On Monday morning, the Kansas City Chiefs and the state of Kansas are scheduled to be in Topeka to potentially announce a partnership to build a new domed stadium in Wyandotte County. The move is not a surprise, but the Royals are also going to Kansas, ending a nightmare negotiation period with Jackson County.
This should NOT be a surprise to anyone that the Kansas City Chiefs could be heading to Kansas. The bigger shock is that the Kansas City Royals might also be moving to the Sunshine State. For the doubters and those pissed off, at least the Royals aren’t going to Nashville, and the Chiefs gave Missouri every chance to come to the table.
The reason Missouri crashed and burned on the stadium issue is County Legislative Frank White, Mayor Quinton Lucas, and a St. Louis-heavy contingent in Jefferson City, who view Kansas City as the region’s poor sister.
The economic boom for the state of Kansas would be tenfold, landing both teams. This is a massive fumble by Missouri politicians who didn’t step up and instead used their power to advance their own narrative, ultimately costing the state its third major franchise in 10 years.
Credit goes to Kansas Democratic Governor Kelly for her pivotal role in bringing both franchises to the state. She laid out a plan, stood her ground, and found solutions to convince the Chiefs and Royals that both would be welcome, making her the Roe Bartle of her era.
The Kansas City Chiefs had hoped to find a solution to build a new stadium at the Truman Sports Complex. However, the fact that they could not develop the area around the new stadium is not logical.
Now, I do think Missouri would have stepped up, but honestly, there wasn’t a solid piece of dirt that could match what Kansas was offering in terms of land, infrastructure, and cash.
I feel bad for Jackson County, and had Frank White and Mayor Lucas not given in to a handful of nobody protesters, the Royals would have been a perfect neighbor to the T-Mobile Center.
Friday afternoon, Jackson County Executive Phil LeVota vows the Chiefs are not going to Kansas. Yet someone needs to tell him that the renovation plan he hopes to put on the April ballot to fund Arrowhead is a desperate attempt to gain re-election and nothing more.
The Chiefs want a domed facility, and there is no financial infrastructure in Missouri, even with a successful taxpayer vote in April, that can be funded to satisfy the Chiefs. He can talk all he wants, but he’s delusional at zero hour.
With the meeting on Monday, both sides will finalize plans for the Chiefs’ new domed stadium. Once completed, it will place the new Arrowhead in the Winter Super Bowl and Final Four rotations. If I were a betting man, I would bet that Taylor Swift will open the stadium with a special concert to christen it in Kansas.
For the Chiefs, the fact that they already had land-lease options in Wyandotte County and that surveyors had taken samples two weeks ago meant Missouri never had a chance.
I am surprised that, despite negative comments from the city of Leawood, which adamantly opposes the Royals coming to the 119th and Nall location, the Royals managed to get this deal done at the Aspiria Campus.
John Sherman made it clear that a downtown stadium was his goal the day he was approved as the new owner of the Royals. Missouri didn’t take that seriously and botched the KC Star site, leading to the doom of another failed tax vote that would have kept both franchises in Missouri.
Regardless of how you feel about the pending moves to Kansas, this is the best thing for the region. Change is inevitable, and unfortunately, Missouri will pay the price.
This shows that special-interest groups should not dictate the will of good economic growth for all citizens. Kansas City has no leadership in local government, and it is at the epicenter of this massive failure to heed the warning signs the Chiefs and Royals sent over the last three years.
Although it’s not official that both teams are moving to Kansas, the Chiefs could announce their intention on Monday, and the Royals sometime after the first of the year, unless significant errors arise.
