McDowell: Why The Chiefs Pursuit to Renovate Arrowhead Has Hit A Snag

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We've been talking about this for a few weeks over in the Royals thread. It's been interesting to see how quiet the Chiefs have been while the Royals negotiate for a new stadium, and in the last couple weeks there's more and more smoke that the Chiefs and Royals staying in Jackson County is not a sure thing. Sam McDowell finally wrote about it. It's a very long column so I just picked some highlights. It's a good breakdown of the situation. It sounds like Kansas hasn't made any serious offers but they're the obvious alternative if Jackson County decides to punt, and it sounds like the Royals and Chiefs want answers soon.

https://www.kansascity.com/sports/sp...282553078.html

The Chiefs are quietly evaluating the need to pursue alternatives outside Jackson County as their push to negotiate a renewal of a county-wide sales tax has failed to launch substantive conversations, multiple sources told The Star. Well, it was quietly. You’re probably aware of the recent rhetoric, including from some local politicians, implying that the Chiefs already have one foot out the door — and are strutting toward Kansas, no less. That gasoline-on-the-fire message follows a worst-case-scenario playbook, not to mention a Kansas City tactic of pitting two states against each other for its prized assets. But this doesn’t paint an entirely accurate picture. The Chiefs have not engaged in serious conversations with outside parties about a move across the state line, sources told me, a sentiment confirmed to The Star’s Katie Bernard by Brianna Johnson, a spokeswoman for Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly. That doesn’t mean they won’t.

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The Royals started and initially drove the stadium conversation, not only publicly, but behind the scenes too. The Chiefs weren’t completely silent observers, but they appeared content to allow the Royals to negotiate a new lease with Jackson County and county executive Frank White, and then follow with what would ideally be a smoother and quicker conversation.

The latter has just simply not been the case. The former, waiting on the conclusion of Royals’ negotiations, has since changed. What’s been lost along the way is that the Chiefs, too, are interested in an April 2024 ballot measure, for reasons I’ll cover here. And as a Jan. 23 deadline to secure that ballot measure has neared, they ignited their own talks, separate from the Royals, earlier this fall. “We have met with Frank and the county attorneys in an introductory meeting,” Chiefs team president Mark Donovan said in a statement. “We shared that we would like to focus on extending the current 3/8th-cent sales tax. This partnership has served us well for over 50 years, and we look forward to working with them to enhance the amazing community asset that GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium has become.” Where do those talks stand now? “We have not heard back from the county,” Donovan said.

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The Chiefs have sought a 25-year renewal of the 3/8th-cent sales tax passed in 2006, as Donovan’s statement said, with no significant additions to the long-standing lease. That’s the path they are attempting to navigate, with a conclusion that would keep them at Arrowhead, a fan-favorite, for the next quarter-century. But in my discussions with an array of politicos, it’s evident to many that White does not believe the current lease agreement benefits Jackson County, which funds and manages the facilities but does not receive direct revenue from the stadiums. The deal is more complicated than the tax — for example, no one has raised a hand to pay for demolition of Kauffman Stadium if the Royals move, an expense that would total tens of millions of dollars.

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White is positioned at the center of this saga as the county executive who just so happens to be a member of the Royals Hall of Fame. But his lack of eagerness to extend the status quo is not an isolated view within the county, sources said. He has at least some support from the legislature, though there are varying opinions about the reach and depth of that support. And therefore it’s notable that others within the county government want to create a path for the Chiefs to circumvent White by securing backing from a majority of the legislators to extend the sales tax. There is doubt, however, about whether they would have enough support to override a potential veto from White, if it were to come to that.

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The Royals, who have had more frequent meetings with the county, have stated their preference to play downtown baseball sooner rather than later. Their recent focus has primarily been analyzing the logistics of the former Kansas City Star press building along the south loop, and they have started the process of creating renderings for the site, sources said. They’ve also publicly stated their target of an April ballot measure, which comes with that rapidly approaching Jan. 23 deadline. It’s a deadline that the Chiefs are targeting, too — with a more concrete plan, at least to date. I’ll put this out there before I continue: In the course of speaking with several people for this column, there are overwhelmingly more who classify an April ballot measure as a long-shot than those who expect the county and teams to reach an agreement before the mid-January date.

Read more at: https://www.kansascity.com/sports/sp...#storylink=cpy