The Kansas City Chiefs donated $25,000 on Tuesday to a political action committee supporting Republican candidates for the Missouri House.
The donation, the first major contribution the team made in Missouri this year, comes roughly two months after the legislature approved a $1.5 billion stadium funding plan aimed at convincing the Chiefs and Royals to stay in Missouri.
Last year, the team spent more than $3 million supporting a ballot measure seeking to extend a three-eights-cent sales tax to finance a renovation of Arrowhead Stadium and the construction of a new downtown ballpark for the Royals.
The Royals donated around $2.5 million to the effort, as well as $260,000 to various local political organizations.
However, voters resoundingly rejected the extension of the sales tax.
Tuesday’s $25,000 check went to the House Republican Campaign Committee. The same day, the PAC received $30,000 from Missouri Soybean Association; $10,000 from Mo Medical PAC; and $5,500 from state Rep. Dean Van Schoiack.
The Chiefs and Royals have played in side-by-side stadiums for five decades and share a lease at the Truman Sports Complex that runs through Jan. 31, 2031. As the expiration date nears, legislators in Missouri and Kansas have battled to present the best financial framework to attract the teams to their respective sides of the state line.
Missouri lawmakers approved legislation to allocate state taxes collected from economic activity at Arrowhead and Kauffman to bond payments for renovations at Arrowhead and a new stadium for the Royals in either Jackson or Clay counties.
The cost is estimated at close to $1.5 billion over 30 years and could cover up to half the costs of stadium construction.
Two Republicans state legislators filed a lawsuit late last month asking a judge to declare the incentives package unconstitutional because it also includes provisions unrelated to stadium funding.
Kansas lawmakers have put a deal on the table that would use state incentives to pay for up to 70% of the costs of new stadiums. That deal originally expired June 30, but Chiefs President Mark Donovan successfully lobbied for the deadline to be extended in order to continue negotiations with Kansas on building a stadium, team headquarters, practice facility and related business developments.
This story was originally published by the Missouri Independent.
