Kauffman Stadium

The Kansas City Chiefs and Royals are weighing competing incentive packages offered by Missouri and Kansas to help fund new stadiums. There's a wave of professional sports teams that are seeking upgraded homes.

The bill is a response to action from Kansas, which passed legislation offering to pay 70% of the cost of building new stadiums for the Kansas City Chiefs and Royals. While the teams called Missouri’s plan competitive, neither has committed to staying.

The Missouri House closed the special session Wednesday with votes to finance professional sports stadiums in Kansas City and disaster relief.

Bills that would help fund new stadiums for the Kansas City Chiefs and Royals and provide $100 million in storm relief for St. Louis passed out of committees. If the House does not make any changes, the bills could pass the entire legislature on Wednesday.

The stadium funding plan now goes to the Missouri House. While Kansas has offered to pay 70% of the cost of new stadiums if the Kansas City teams move, Missouri's offer would cover about half the cost.

The legislation aimed at the Chiefs and Royals is estimated to cost hundreds of millions of dollars. Missouri would pay up to half the cost of total project costs for building a new stadium or renovating an old one, and would have a clawback provision if the teams leave the state.

The heaviest lift appears to be passing legislation that would allow the state to help fund new stadiums or improvements for the Kansas City Chiefs and Royals.

A big incentive package from Kansas is expiring soon, the Royals are investing in properties across the metro and lawmakers are already fighting among themselves. Will Missouri's General Assembly be able to reach an agreement and end the drama over stadium funding?

The governor's plan to convince the Chiefs and Royals to stay in Missouri hit a wall of resistance in the Senate. It now appears to be dead after Republican lawmakers cut off debate and forced through measures to ban abortion and repeal paid sick leave.

Some legislators in both chambers objected to the move since the House unexpectedly failed to pass the part of the budget funding capital improvement projects across the state last week.

Under the plan from Gov. Mike Kehoe, the state would help pay up to half the cost of a new stadium for the Kansas City Royals and a refurbished Arrowhead Stadium for the Chiefs, though the overall cost was not clear. Mayor Quinton Lucas said Kansas City "strongly supports the legislation."

After voters overwhelmingly rejected the stadium sales tax last year, Jackson County and Missouri officials are struggling to coordinate on a plan to stop the teams from moving to Kansas. The only viable stadium bill now centers around Clay County.