Chiefs stadium debate takes a twist with bill passage

The Kansas City Chiefs and Kansas City Royals will have a decision to make soon after the Missouri Senate passed a bill promising funding for the teams' facilities.

It was previously believed that the Chiefs and Royals would have to move from Kansas City, Missouri, to Kansas City, Kansas, in order to get the public funding they wanted to build or renovate their stadiums. However, the Missouri Senate's bill that passed says that the state will cover up to half of the bill the teams may run up. While it still needs to clear the Missouri House of Representatives, it is expected to do so.

According to Front Office Sports, the Kansas bonding that the state promised the Chiefs and Royals in hopes of attracting them across state lines, expires at the end of the month, seemingly putting a timer on the teams' decision to stay in Missouri or leave for Kansas.

The Chiefs have been in Kansas City, Missouri, since 1963 when Mayor H. Roe Bartle lured then-Dallas Texas owner Lamar Hunt to move his American Football League (AFL) team north. Hunt agreed, and the Texans were renamed, with the team adopting Bartle's nickname, “The Chief”.

Initially playing at Municipal Stadium, which also hosted the Kansas City Athletics at the time, the Chiefs moved into the newly built Arrowhead Stadium in 1972 and have remained there ever since. The stadium, known to be one of the loudest in the NFL, has undergone various renovations over the past several decades, with one of the largest being from 2007 to 2010 and expected to cost about $375 million.

The Royals, following the Athletics' move to Oakland in the late 1960s, filled the void left at Municipal Stadium starting in 1969. Four years later, the Royals moved into what is now Kauffman Stadium. In recent years, they have announced their desire to build a new stadium, particularly downtown, before their lease with Jackson County in Missouri expires at the end of the decade.