Stunned Chiefs get bad news about stadium proposal — could they leave Kansas City?

The Royals are impacted, too

The Kansas City Chiefs have called Arrowhead Stadium their home since 1972. Kauffman Stadium, right next door, has been the Kansas City Royals‘ home ballpark since 1973. But the stalwart franchises might be faced with the possibility of packing up and moving in the coming years.
That’s because voters in Jackson County on Tuesday night turned down a sales tax hike that would have funded huge renovations to aging Arrowhead — as well as an entirely new ballpark for the up-and-coming Royals. As such, the future of both teams in downtown Kansas City now looks a bit murky following the resounding “no” to additional public funding for their stadia.

Nearly 60 percent of voters rejected a measure that would have added a 3/8-cent sales tax to help pay for a proposed $800 million renovation of Arrowhead Stadium. The Chiefs have already pledged $300 million in private funding for the 51-year-old field, which has undergone three previous renovations

The new 3/8-cent tax would have been in place for the next four decades in order to pay off the Arrowhead renovations as well as a new ballpark for Bobby Witt Jr. and the Royals. Team owner John Sherman has insisted that the Royals will be playing elsewhere by 2030, and their lease at Kauffman Stadium runs until Jan. 1, 2031. The Chiefs are under the same lease, and the two stadia combined form the Truman Sports Complex — which, over its history, has seen the NFL team win four Super Bowl championships, including three in just the past five seasons. MLB‘s Royals won the World Series in 1985 and 2015, claiming the former at Kauffman.

Where will the Chiefs play?

The Chiefs have several options in light of the failed proposal. Owner Clark Hunt could add more private funding to the renovation plan in order to lighten the burden on voters, or put forth a different measure that would have a better shot of passing the smell test with voters.

The final option could be moving the Chiefs out of Kansas City, Missouri entirely. The city’s strategic location on the border with Kansas could see the champs move to where the public money is — in nearby Kansas City, Kansas, roughly a 10-minute drive across the border. This would not be unprecedented, seeing as the Washington Commanders play at Commanders Field in Landover, Maryland, a 20-minute drive from the nation’s capital.