It looks like Jackson County, Missouri is going to go ahead and follow up the resounding April defeat of a referendum on raising sales taxes to fund new Kansas City Chiefs and Royals stadiums by holding a redo of the vote, only this time just for the Chiefs. The new ballot measure would raise the county’s sales tax by 0.25% for 20 years instead of 0.375% for 40 years, and would leave out the baseball team — presumably because Royals owner John Sherman’s stated desire to build a new $2 billion stadium on top of an existing neighborhood with no guarantees of any aid for residents and businesses that would have been displaced was seen as too great a liability.
Whether Jackson County residents would really vote in November to approve a trimmed-down version of what they overwhelmingly rejected in April is another story. If the quick back-of-the-envelope math I just did is right, the present-value cost of skimming off those future tax revenues would go from around $600 million for the two teams combined in the April plan to around $300 million for the Chiefs alone in the new plan — which is better but not really that much better, since it would still leave the Royals to be dealt with. And while $300 million might seem cheap compared to some other recent NFL upgrades I could name, there’s no guarantee that Chiefs owner Clark Hunt wouldn’t try to wrangle state or city funding on top of a county sales-tax surcharge.
Of course, whether a re-vote can actually work may be less important to county officials than looking like they’re at least doing something in response to Kansas’ offer of potentially billions of dollars in state money: Jackson County legislator and new-stadium stan Manny Abarca told KMBC, “I think it’s about having folks at the table truly negotiating in good faith and not just sitting there,” which is an impressive bit of saying the quiet part loud. After voting 5-4 this week to amend the referendum proposal, the county legislature must hold a final vote on it next week to get it on the November ballot. If that goes through, we can let the shouting re-commence!
“We just need to vote harder this time,” a famously effective and inspirational message toward any voting bloc regardless of the measure or the candidate involved.
I plan on voting smarter next time!
It did not go unnoticed that at the DNC, the delegates from Kansas were wearing chiefs jerseys, while the ones from Missouri were not.
But the ones from Missouri did mention the chiefs residing in their state, during their remarks.
“A Square Deal All Around”
The value of the Chiefs is reported to have gone from $5 billion prior to the pandemic and three Super Bowl victories to $12 billion now. They should sell some of their asset (ownership percentage) to private equity and use the equity to take a business risk by building their own stadium. How dare these businessmen take a risk! Ask the public for free money!
The Chiefs franchise is worth nowhere near $12billion. According to Forbes early this year the Chiefs were worth $4.3 Billion. This may have been before their Super Bowl victory but a single Super Bowl victory will not triple a franchise value. No all that said the Chiefs should still pay for their own stadium
Prior to the pandemic (2019), the Chiefs were valued at $2.3B, not $5B. They are estimated at $5.4B now, which is a healthy increase but not out of line as franchise values in all sports have gone nuts lately.
Also, Forbes ain’t Forbes anymore. Anyone can write anything on Forbes.
I think Forbes is still Forbes when it doesn’t say “Forbes contributor.” Those are people giving them free content in exchange for exposure, which I’m amazed they can still get away with in the year 2024, when most creators are all about the monetizing.
Manny Abarca told KMBC, “I think it’s about having folks at the table truly negotiating in good faith and not just sitting there,”
This may be the most pathetic and clueless statement made by a politician in this century. And just think of some of the other contenders (inside the sports world or out)…
I think Abarca has truly shown that he is pretty much your bog standard standard local politician with a little progressive flair thrown in there for flavor. He would gladly waste millions to billions in public funds just for the publicity.