Chiefs owners say they need stadium cash in six months — or whenever, really

Spare a thought for the poor sports team owner trying to run a bidding war, won’t you? Sure, it may seem like a cushy job from the outside — increase your billions in wealth by getting different states or municipalities to compete for who can stuff the most money in your pockets — but it also takes some finesse.

Take, for example, the Kansas City Chiefs, whose team president Mark Donovan last week declared that he was setting a January 2025 deadline for getting a new stadium deal finalized:

“We have to get this right,” Donovan said. “We are going to do the due-diligence. We are going to take our time and do it right. But there is a reality to the timing. You can only take so much time to get it right. And that window is starting to close.”

Now that’s the way to light a fire under local legislators, with an arbitrary deadline! (The Chiefs’ current lease runs through the end of the 2030-31 season, so there’s no real rush here.) Ah, but you don’t want to be too strict with the deadline, in case it might take elected officials a bit longer to actually get legislation passed.

Enter team CEO Clark Hunt:

“I would agree with Mark that we would like to make some significant progress over the next six months,” Hunt said. “I know from having been through a few stadium efforts that they’re slow moving and unpredictable, so to say we’ll be able to get to the finish line six months is probably optimistic, but we would like to make some progress on support of the training facility just for you guys by Labor Day.”

This is some Grade A rushed-cop-patient-cop business, kudos to Donovan and Hunt for pulling it off.

Hunt also made clear yesterday — as clear as possible in sentence fragments, anyway — that he’s willing to consider all options for a new or renovated stadium, saying, “The possibility of a new stadium also on the Missouri side. And I think if we went that route, certainly, we would have to look at a dome. Dome gives you the ability to host a lot of other events which could be important for the community.” He added: “We’re really approaching it with an open mind. We don’t have a desired outcome. We just have to find a solution that works for the community, and something that works for the club.” (Hunt also stressed that “our focus is very much on finding a solution here in the metropolitan area,” though even that, you’ll note, contains as much veiled threat as promise.)

This is exactly what shaking the legislative tree to see what falls out looks like, and is exactly what’s to be expected in the wake of April’s failed sales-tax subsidy referendum. Backing for a new stadium bill in Missouri is still uncertain, and it’s hard to get a bidding war going with just one bidder. So it makes total sense to turn up the heat by setting a six-month deadline — and then, with the other hand, turning the heat back down by saying really any time will do. The only risk is that elected officials will realize they have all the leverage and can just say “no” — but that hasn’t happened much yet in 40 years of sports border wars, so we can forgive Hunt and Donovan for assuming it’s not about to start now.