Kansas City Mayor Tries To Shut Down Chiefs Moving Talk, Makes No Mention Of Royals

Kansas City mayor Quinton Lucas heard the rumors about the Chiefs moving to Dallas and tried to them shut down recently, but he made no mention of the Royals possibly leaving town.

Since Kansas City’s stadium renovation vote failure, Dallas mayor Eric Johnson has been quite vocal about wanting to return the Chiefs to Dallas, where the team was were founded in 1959 as the Dallas Texans, a member of the American Football League.

Last week, Johnson told The Athletic, “The connections are so deep, the history is so rich. We actually could put together the deals that would make sense for them to get them here.”

While he wouldn’t go so far as to say he has talked to Chiefs owner Clark Hunt (a Dallas native), Johnson did admit, “I’m not really at liberty to say other than I have a good open line of communication with Clark Hunt. And that line of communication remains.”

Mayor Lucas, on the other hand, doesn’t sound very concerned about a possible move by the Chiefs.

“Don’t believe the noise,” he wrote on X. “We are committed to retaining our teams with vastly lower expenses — think needed infrastructure buildout — than even an intra-metro move. Both teams will be in KCMO in 2040 and long after.”

The “intra-metro” move he referred to relates to a comment made by former Kansas House Speaker Ron Ryckman Jr. after the failed vote.

“Jackson County fumbled. Now there will be a mad scramble for the ball and we’re in the best position for a scoop and score,” Ryckman told the Kansas City Star.

Meanwhile, Major League Baseball’s Kansas City Royals appear to be somewhat forgotten.

Both the Chiefs’ and Royals’ current leases at the Truman Sports Complex will expire in 2031 and Marny Sherman, the wife of Kansas City Royals owner John Sherman, claims both the pro baseball as well as the pro football team are done with Kansas City, at least on the Missouri side of the border.

“Unfortunately neither team will work with Jackson County again,” Sherman wrote on a Facebook post last week.

“The lack of leadership has lost the city two treasured assets. I mean if you don’t support the Chiefs after 3 Super Bowl wins why would they stay? We will be lucky if both teams wind up in Kansas. At least still in the area!”

As for Dallas getting a second NFL team, Jerry Jones has already said he would be against it, but Mayor Johnson doesn’t think he will stick to his guns on that, especially if he stands to make a lot of money.

“You never say never because he’s a businessman and he’s in the business of making money,” Johnson told The Athletic. “There is a strong argument to make that the Cowboys’ franchise value is not tied to the city it plays in or is connected with. It’s an international phenomenon at this point.

“It’s not about us. It’s about what’s in the best interests of these organizations we care about. I believe there’s an argument to be made to Jerry Jones that is not hurtful and potentially beneficial to the Jones family and the Dallas Cowboys to be the epicenter of football by having two NFL franchises, one in each conference, that compete here every single week and bring attention to this market.”