JEFFERSON CITY — Just as Kansas officials attempt to lure the Kansas City Chiefs and Royals across the state line, Missouri will celebrate the Chiefs back-to-back Super Bowl wins at the state Capitol on Thursday.
Both Lombardi trophies from the Chiefs’ recent Super Bowl victories were set for display Thursday between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. at an event Gov. Mike Parson is hosting.
“Missouri is proud of our back-to-back Super Bowl champions,” Parson said in a statement. “We look forward to continuing this now annual event at the State Capitol and hope Missourians from all corners of the Red Kingdom will join us to celebrate.”
While Kansas lawmakers quickly approved an incentive package last week, Missouri officials have argued that discussions about building new stadiums are still in the early stages.
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They said construction of a new one typically takes about three years, and pointed out that the lease on the existing complex that includes the teams’ side-by-side stadiums doesn’t end until January 2031.
The measure Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly, a Democrat, signed Friday takes effect July 1 and will allow bonds to cover 70% of a new stadium’s cost.
The state would have 30 years to pay them off with revenues from sports betting, state lottery ticket sales, and new sales and alcohol taxes generated in the area around each proposed stadium.
In the Missouri Legislature, with no clear partisan divide on the issue, discussions over a potential stadium aid package could generate intense debate.
Parson, a Republican set to leave office in early 2025, “will do what he can to keep the Chiefs in Missouri,” the governor’s office has previously said.
But two of the top Republican candidates for Missouri governor — Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft and state Sen. Bill Eigel — have expressed opposition to taxpayer support for sports teams and stadiums.
The campaign manager for a third Republican running for the top job, Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe, told the Missouri Independent that “Mike Kehoe will not watch passively as other states poach our businesses.”
Senate Majority Leader Cindy O’Laughlin, R-Shelbina, has said she doesn’t know what Missouri might do in response to Kansas’ overture.
“Obviously both teams (the Chiefs and Royals) are owned by very wealthy families and I suspect many people feel they can finance their own change of stadiums if they feel they need to move,” O’Laughlin said last week on Facebook.
“Others will think the ‘state’ should do something (remember YOU are the state.),” O’Laughlin said. “There is no financial investment that can be made without the taxpayers footing the bill.”
On the other side of the political aisle, state Sen. Tracy McCreery, D-Olivette, has experience opposing a governor’s plans to use public money for a major league sports stadium.
She was one of six legislators — and the only Democrat — to join a lawsuit in 2015 challenging then-Gov. Jay Nixon’s plans for a new riverfront stadium in St. Louis.
“Based on the research I did years ago when there were discussions about taxpayer money going to build a stadium in St. Louis, I have never found a respected, legitimate economist out there who says that ... taxpayer money to build a sports stadium is a good use of taxpayer money,” McCreery told the Post-Dispatch.
Still, she said, she is open to looking and learning if there are ways it could be done as “an appropriate use of taxpayer money.”
The Post-Dispatch reported earlier this year that Busch Stadium could soon need hundreds of millions of dollars more in upgrades, and that the Cardinals could seek taxpayer help to get it done.
An aid package for Kansas City teams could prompt calls for state support for St. Louis.
“I could very easily see that if there was a proposal put forward to do something on the western side of the state, that taxpayers here in this region would want to be a part of that discussion as well,” McCreery said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
