are making a big move in 2031.
According to ESPN, the team will leave its longtime home, Missouri’s Arrowhead Stadium, for a new $3 billion stadium to be built across the Kansas-Missouri state line in preparation for the 2031 MLB season.
Following Kansas lawmakers approving significant tax incentives to realize the construction of the domed stadium, Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly announced the news on Monday, aptly dressed in Chiefs red, in Topeka, KCUR reported.
“Kansas is not a flyover state,” she said. “We are a touchdown state.”
Read on for more on the stadium and how Missouri officials are responding to the Chief’s big move.
The new stadium will have at least 65,000 seats and bring more than $4 billion to Kansas
While a site for the new stadium has not yet been determined, Kelly said it will be located in Wyandotte County, as the Chiefs want the new facility in Kansas City near the Kansas Speedway and The Legends, a retail and entertainment district in the area home to Children’s Mercy Park and the MLS Club Sporting Kansas City, ESPN reported.
Chiefs president Mark Donovan said the venue will have at least 65,000 seats, and the team will soon hire an architecture firm to design the venue. The design process may take up to a year and a half to complete. Construction is estimated to take up to three years as the team also builds a new $300 million training facility in Olathe, Kansas.
According to KCUR, the total project cost is $4 billion.
Kansas officials said the new Chiefs stadium will bring more than $4 billion and 20,000 new jobs to the state, per ESPN.
“It’s a little surreal,” Kelly said. “Today’s announcement will touch the lives of Kansans for generations to come. Today’s announcement is a total game changer for our state.”
The new stadium will also offer the Chiefs the opportunity to host the Super Bowl and other sporting events, KCUR reported.
“A new state-of-the-art stadium will position our community for year-round activations, creating lasting economic and community benefits,” Mike Kelly, chairman of the Johnson County Board of Commissioners, said in a statement. “Given the continued economic and quality of life benefits within our county, it is no surprise that Johnson County was entrusted with this opportunity.”
Tax incentives
To cover the cost of construction, Kansas state officials said up to 70% of the project will be financed by way of public funds like the state’s Sales and Tax Revenue bonds and a sports-betting revenue fund put together to bring a professional sports team to Kansas, ESPN reported. The bonds are estimated to be around $2.4 billion, which officials said will be paid off with state sales and liquor tax revenues gathered in a defined area around the new stadium.
Chiefs owner Clark Hunt said his family will commit $1 billion in additional development, a percentage of which can also be incentivized by the STAR bonds.
“We made a decision as a family that this was the right opportunity and the best for the organization for several reasons,” Hunt said. “It’s about the fans. My dad [Lamar Hunt, who founded the franchise] was always about the fans and thinking about the future.”
Hunt added that his family’s contribution “will give Chiefs kingdom a state-of-the-art facility for multiple generations, a building that can last for at least 50 or 60 years,” and it will be “the best thing for the region.”
According to KCUR, Kansas’ STAR bonds were also used to build the Kansas Speedway and Sporting Kansas City’s soccer stadium in Kansas City.
Jackson County Legislature Chairman DaRon McGee said he’s ‘deeply disappointed’ by the Chiefs’ move
Missouri officials are not happy to see the Chiefs go, especially as the team initially planned an $800 million renovation of Arrowhead in partnership with the Kansas City Royals, ESPN reported.
Voters in Jackson County, Missouri, initially axed a proposed extension of the three-eighths-cent sales tax that would have helped fund Arrowhead’s renovations and a new ballpark for the Royals in downtown Kansas City, but Gov. Mike Kehoe had worked on another funding package to keep the Chiefs in Kansas.
“They thought new and shiny was better than old and reliable,” Kehoe said after the Chiefs announced the move to Missouri. “We won’t give up. We’ll look for cracks in the armor and find out if there’s a Missouri Show-Me solution through our sports act.”
Kehoe supported a special legislative session in June to authorize bonds that would cover 50% of the cost of new or renovated stadiums, as well as up to $50 million of tax credits and unspecified aid for Arrowhead and the Royals’ new ballpark.
Jackson County Executive Phil LeVota said on Monday that Missouri offered the “best plan” for the Chiefs and locals.
“The Chiefs have started their plan for making a move and we respect their decision. We don’t agree with it but we can respect our team moving in their financial interests,” he said in a statement. “At the same time, it is deeply disappointing to the taxpayers of Missouri and Jackson County who have supported this team and invested in Arrowhead Stadium for generations.”
Jackson County Legislature Chairman DaRon McGee said he was “deeply disappointed” by the Chiefs’ decision to move to Missouri.
“For years, I worked in good faith to keep the Chiefs in Jackson County, where they directly employ hundreds of residents and support thousands of additional jobs tied to game-day and stadium operations,” he said. “When states and counties compete by shifting public incentives back and forth across the state line, taxpayers lose. Moving a stadium a few miles does not create new regional wealth, but it does drain public resources and undermine trust in government.”