The Chiefs failed in their effort to get voters to support taxpayer financing of Arrowhead Stadium renovations, but competition between Missouri and Kansas may help the team get the money it wants.
After the governor of Kansas signed legislation that would finance most of the costs for stadiums for both the Chiefs and Royals to move out of Missouri and into Kansas, Missouri Governor Mike Parson said today that his state is committed to keeping the teams.
“We’re going to make sure that we put the best business deal we can on the line,” Parson said, via the Associated Press. “Look, I can’t blame Kansas for trying. You know, if I was probably sitting there, I’d be doing the same thing. But at the end of the day, we’re going to be competitive.”
Voters have been largely unpersuaded by teams’ efforts to get tax money for stadiums, but Parson said, “the Kansas City Chiefs and Royals are big business,” and that public aid to keep them could be beneficial. He also said a stadium deal “has to work out on paper, where it’s going to be beneficial to the taxpayers of Missouri.”