Getty Image
There’s nothing professional sports teams love more than getting taxpayer money to fund stadium projects, but the Chiefs (and the Royals) found themselves snubbed by voters in Kansas City in spite of the thinly-veiled threats representatives for both teams issued before people went to the polls.
In 1972, the Kansas City Chiefs kicked off their inaugural season at Arrowhead Stadium a year before the Kansas City Royals relocated to the adjacent Kauffman Stadium after spending a few seasons at Municipal Field.
Both of those Missouri-based franchises have called Jackson County home for over 50 years, and in 2006, its residents approved a 3/8 cent sales tax that was instituted to raise funds that would allow the Chiefs to renovate Arrowhead and give the Royals some help when it came to raising money to build a new stadium.
On Tuesday, voters who headed to the polls got the chance to vote on a measure that would have renewed the tax for 40 years in a move that would have generated an estimated $2 billion for the teams between now and 2064. However, according to ESPN, it was rejected after 58% of respondents voted “No,” which means it will now expire in 2031 (which is when the lease the Chiefs and Royals currently have at the Truman Sports Complex will end).
Last month, Chiefs president Mark Donovan avowed the franchise will “have to look at all our options” if the tax was renewed while hinting the team hadn’t ruled out leaving Kansas City if it wasn’t. As the outlet notes, CEO and chairman Clark Hunt asserted “We would not be willing to sign a lease for another 25 years” without a friendly financing agreement, and it sure seems like they’d be open to offers from nearby counties in Missouri as well as across the border in Kansas.
The Royals, on the other hand, have been pretty vocal about wanting to relocate to downtown Kansas City, but they’ve been a bit more open about a potential alternative by simultaneously targeting a new location in the adjacent Clay County for a move that will come when their current lease expires.