On Thursday and Friday, Kansas City news outlets (and sports talk programs) were filled with reports that the Kansas City Chiefs are on the verge of announcing that a new stadium would be built for the team in Kansas.
But on Friday afternoon, the Kansas City Star’s Sam McDowell reported on X that interim Jackson County executive Phil LeVota — who was appointed to the position in October after voters removed Frank White in a recall election — had told him “there is no done deal” for a Kansas stadium.
According to the Star’s reporting, LeVota used a Friday news conference to pitch something he called “Operation Save Arrowhead.”
“The Chiefs need to stay in Jackson County,” declared LeVota, per the Star. “I’m passionate about it. They don’t need to go to Kansas.”
In his proposal, improvements to the existing stadium would be financed by the state of Missouri, the Chiefs and a 1/4-cent Jackson County sales tax that would replace the current 3/8-cent tax (which now pays for both the Chiefs’ and Royals’ stadiums) when it expires in 2031.
Jackson County voters would need to approve the new tax — which would run for 25 years — in an April election. The county legislature could call for the vote as soon as its next scheduled meeting, which is set for Monday, January 12.
Last April, a proposal to extend the 3/8-cent sales tax for 30 years — which would have paid for improvements that would have kept both the Chiefs and Kansas City Royals at the county’s Truman Sports Complex — was soundly defeated by voters. But this time, the Royals’ Kauffman Stadium would not be part of the deal.
“[The Royals] have told us that they don’t want to be at Truman Sports Complex,” said LeVota, who said he speaks regularly with team owner John Sherman, “and we’ve gotta take them at their word on that.”
He is convinced, though, that without the Royals on the ballot, voters will see it differently.
“I believe they want the Chiefs to stay,” LeVota said of his constituents. “And I believe they will overwhelmingly pass a ballot initiative extending the tax — and even lowering it.”
LeVota and his colleagues believe the team would also like to stay in its current home.
“The Chiefs want to stay here in Jackson County,” said legislative chairman DaRon McGee during Friday’s news conference. “We wouldn’t be fighting for them if we didn’t believe that. And so we’re going to put an offer on the table.”
LeVota — who noted that he speaks with Chiefs president Mark Donovan every week — revealed that the Chiefs have already verbally committed $400 million for Arrowhead renovations. He also said that if the deal is approved, the team would pay property and casualty insurance premiums for the whole facility.
But LeVota declined to give additional details about how much money the state of Missouri might contribute to an Arrowhead renovation, or say whether renderings of the stadium upgrade — which he called “state-of-the-art” — now exist. He did say, however, that the project would not include any kind of roof for the stadium.
Is LeVota’s proposal something that could keep the Chiefs in Missouri? Or is it simply a desperate effort to win at least one battle in the modern-day Border War that has erupted on the state line that bisects metropolitan Kansas City?
The answer could be coming soon.
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