Kansas City leaders are pushing for a move across state lines

• Missouri’s Kansas City Chiefs are pushing for a move across state lines.
• The NFL team wants Kansas to approve a tax break that would fund a brand new stadium in the state.
• Supporters argue that if Missouri or Kansas don’t act, the team could leave the region altogether.

The Kansas City Chiefs may be on their way.

Kansas lawmakers are meeting this week for a special session and could vote on a bill that would provide millions in tax breaks to expand the state’s tourism and entertainment industries.

All eyes are now on the bill, which, if passed, could help the reigning Super Bowl champions (as well as MLB’s Kansas City Royals) move from Missouri’s Kansas City to Kansas.

During a hearing Monday before the formal start of the session, representatives of the Kansas City Chiefs and the Royals asked Kansas lawmakers to approve the bill, the Missouri Independent reported.

That legislation would provide teams with hundreds of millions of dollars to help finance the construction of new stadiums in Kansas.

“If we want to play in the Major Leagues, we have to have Major League teams,” Korb Maxwell, an attorney representing the Chiefs, told lawmakers on Monday, according to the Missouri Independent. “This is the greatest opportunity we’ve had in any generation, and it’s before us now.”

The proposed legislation would strengthen the state’s Sales Tax and Revenue Bonds program and allow Kansas to provide bonds that could pay for up to 70% of the cost of building brand new stadiums for one or both sports teams, The Kansas City reported Star.

Under the bill, teams would have to spend at least $1 billion on the new stadiums and training facilities, the Missouri Independent reported.

The state would pay off the bonds the teams received over 30 years with sports gambling and lottery money, according to The Kansas City Star.

Meanwhile, Missouri lawmakers are fighting to keep the Chiefs for themselves. Officials in Jackson County, Missouri, on Monday proposed a resolution for a countywide sales tax, local Kansas City, Missouri, outlet KSHB reports. Depending on how much the tax amounts to — the current options are each just a fraction of a cent — it would either pay for capital improvements to the Chiefs’ existing stadium or the construction of a brand new stadium in Missouri, according to the outlet.

The Chiefs’ current home at 50-year-old Arrowhead Stadium has needed some improvement since it was last renovated in 2010.

The team’s president, Mark Donovan, said last summer that the team was exploring three options: renovate the existing stadium, build a new stadium on site or move to a new location entirely, Sports Illustrated reported.

And in 2022, Donovan even floated the idea of ​​moving from Missouri to Kansas, the newspaper said.

Supporters of the move argue that if nothing is done to keep the Chiefs and Royals local to Kansas City, the teams could opt to leave the Kansas-Missouri region altogether — a development that could devastate local Taylor Swift fans .

Representatives for the Kansas City Chiefs and Royals did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Correction June 18, 2024: An earlier version of this story inaccurately described the two Kansas Citys. Although both are part of the Kansas City metropolitan area, Kansas City, Missouri and Kansas City, Kansas are separate cities.