The vote to build a new stadium for the Kansas City Chiefs has failed, and in blowout fashion.
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The issue lost 58.1 percent to 41.9 percent when voters in Jackson County, Missouri rejected a 40-year extension of a 3/8th-cent sales tax. Funds from that tax would have been used to refurbish Arrowhead Stadium, home of the Chiefs, as well as to build a new stadium for baseball's Kansas City Royals.
Chiefs star quarterback Patrick Mahomes and tight end Travis Kelce recently appeared in an ad asking voters to approve the upgrades to Arrowhead.
"There's no better place in a world to play than Arrowhead Stadium," Mahomes said in the ad.
Chiefs owner Clark Hunt told USA Today at the NFL league meeting that he expected the measure to pass.
"That came after Chiefs president Mark Donovan said the franchise's goal is to stay in Kansas City but would consider 'all options' if the measure failed," USA Today wrote. "The Chiefs' lease at Arrowhead Stadium expires in 2031."
Momentum? We’ve got it. Let’s keep it.@YesOn1JacksonCo | #YesOn1JacksonCounty pic.twitter.com/wg8n6UL9tc
— Kansas City Chiefs (@Chiefs) March 4, 2024
Donovan did indeed seem to suggest that the Chiefs could depart Kansas City — which they've called home since 1963 — if the sales tax doesn't go their way.
"I think they would have to include leaving Kansas City," Donovan said of the team's options should the vote fail.
That said, relocation isn't the team's desire, he added.
"Our goal here is, we want to stay here. And we're willing to accept a deal for the county to actually stay here," Donovan said.
"We would not be willing to sign a lease for another 25 years without the financing to properly renovate and reimagine the stadium," Hunt said last month. "So the financing puzzle is very important to us to make sure we have enough funds to do everything we've outlined."
Kansas City is coming off its third Super Bowl victory in five years.
