![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/KCM_KansasStadiumAnnouncement122225TL1243.JPG\" "\\"A")
<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
A football signed by Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly was presented to Chiefs owner Clark Hunt after Kelly announced the NFL franchise will build their new stadium in in Kansas City, Kansas. Kelly made the announcement on Monday, Dec. 22, 2025, in Topeka.<\/p>\n
Tammy Ljungblad<\/p>\n
tljungblad@kcstar.com<\/p>\n
The Kansas City Chiefs\u2019 planned $3 billion stadium in Wyandotte County cleared a major hurdle on Friday, when the Kansas Legislature passed a bill creating a sports authority<\/a> and renewing the underlying incentive program that will finance the megaproject.<\/p>\n The legislation, which passed the Senate 30-10 and the House 78-44, now heads to Gov. Laura Kelly\u2019s desk.<\/p>\n If the bill is signed into law, the 11-member quasi-governmental board it establishes will own and oversee construction of the stadium, which will not go on the property tax rolls. The vast majority of NFL stadiums are publicly owned, but the Chiefs would become the first team with a representative who gets to vote on stadium-related decisions.<\/p>\n \u201cThe team has one vote out of eleven. It does not control the board,\u201d said Sen. Larry Alley, a Winfield Republican who voted for the bill.<\/p>\n Sen. Cindy Holscher, an Overland Park Democrat who is running for governor, said the arrangement still poses a conflict of interest.<\/p>\n \u201cAllowing the team to influence bond issuing, timing, capital improvements, lease terms, operational decisions and revenue allocations \u2014 it is not something you would normally do,\u201d said Holscher, who was one of just two Senate Democrats to vote against the bill.<\/p>\n The authority would be exempt from competitive bidding requirements, but the language of the bill calls on the board to \u201cutilize competition among contractors and vendors to the extent practicable under the circumstances, at the discretion of the Authority.\u201d<\/p>\n STAR bonds<\/p>\n The legislation also calls for extending the sales tax and revenue, or STAR bond, incentive program through 2031. The program is set to expire this summer, and failure to renew it could seriously jeopardize the stadium project.<\/p>\n \u201cIf the STAR bonds were the fantasy economically, Wyandotte County would be rolling in dough. They\u2019ve got four active STAR bonds out there and the county itself is $1 billion in debt,\u201d said Sen. Mike Thompson, a Shawnee Republican who has been critical of both the incentive program and the stadium project.<\/p>\n Sen. David Haley, a KCK Democrat who voted against the bill, called the stadium project \u201cthe last straw\u201d for Wyandotte County taxpayers, expressing deep skepticism that it will stoke meaningful investment in his community.<\/p>\n That notion was challenged by Sen. Stephen Owens, a Hesston Republican who voted for the bill and pointed to Kansas Speedway \u2014 the state\u2019s first STAR bond project \u2014 as a Wyandotte County success story.<\/p>\n \u201cBefore the Kansas Speedway and the Legends were developed, the twelve hundred acres comprising generated about $200,000 in property taxes,\u201d Owens said. \u201cFast-forward to today, over $30 million in property taxes and over $1 billion in sales in that area.\u201d<\/p>\n In scope, the planned stadium development dwarfs the 23 other projects<\/a> Kansas has realized through its STAR bond program since 1999. Those bond issuances add up to around $1 billion, according to a 2024 Commerce report.<\/p>\n Kansas has pledged to issue $1.8 billion in bonds to finance stadium construction and up to $975 million in bonds to support entertainment districts in Wyandotte County and Olathe, where the Chiefs plan to build a team headquarters and practice facility.<\/p>\n Commerce Secretary and Lt. Gov. David Toland has until October to finalize the exact boundaries of the two-county incentive district, which will capture new sales tax revenue and divert it to pay down stadium debt over the life of the 30-year bonds.