Proposal to end stadium subsidies as Royals talks continue

Kauffman Stadium, home of the Kansas City Royals, at the Truman Sports Complex on Tuesday, July 1, 2025, in Kansas City.

Tammy Ljungblad

tljungblad@kcstar.com

A Missouri lawmaker has introduced a bill that would repeal tax incentives meant to keep the Kansas City Chiefs and Royals in Missouri, as the Royals future home remains uncertain.

Sen. Tracy McCreery, a St. Louis Democrat, introduced a bill repealing the “Show Me Sports Investment Act,” a bill passed during a special session last year offering state funding for up to 50% of stadium costs for professional sports teams.

The bill was the state’s largest effort to retain the teams after Jackson County voters rejected a proposal to renew a ⅜ cent sales tax from 2031 to 2071 to build a new Royals stadium and renovate Arrowhead.

“The Chiefs have announced they’re moving to Kansas, and as far as I can tell, the Royals have not indicated that this legislation is going to help them stay in the state,” McCreery said.

Stadium funding was Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe’s key policy initiative last summer. The repeal, introduced by a Democrat, faces an uphill battle this legislative session.

“I think the odds of a repeal bill passing and then being signed by the Governor are pretty unlikely,” said Matthew Harris, a political science professor at Park University.

With the Royals negotiations collapsing with Kansas, the state may be able to get away with a tougher negotiating position. However, there may also be pressure to retain the team after the Chiefs announced plans to move across state lines.

“Now that you’ve lost the Chiefs, you need to make sure you don’t lose the Royals,” Harris said. “We’ve seen teams leave for other markets, so maybe it makes sense, too. There’s not as much playing both sides but you also don’t want to go 0-2.”

The bill was controversial when it passed. The vote wasn’t strictly partisan, with the opposition comprised of fiscally conservative Republicans and Democrats opposed to subsidizing stadiums.

In response to a request for comment on the repeal, a spokesperson for Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas called it “the result of hard-fought, bipartisan work to ensure Missouri could compete and keep our iconic franchises, teams that support thousands of jobs and generate hundreds of millions in economic activity for our region.”

But McCreery feels that after the loss of the Chiefs, the bill hasn’t achieved its goals.

“I consider that bill a failed stadium deal,” McCreery said. “I think that as a state, the state legislature needs to be responsible with taxpayer money and I’m concerned that Missouri is burning through money very quickly.”

Sports teams often paint a rosy picture of the positive economic impacts stadiums bring to a community, but decades of economic research found that stadiums aren’t major drivers of economic development.

A 2022 review of 130 studies over 30 years found that the level of subsidies provided for stadiums “far exceeds any observed economic benefits.”

Proposal to end stadium subsidies as Royals talks continue

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