As of now, Missouri has no more money to offer the Royals while the offer from Kansas is approaching the expiration date.
The Kansas City Royals have been pretty quiet recently about their search for a new stadium. This is not too surprising; John Sherman has stated that they hope to make an announcement in June or July, and we haven’t reached that point in the calendar yet. Still, there has been news surrounding a potential new Royals stadium, particularly out of Jefferson City.
Missouri Governor Mike Kehoe has publicly talked about wanting to keep both the Royals and Kansas City Chiefs on the Missouri side of State Line Road, and we saw him put some of those words into action earlier this month. The Missouri legislature was scheduled to adjourn last week, and there had been little action surrounding any more money coming from the state to help keep the Royals in Missouri. There was some talk about a bill that would help fund a Sports Authority in Clay County that would provide money to the Royals if they built their new stadium somewhere in Clay County, which did not end up coming to fruition.
Governor Kehoe and some lawmakers in the Missouri House chose to introduce an amendment to Senate Bill 80 last week in what was cheekily described as a Hail Mary plan. Senate Bill 80 was originally about giving name, image and likeness rights to high school athletes, similar to the NIL rights that college players have. The amendment that the lawmakers, with the support of Kehoe, introduced dramatically changed the scope and scale of the bill. Jason Hancock of the Missouri Independent summarized the amendment and how it would be funded in his in-depth article on the plan:
Under the plan, the state would help pay up to half the cost of a new stadium for the Royals and a refurbished Arrowhead Stadium for the Chiefs, though the overall cost of the plan was not clear as the House was debating the proposal Tuesday.
The money would cover annual bond payments for the stadium projects up to the amount a team generated in state tax revenue the year prior to applying for the incentives.
This amendment would have given both the Chiefs and the Royals a competitive financial offer from Missouri in comparison to the offer they already have on the table from Kansas. The amendment passed in the Missouri House 103-42 on May 13th, which then sent it to the Senate.
The amendment to Senate Bill 80, however, seemed hastily thrown together and was short on specifics. The Kansas City Biz Journal, not exactly a collection of Marxists, wrote an interesting article going through and raising red flags about this amendment and the use of funds, if you’re into that sort of thing. Hancock’s article also includes some quotes from State Senators who were frustrated that this bill landed in their lap with essentially no public debate and at the last minute, and that they were expected to authorize a big check to spend on stadiums while other spending priorities had been previously rejected in the house.
The Senate debated the bill on Tuesday night, but did not vote on it. The Senators then chose to adjourn the legislative session for the year on May 14th, even though they could have stayed in session until May 16th at 6pm. I’m reading tea leaves here, but the fact that the Missouri Senate chose to adjourn early instead of debate this amendment further and try to figure something out shows deep frustration. The frustration in the Missouri Senate seems to be with the House and their priorities, with Kehoe’s last minute effort to strong-arm something through, and with the concept of giving money out for stadiums generally.
The Governor has not given up on putting together a financial package for the Chiefs and Royals. He plans to call the legislature back for a special session to discuss the plan sometime in June, although the specific dates and what else could possibly be discussed at this session remain to be seen. If the battle over the amendment is any indication, it’s going to be a tough sell in the Missouri Senate to get something passed.
Meanwhile in Topeka, the deadline for the teams to make a decision about moving across the state line and taking advantage of the STAR Bonds program is June 30th. According to Kansas Speaker of the House Dan Hawkins, the Kansas legislature is not expecting to extend the negotiating time, although they still retain that option. Hawkins told Samantha Boring of KCTV5:
“They’ve been working on it for a year and I think they are really close. Actually, I think both teams are probably pretty close with coming in with a proposal,”
So as of right now, Missouri is not offering any more money to the KC teams to stay in the state, while Kansas has a deadline approaching to take advantage of their offer. Mayor Lucas has stated that Kansas City has offered the Royals over one billion dollars with no local tax increase, although the mechanisms of how that all would work are not public information.
While there is still time left for things to change, as of right now the Kansas options seem as realistic as it ever has, at least to this blogger. What do you think the Royals are going to be playing in 2031, after their current lease expires at Kauffman Stadium? Let us know in the poll and in the comments.