Kansas City, Jackson County leaders mourn Chiefs exit: ‘A tough adjustment’
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Jackson County leaders mourn Chiefs move, propose backup offers and talks.
- Kansas lawmakers approve multibillion stadium deal, Chiefs commit to move by 2031.
- City and county may explore Arrowhead reuse and Royals stadium talks.
As Wyandotte County residents prepare to welcome Red Kingdom to the neighborhood, Jackson County residents are preparing to lose their beloved football team - but city and county leaders hope to stay in the Chiefs’ back pocket.
A group of top lawmakers in Topeka voted unanimously Monday to approve a multibillion-dollar deal with Chiefs’ ownership. Hours later, team leaders, along with Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly, announced that the team would move to Kansas by 2031.
The team made their final decision on Monday on a move across state lines after more than a year and a half of back-and-forth negotiations between the Chiefs and state and local officials in both Kansas and Missouri.
Officials in Jackson County and Kansas City took the loss cordially, but continued to pitch themselves as potential partners, criticizing the high price tag of the Kansas stadium deal.
“Although our conversations with the team extended to as recently as late last week, we understand our very fair, but very responsible financial offer of taxpayer support was surpassed thus far by an even more robust public financing package in Kansas,” Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas said Monday.
Lucas and Interim County Executive Phil LeVota both held separate news conferences on the stadium deal late Monday afternoon after the announcement in Kansas. Lucas’s remarks focused largely on mourning the end of the Chiefs’ institutional and cultural legacy in both Kansas City and Missouri at large.
He credited the Chiefs fandom as a uniting force in Kansas City, responsible for “breaking through divides in age, hometowns, race, income and politics.”
“This will be a tough adjustment,” Lucas said.
LeVota said Monday that Jackson County respects the Chiefs’ decision to move across state lines, “but we don’t agree with it.”
“The Kansas City Chiefs are more than a football team,” LeVota said Monday. “They are part of the fabric of this community.”
Financial plans fail
Jackson County and Kansas City both participated in last-ditch efforts to woo the team to stay before Monday’s meeting in Topeka. Friday afternoon, LeVota had announced the attempted launch of “Operation Save Arrowhead,” a financial plan to retain the stadium that relied partially on bringing a revamped stadium tax to voters in April.
The county’s funding plan had also involved a full renovation of Arrowhead, funded in three parts by the city of Kansas City, the state of Missouri and the Chiefs themselves.
“We put together the best plan, one that protects the team, protects the community and respects the taxpayer,” LeVota said. “...And now, to hear the details coming from Kansas? The $3 billion project? Wow. To you, Kansas taxpayers, good luck.”
LeVota has repeatedly declined to share how much the city and state committed to funding the Chiefs before Kansas won the deal.
A second set of financial appeals from Jackson County, announced early Monday morning and including a domed roof and $400-$600 million in federal tax benefits, also failed to derail the team from sealing the deal with Kansas lawmakers.
Though the funding plan was announced just days before the final vote, both LeVota and Lucas referred Monday to years of ongoing negotiations with team representatives. LeVota praised the negotiation process as an opportunity to strengthen the working relationship between Kansas City, Jackson County and Missouri leaders.
“We have visited with these teams nonstop,” Lucas said Monday. “We have made sure that they know that we will work all that we can do to make sure they stay. It’s just unfortunate that myself and City Council can’t create STAR bonds.”
Behind the move
The Chiefs and Kelly formally announced Monday afternoon that the planned new Chiefs stadium in Kansas will include a domed roof and a surrounding entertainment district, along with a new team headquarters and training facility.
The proposed $3 billion stadium will be located in Wyandotte County and is projected to open in time for the start of the 2031 season, while the headquarters and training space will be built in Olathe. The project will be 60% funded by public dollars, mostly through a new set of much-discussed STAR bonds.
Lucas and LeVota both said Monday that both Kelly and Chiefs president Mark Donovan called him shortly before the final decision was announced to give Kansas City some advanced warning of the seismic shift in stadium talks.
Both also connected Monday with each other and Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe around the team’s decision to leave.
The Chiefs had begun engaging publicly in discussions around a potential move to Kansas after Jackson County taxpayers declined in April 2024 to renew a ⅜-cent sales tax, which helps pay for both the Chiefs’ and Royals’ facilities. The current iteration of the sports tax expires at the end of 2030, along with the teams’ leases at Truman Sports Complex.
Former county executive Frank White Jr., who was recalled in September, joined voters in staunchly opposing the stadium tax. Both Lucas and LeVota reiterated Monday that they hold White’s administration partially responsible for the team’s exit.
“I think there will be a lot of discussions, and probably after-actions, about what happened with these teams,” Lucas said. “...I certainly wish we could replay a lot of those steps.”
What’s next
Lucas said that the team’s move to Kansas - and the high price tag set to hit Kansas taxpayers - will deepen the “border war” between Kansas and Missouri. A move where companies and institutions hunt for better financial incentives on both sides of the state line before settling down, moving shop or establishing a presence in the region.
“We need to find a way long term in Kansas City… to make sure we’re actually doing something new and dynamic for our metro,” Lucas said. “Not jumping back and forth, which I think this will help accelerate.”
Lucas and LeVota also both noted that they hope Jackson County - and the current Arrowhead Stadium - will remain a valid backup option for the Chiefs “should the deal not conclude” in Kansas, as Lucas put it.
“Missourians do not give up easily,” LeVota said. “The Chiefs are still Jackson County’s team.”
No conclusive plan has been formed to either engage in talks with another professional sports team or repurpose the current site of Arrowhead Stadium – though Lucas and LeVota, respectively, said the city and county could explore both in the next five years.
Lucas said that Kansas City’s next move will be to double down on its discussions with the Kansas City Royals about potentially remaining in Kauffman Stadium in 2031. The baseball team has expressed interest in multiple new sites on both sides of the state line.
“We need to make sure that while we are responsible, we also are competitive,” Lucas said. “I think what Kansas City finds itself in right now is making sure that it stays competitive, whether it’s with neighbors across the street or around the world.”
However, LeVota said Friday that Jackson County has reduced its focus on retaining the Royals, even offering the Chiefs full use of Truman Sports Complex during last week’s failed financial proposal to the team.
‘“[The Royals] have told us that they don’t want to be at Truman Sports Complex, and we’ve gotta take them at their word on that,” LeVota said Friday.
This story was originally published December 22, 2025 at 6:33 PM with the headline "Kansas City, Jackson County leaders mourn Chiefs exit: ‘A tough adjustment’."
