Lawmakers in the Kansas House approved a team-friendly sports authority bill Tuesday evening that would let a Kansas City Chiefs representative serve as a voting member on the quasi-governmental entity that will own and oversee construction of a $3 billion football stadium in Wyandotte County.
The House passed the bill on emergency final action, adding an amendment that would give the mayors of Olathe and Kansas City, Kansas, voting privileges and expand the board to 11 members. The legislation is expected to come to a vote in the Senate later this week.
Despite vehement opposition from some members on both sides of the aisle who warned the heavily subsidized stadium deal could jeopardize the state’s long-term economic stability, a bipartisan coalition of 79 House lawmakers approved the bill over the objection of 41 dissenters.
In January, a Chiefs representative told lawmakers that the deal would fall through if the team had to own the stadium and pay property taxes on it. Rep. Sean Tarwater, a Stilwell Republican who carried the bill on the floor, told his colleagues that it would be misguided for them to believe they could extract Kansas from its $2.77 billion funding commitment by rejecting the bill.
“That deal is done. This is just our opportunity to put guardrails on it and have oversight of the project,” Tarwater said. “There are other ways for this to be owned by the state. This is not the only way. So if we vote this down, it doesn’t hurt the deal. It doesn’t kill the deal. It just makes it so that you all don’t have a say in this.”
The underlying sales tax and revenue, or STAR bond, incentive package that Kansas used to lure the Chiefs across the Missouri border was approved in general terms during a June 2024 special session. Since then, lawmakers have had almost no say in shaping the deal, which authorizes up to 70% of the project to be funded through future sales tax growth and other public money.
An eight-member group of legislative leaders first reviewed and approved a preliminary deal brokered by Commerce Secretary and Lt. Gov David Toland during a 45-minute meeting on Dec. 22, ahead of a pre-planned celebratory announcement across the street from the Statehouse.
The sports authority legislation was crafted by Tarwater, the chair of the House commerce committee, in cooperation with the Kansas Department of Commerce.
Bipartisan criticism
Despite strong support for the sports authority bill from leadership of both parties, some lawmakers were highly critical of the legislation — both for taking the highly unusual step of making the Chiefs a voting member of the oversight board and for further legitimizing the underlying STAR bond deal.
The official terms of that deal, including the exact size of a mammoth two-county state incentive district, don’t have to be finalized until October.
“I think it’s a complete waste of our time to be giving corporate handouts to billionaires at a point in time that the American people could not have more aggressively and openly said they are sick and tired of it,” said Rep. Alexis Simmons, a Topeka Democrat, during the floor debate.
“It would take 248,000 years of working at $100,000 per year to accumulate the same net worth that (Chiefs chairman and CEO Clark Hunt’s family) has, which to reiterate again — $24.8 billion in net worth — and the Kansas taxpayers are to finance 60% of this $4 billion (project) when they very clearly could pay for it themselves,” Simmons said.
Rep. Paul Waggoner, a Hutchinson Republican, excoriated his fellow conservatives for backing a deal that no “actual economist” would support. He pointed to decades of research that have found professional sports stadiums generate negligible economic growth and no return on investment when publicly subsidized.
“I do not have people patting me on the back for what the Legislature has done. I have people that are appalled by the pure economics of it,” Waggoner said.
“I vote no because Ronald Regan is turning over in his grave,” he added.
Rep. Henry Helgerson, an Eastborough Democrat, urged his colleagues to vote down the bill, even if it meant facing uncomfortable political realities. He likened the Chiefs’ deal to gambling with Kansas’ future.
“Go back and look at how we should fund (the stadium) and if we should fund it. And I don’t care if there are threats coming from the second floor or not,” Helgerson said, apparently referencing the fact that Gov. Laura Kelly and Lt Gov. Toland both have offices on the second floor of the Statehouse.
“I would simply say, ‘bring it on,’” Helgerson added.
Sports authority terms
A proposed amendment that would have made the Chiefs representative a non-voting member of the authority failed in committee last week. No such amendment was offered on the House floor Tuesday evening.
The five-member Jackson County Sports Complex Authority, which controls the team’s lease at Arrowhead Stadium, does not give voting power to the Chiefs or the Kansas City Royals.
Lawmakers did not debate language in the bill that exempts the board from competitive bidding requirements on contractual services, construction, repairs, supplies, equipment and furniture procured for the stadium.
Proponents of the bill have argued that forgoing the competitive bidding process would allow the Chiefs to select a highly specialized architectural firm capable of completing necessary work as quickly as possible to ensure the stadium can open on time.
The bill also calls for exemptions to civil service classifications for sports authority employees and other laws that establish guardrails for how public funds can be invested.
“I think the guardrails necessary and what we need as the state of Kansas are being implemented,” said Rep. Lauren Bohi, an Olathe Republican.
Besides the team representative and the mayors of KCK and Olathe — where the Chiefs plan to build a practice facility — board members would consist of the commerce secretary and appointees of the governor and legislative leaders. The board could appoint an executive director, whose salary would come out of the Chiefs’ rent money.
The sports authority bill is one of two stadium-related bills that legislative leaders aim to pass before the scheduled adjournment at the end of next week. The other is an extension to the underlying sales tax and revenue, or STAR bond, incentive program, which is set to expire at the end of June.
How did local lawmakers vote?
Here’s how each House lawmaker from Johnson County and Wyandotte County voted on HB 2793. A yes vote signifies support for the establishing the sports authority, and a no vote signifies opposition.
Johnson County
Lauren Bohi (R) Yes
Stephanie Clayton (D) No
Chris Croft (R) Yes
Charlotte Esau (R) Yes
Robyn Essex (R) Yes
Jo Ella Hoye (D) Yes
Linda Featherston (D) No
Nikki McDonald (D) Yes
Heather Meyer (D) No
Cindy Neighbor (D) Yes
Dan Osman (D) No
Jarrod Ousley (D) Yes
Mari-Lynn Poskin (D) Yes
Susan Ruiz (D) No
Courtney Sappington (R) No
Angela Stiens (R) No
Jerry Stogsdill (D) Yes
Mike Storm (R) Yes
Bill Sutton (R) Yes
Sean Tarwater (R) Yes
Adam Turk (R) Yes
Carl Turner (R) Yes
Chip VanHouden (R) Yes
Lindsay Vaughn (D) No
Laura Williams (R) Yes
Brandon Woodard (D) Yes
Rui Xu (D) No
Wyandotte County
Wanda Brownlee Paige (D) Yes
Carolyn Caiharr (R) No
Pam Curtis (D) Yes
Timothy Johnson (R) Yes
Lynn Melton (D) No
Melissa Oropeza (D) Yes
Louis Ruiz (D) Yes
Valdenia Winn (D) Yes