I have been encouraged for years to start a sports blog. For reasons that I can't process myself, I just hadn't gotten around to it. Until now. I had planned on getting started in January but thanks to the Kansas City Chiefs and the Missouri state legislature, I just had to get started on it now. On the next blog post I'll get into a little more about myself. I wanted to jump on this one while it was recent.
The Dallas Texans of the American Football League , founded and owned by Lamar Hunt ,who also founded the American Football League, moved to Kansas City in 1963 and became the Kansas City Chiefs. Three years after that, the NFL and AFL merged in 1966 and became the National Football League with a National Football Conference (NFC) and an American Football Conference (AFC). The leagues agreed to play an annual championship game between the two conferences initially billed as the AFL-NFL Championship Game. It Was Lamar Hunt who, after seeing his children play with a popular 1960s toy called Super Ball, renamed that championship game the Super Bowl. The Chiefs actually won Super Bowl IV defeating the Minnesota Vikings 23-7 in the last Super Bowl played by teams representing the AFL champion and the NFL champion. Starting with Super Bowl V, the game has been played between the AFC and NFC champions.
 |
| Arrowhead Stadium circa 1972 |
state-of-the-art (At that time) Arrowhead Stadium in 1972. It was part of the Truman Sports Complex in Kansas City that also housed Royals Stadium (Now Kaufman Stadium), the home of the Kansas City Royals. This was the future of professional sports venues: To have at least two sports venues on the same parcel of land. The Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Complex was the first of the modern age kind, opening in 1966. It featured a multipurpose stadium for baseball and football and indoor arena suitable for basketball, hockey, concerts and other events. Next, it was the South Philadelphia Sports Complex that opened in 1967. The Truman Sports Complex was the one that raised the bar. It featured two state-of-the-art facilities - one built specifically for football and one built specifically for baseball - on a parcel of land that had tremendous potential for construction around it. It was the envy of many cities.
 |
| Aerial view of the Truman Sports Complex |
No longer is the Truman Sports Complex the envy of many cities. In fact, the two anchor tenants don't like it anymore. Arrowhead Stadium had undergone $375 million in renovations between 2007-2010. The Chiefs and the Royals jointly proposed an $800 million renovation proposal for Arrowhead that also included funding for a new ballpark for the Royals. Jackson County (Missouri) voters rejected that 3/8 of a cent sales tax by a 58-22 margin in April 2024. Missouri governor, Mike Kehoe, went so far as to call a special session in the state legislature in order to pass an emergency relief bill that included a backdoor way of getting approval for the sales tax support both teams wanted. The state senate said no in May. In June, the state senate had a change of heart and passed Senate Bill 3 by a 19-13 margin. That should have made both the Chiefs and Royals happy, right?
Despite all of those efforts, the Chiefs announced this past Monday (December 22) they had reached an agreement with the state of Kansas to build a $3 billion domed stadium in Wyandotte County, Kansas and a brand new state-of-the-art practice facility and team headquarters in Olathe, Kansas. The new domed stadium is scheduled to open in the 2031 NFL season. The governor of Kansas, Laura Kelly, rolled up her sleeves and got a stadium deal done. Kudos to Governor Kelly.
The reaction in Kansas City, Jackson County and the state capitol was predictable. There was anger and sense of betrayal. Of course. It was interesting to observe the reaction of a fan base that rejected legislation that would have kept both teams on the Missouri side get angry because the Chiefs found a willing partner that met their demands. That anger is misplaced, though. The people decided at the ballot box they didn't want to contribute a dime to help the Chiefs and Royals. Fine. The Chiefs had every right to seek what they wanted in a stadium deal and they found it. What did Jackson County voters expect? Jackson County should point to civic leaders and politicians who failed to develop the surrounding area of the Truman Sports Complex. The area around the complex has not been developed and doesn't look too different from what it looked like in 1972. The governor and the majority party in the state legislature were caught off guard as well. Clark Hunt, Chairman and CEO of the Chiefs, is a major donor to the Missouri Republican Party and the governor and others in the state legislature were lulled to sleep by Clark Hunt. They never expected him to pull the One, Two, Buckle My Shoe and cut a deal with the state of Kansas. Which is exactly what Clark Hunt did.
Sports venue deals for professional sports franchises are complex. They take business acumen, creativity and salesmanship by political leaders to pull off . The governor of Missouri and the majority party in the state legislature DON'T come CLOSE to checking a single ONE of those boxes. They don't come CLOSE to being creative and they just don't have the right stuff to pull off complicated and sophisticated deals. It just ain't there. In Missouri, the political purview is NARROW. If it takes looking beyond or outside of the self imposed square, it won't get done. Here's a prime example of the governor and others being CLUELESS on how to sell a stadium deal. Missouri politicians could have put together a deal that included taxes on liquor, cannabis and sports betting. Voters would have considered it a tax on the vices of a lot of sports fans. People who drink beer, smoke weed and gamble on sports would have been the people subsidizing the sports venues. That would have stood a much better chance of getting voter approval than the proposal put before the voters. One reason the governor and legislature couldn't do that is because state legislators STALLED legalizing sports betting in Missouri for SIX years. Right. The General Assembly didn't WANT to legalize sports betting. Missouri became the 39th state to legalize sports betting. Sports betting just became legal in Missouri on December 1, 2025. See ... Missouri doesn't mind being last or as close to last as possible. In most states, citizens take pride in being first or near the top. Not in Missouri. "WE'RE NUMBER 39!" actually is a source of pride in Missouri. I am a native Missourian, born and raised in St. Louis. So, I'm not an outsider lookin' in. To me, all signs entering Missouri should read: "Welcome to Missouri ... a state that is PROUD to be FIRST at being LAST." That's Missouri.
To be fair to the current INCOMPETENT state legislature, the state of Missouri has quite the track record when it comes to losing professional sports franchises. Since 1960, Missouri has lost not one, not two but THREE NFL teams (St. Louis football Cardinals, the St. Louis Rams and, in 2031, the Kansas City Chiefs); TWO NBA franchises (St. Louis Hawks and Kansas City Kings); one ABA franchise (The Spirits of St. Louis); one Major League Baseball franchise (Kansas City Athletics); and one MLS franchise, (Sporting Kansas City), which used to play in Arrowhead Stadium but now play in Kansas and one NHL franchise, the Kansas City Scouts. When it comes to losing sports franchises, Missouri is not NEW to it. Missouri is TRUE to it.
I am happy for the Chiefs. Kudos to Kansas governor Laura Kelly. There will be some on the Missouri side who will say good riddance because Kansas got taken advantage of . That may turn out be true, ultimately, but the governor of Missouri was lining up Missouri to be worked over, too. Kansas simply beat them to the punch.
In Missouri, the question is which team will be the NEXT team to shake the spot. The Kansas City Royals are on the clock and they just might follow the Chiefs to Kansas. Stay tuned.
WE'RE NUMBER 39!
World peace.
Craig Riggins
Facebook: TRSR: We Do Sports
X: @Craig Riggins
Instagram: UncleCraigMack
No comments:
Post a Comment