The Kansas City Chiefs are moving to Kansas.
Decked out in Chiefs red, Gov. Laura Kelly announced the move in Topeka on Monday following a meeting of lawmakers who approved a tax incentives package that could be worth approximately $1 billion.
The agreement includes:
- A $3 billion stadium in Wyandotte County, which will open at the start of the 2031 NFL season.
- A new Chiefs headquarters and training facility in the City of Olathe in Johnson County.
Both sites will have mixed-use developments that could include sports, entertainment, dining, shopping, office, hotel and residential properties, according to the governor's office. The construction phase alone could create more than 20,000 jobs and $4.4 billion in economic impact for Kansas, her office said.
The Kansas plan offers to cover up to 70% of the cost for a new stadium through the state’s Sales and Tax Revenue, or STAR, bonds. That allows sales tax dollars that would normally go to the state and local governments to be used to pay off development costs.
The Chiefs were given until the end of the year to take advantage of the Kansas tax incentive package. State lawmakers created the offer in an attempt to lure the NFL team and the Kansas City Royals from their longtime home in Missouri.
Both teams are looking at new stadium options before their leases at the Truman Sports Complex in Kansas City, Missouri, expire in 2031.
Kansas lawmakers jumped at the chance to land the teams after Jackson County, Missouri, voters rejected a 3/8th-cent sales tax extension in 2024. The extended sales tax would have funded renovations to Arrowhead Stadium and helped build a new stadium for the Royals.
Earlier this year, Missouri lawmakers approved an incentive package to cover half of the costs to renovate Arrowhead Stadium and relocate the Royals.
And Jackson County leaders last week proposed a new sales tax plan in a last-ditch effort to try to keep the Chiefs in Missouri. The proposal, which would need voter approval, consists of reducing the 3/8th-cent sales tax to a 1/4th-cent sales tax for 25 years beginning in 2031. Those funds would help renovate Arrowhead Stadium, alongside $400 million from the Chiefs and commitments from the state of Missouri and Kansas City, Jackson County Executive Phil LeVota said.
In a statement, Jackson County Legislature Chairman DaRon McGee said he was "deeply disappointed" by news of the team's relocation to Kansas.
"For years, I worked in good faith to keep the Chiefs in Jackson County, where they directly employ hundreds of residents and support thousands of additional jobs tied to game-day and stadium operations," he said. "When states and counties compete by shifting public incentives back and forth across the state line, taxpayers lose. Moving a stadium a few miles does not create new regional wealth, but it does drain public resources and undermine trust in government."
Kansas’ STAR bonds were used to build both the Kansas Speedway and Sporting Kansas City’s soccer stadium in Kansas City, Kansas. In November, the Chiefs reportedly asked for stadium design proposals for a possible move to a site near the NASCAR track in Wyandotte County.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
