Missouri Legislature passes stadium funding plan

The Kansas City Royals now have offers from Kansas and Missouri to help alleviate new stadium costs

While the product on the baseball field has been disappointing this week, the Kansas City Royals received news off the field that has surely made ownership smile. Both the Missouri House and Senate passed a bill that will help finance stadiums for both the Royals and the Kansas City Chiefs, should those teams choose to remain on the east side of State Line Road.

The Missouri Legislature adjourned their normal legislative session early without passing Governor Mike Kehoe’s stadium funding plan, but the Governor called the legislature back for a special session. The bill had previously died in the Missouri Senate, but disaster relief for St. Louis and a property tax cap were added to the special session to help wrangle enough votes to get the funding plan across the finish line. The Governor has not yet signed the bill, but is expected to do so shortly.

The bill sets aside money generated from tax revenue for the next 30 years, which is estimated to be around $1.5 billion, to help pay for a new stadium for the Royals and improvements at Arrowhead Stadium. The funding will pay for up to 50% of the costs of either project.

The Royals issued a positive public statement that remained light on details after the bill passed the legislature, stating:

“As we said from the beginning of the Legislature’s deliberations, their work is a very important piece of our decision-making process. Now that both houses have voted and the bill is headed to the Governor’s desk, we look forward to evaluating the plan in full detail. Our focus remains the same: to prioritize the best interests of our team, fans, partners and regional community as we pursue the next generational home for the Kansas City Royals.”

There is an interesting clause in the bill, stating the representatives of the State of Missouri:

must be satisfied that there is sufficient public investment made by units of local government to support infrastructure or other needs generated by the project.

This means that if the Royals decide to stay in Missouri, either Jackson County, Clay County or Kansas City itself will have to put funds as well into this project. Jackson County voters previously rejected a vote to extend a sales tax for stadium financing, and there is not enough time to put another measure before the county if the Royals stick to their latest decision making timeline of late June to early July.

Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas has previously stated that the KC has offered the Royals over one billion dollars to put towards a new stadium, although we don’t know the details of what that would look like. Clay County now has the right to create a county sports complex authority, which is similar to what Jackson County already has. This gives Clay County the ability to propose its own sales tax to potentially lure the Royals to North Kansas City, although that in all likelihood would need to go before the voters as well.

As things currently sit, the Royals and the Chiefs will need to make some decisions soon on what side of the border they are going to occupy. The Kansas STAR Bonds, which would cover up to 70% of a new stadium for both teams, are set to expire on June 30th. They can be extended up to another year, but as of right now Kansas has not moved to do so.

So what can we expect next? I’m switching from reporter to speculation mode here, but I think that the Missouri stadium funding plan passing means that this is going to drag on longer yet. The Royals have not felt pressure to keep any of their previous deadlines before, so I’m not sure what would be different about this one. If either Kansas City team decides to move across State Line Road, even if it is post June 30th, I suspect that STAR bonds will be made available somehow. The Missouri plan passing presumably puts more options in play for the Royals, and they now have some incentive to wait and see if Clay County, Jackson County or Kansas City has more money to offer the team.

Of course, the Royals could have their preferred spot picked out in Missouri already and were just waiting on more money before moving forward with a plan. The team also remains intertwined with the Aspiria Campus in Overland Park; a group affiliated with the Royals purchased the mortgage of the former Sprint Campus. So a decision could very well come shortly, but since nothing about this process has been short, that would be bucking the trend.