<\/p>\n Sen. Pat Pettey, a KCK Democrat, said her constituents have expressed mixed feelings about the project<\/p>\n \u201cYes, I have heard from lots of people, lots of my constituents and others that live in Wyandotte County about their concerns,\u201d said Pettey, who voted for the bill. \u201cBut the other side of that coin is that I haven\u2019t heard one person say they didn\u2019t like the Chiefs or didn\u2019t want the Chiefs to come to Kansas, so it\u2019s a double-edged sword.\u201d<\/p>\n How will the sports authority work?<\/p>\n Owens made the case that under the stadium incentive package approved by lawmakers in 2024 and the tentative STAR bond agreement negotiated by Toland on behalf of the state, rejecting the sports authority bill would only give the executive branch more control over the project.<\/p>\n \u201cIf we do not pass this legislation, there is a clear path for the executive branch through the Kansas Development Finance Authority . . . to make this happen,\u201d Owens said.<\/p>\n Senate Minority Leader Dinah Sykes, a Lenexa Democrat who\u2019s running for insurance commissioner, concurred with his assessment that lawmakers couldn\u2019t kill the project.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Chiefs deal, that is done,\u201d said Sykes, who voted for the bill.<\/p>\n Several lawmakers said they voted for the bill not because they approved of the stadium project but because they wanted to preserve some form of legislative oversight. The bill calls for the sports authority to provide annual written reports on its operations to a group of top lawmakers and the House and Senate commerce committees, and to provide in-person testimony if requested.<\/p>\n Besides the Chiefs representative, the board would include the commerce secretary, appointees of the governor and legislative leaders, and local representatives from KCK and Olathe.<\/p>\n The original sports authority bill that passed by the House earlier this month specified that the mayors of those cities would serve on the board, but the final version authorized the mayors to appoint designees if they prefer.<\/p>\n A proposal to mandate Senate confirmation of board appointees was scrapped by lawmakers during the conference committee stage, but all sports authority members would still have to pass a background check administered by the Kansas Bureau of Investigation.<\/p>\n The authority would be allowed to appoint an executive director, who would serve at the pleasure of the board and receive a salary paid out of the Chiefs\u2019 annual rent payments.<\/p>\n The bill would require the authority to engage a third-party independent auditor to audit its books annually. The same auditor could not review the authority\u2019s accounting records for more than three years in a row.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s how every Johnson Couny and Wyandotte County lawmaker voted on HB 2466. A yes vote indicates support for the bill establishing a sports authority and extending the STAR bond program. A no vote indicates opposition.<\/p>\n Johnson County representatives<\/p>\n Lauren Bohi (R) Yes<\/p>\n Stephanie Clayton (D) No<\/p>\n Chris Croft (R) Yes<\/p>\n Charlotte Esau (R) Yes<\/p>\n Robyn Essex (R) Yes<\/p>\n Jo Ella Hoye (D) Yes<\/p>\n Linda Featherston (D) No<\/p>\n Nikki McDonald (D) Yes<\/p>\n Heather Meyer (D) No<\/p>\n Cindy Neighbor (D) Yes<\/p>\n Dan Osman (D) No<\/p>\n Jarrod Ousley (D) Yes<\/p>\n Mari-Lynn Poskin (D) No<\/p>\n Susan Ruiz (D) No<\/p>\n Courtney Sappington (R) No<\/p>\n Angela Stiens (R) Yes<\/p>\n Jerry Stogsdill (D) Yes<\/p>\n Mike Storm (R) Yes<\/p>\n Bill Sutton (R) Yes<\/p>\n Sean Tarwater (R) Yes<\/p>\n Adam Turk (R) Yes<\/p>\n Carl Turner (R) Yes<\/p>\n Chip VanHouden (R) Yes<\/p>\n Lindsay Vaughn (D) No<\/p>\n Laura Williams (R) No<\/p>\n Brandon Woodard (D) Absent and not voting<\/p>\n Rui Xu (D) No<\/p>\n Johnson County senators<\/p>\n Etan Corson (D) Yes<\/p>\n Beverly Gossage (R) Yes<\/p>\n Cindy Holscher (D) No<\/p>\n TJ Rose (R) Yes<\/p>\n Douglas Shane (R) No<\/p>\n Dinah Sykes (D) Yes<\/p>\n Adam Thomas (R) Yes<\/p>\n Mike Thompson (R) No<\/p>\n Kelly Warren (R) Yes<\/p>\n Wyandotte County representatives<\/p>\n Wanda Brownlee Paige (D) Yes<\/p>\n Carolyn Caiharr (R) No<\/p>\n Pam Curtis (D) Yes<\/p>\n Timothy Johnson (R) Yes<\/p>\n Lynn Melton (D) No<\/p>\n Melissa Oropeza (D) No<\/p>\n Louis Ruiz (D) Yes<\/p>\n Valdenia Winn (D) Yes<\/p>\n Wyandotte County senators<\/p>\n David Haley (D) No<\/p>\n Jeff Klemp (R) Yes<\/p>\n Pat Pettey (D) Yes<\/p>\n Related Stories from Kansas City Star<\/p>\n