The Kansas City Chiefs are moving to Kansas.
Under a deal struck by the team’s owners and Kansas political leaders, the Chiefs will build a new stadium in Wyandotte County. A site for the stadium was not designated, but it's expected to be built near The Legends, a regional shopping mall and commercial area in the Village West development in Kansas City, Kansas.
Decked out in Chiefs red, Gov. Laura Kelly announced the move in Topeka on Monday following a meeting of lawmakers who approved a major tax incentives package for construction of a new stadium.
The agreement outlines plans for a $3 billion domed stadium that will open at the start of the 2031 NFL season. It also includes plans for new team headquarters and training facilities in Olathe, raising the total project cost to $4 billion.
The new stadium also would allow the Chiefs to host the Super Bowl and other major sporting events.
State officials said 60% of the project will be financed with public funds — through the state’s Sales and Tax Revenue, or STAR, bonds, and a sports-betting revenue fund created to attract a professional sports team to Kansas. The plan will not create any new taxes and will be funded through sales tax revenue generated by the stadium.
Kelly said the deal is a major victory for the state.
“Kansas is not a flyover state,” she said. “We are a touchdown state.”
Clark Hunt, team chairman and CEO, said the new stadium will be home to championship-caliber teams. He noted the Chiefs have called three stadiums home over the team’s 60-year history, and it's brought home championship titles to each.
He said the move to Kansas means the physical location of Chiefs games will change, but the atmosphere and quality of the team will remain the same.
“Our fans will still be the loudest in the NFL,” Hunt said. “Our games will still be the best place in the world to tailgate, and our players and coaches will be ready to compete for championships.”
How did Kansas and the Chiefs get here?
The Chiefs were given until the end of the year to take advantage of the Kansas tax incentive package. State lawmakers created the offer in an attempt to lure the NFL team and the Kansas City Royals from their longtime home in Missouri.
Both teams are looking at new stadium options before their leases at the Truman Sports Complex in Kansas City, Missouri, expire in 2031.
The Royals were not part of Monday’s deal. Their owners have said they continue to look at possible locations for a new stadium on both sides of the state line.
Kansas’ STAR bonds were used to build both the Kansas Speedway and Sporting Kansas City’s soccer stadium in Kansas City, Kansas. Supporters have argued STAR bonds are a way of raising capital for developments without burdening taxpayers, while critics have worried that sales tax revenue would go to paying off bonds rather than to the local or state governments.
Kansas lawmakers jumped at the chance to land the teams after Jackson County, Missouri, voters rejected a 3/8th-cent sales tax extension in 2024. The extended sales tax would have funded renovations to Arrowhead Stadium and helped build a new stadium for the Royals.
Earlier this year, Missouri lawmakers approved an incentive package to cover half of the costs to renovate Arrowhead Stadium and relocate the Royals.
And Jackson County leaders last week proposed a new sales tax plan in a last-ditch effort to try to keep the Chiefs in Missouri. The proposal, which would need voter approval, consists of reducing the 3/8th-cent sales tax to a 1/4th-cent sales tax for 25 years beginning in 2031. Those funds would help renovate Arrowhead Stadium, alongside $400 million from the Chiefs and commitments from the state of Missouri and Kansas City, Jackson County Executive Phil LeVota said.
Missouri officials express disappointment over Chiefs' decision to move
LeVota on Monday maintained that Missouri put together the "best plan" for the Chiefs, the state and taxpayers.
"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."
Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas said the city, county and state had put together a "compelling offer" worth more than $1.5 billion to entice the Chiefs to stay in Missouri.
"We are professionals and understand the Chiefs have a business to run and today made a business decision," he said in a statement. "We wish them well as they pursue their legislative and administrative steps ahead in Kansas, but remain committed to ensuring Arrowhead Stadium, Missouri, Jackson County, and Kansas City remain an option should the deal not conclude. In the event a new Kansas-based facility is built, we will wish them great success in their new suburban home."
In a statement, Jackson County Legislature Chairman DaRon McGee said he was "deeply disappointed" by news of the team's relocation to Kansas.
"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."
Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe said on social media that the state put together an "attractive and competitive" package for the Chiefs to remain in Missouri.
"Missouri’s incentives would have empowered the Chiefs organization to grow and invest in the unparalleled Arrowhead experience, creating a true legacy stadium for the next generation," he said in the statement. "Unfortunately, team ownership has decided to abandon Lamar Hunt’s legacy at the iconic Arrowhead Stadium, a place that Chiefs fans have rallied around since 1972. At Arrowhead, every game feels like a Super Bowl. No new stadium will replicate that. I join Chiefs Kingdom in expressing my strong disappointment with this decision."
