For the Kansas City Chiefs’ $3 billion Wyandotte County stadium proposal to remain viable, at least two important bills will have to win approval in the Kansas Legislature this year.
One of those bills will seek to establish a stadium authority — a public corporate body that would own the stadium and rent it out to the Chiefs.
The domed stadium deal would fall apart if the Chiefs had to own their own stadium, a representative for the team told a group of Kansas lawmakers on Wednesday.
Attorney Korb Maxwell said that if the stadium were privately owned, the $1.8 billion in sales tax and revenue (STAR) bond funds that Kansas plans to issue to support construction would be subject to federal income taxes. That would result in 45% of the public incentive money ending up in Washington D.C., he said.
“That would blow a huge hole in the budget for this project, and frankly would not allow it to move forward,” Maxwell said. “The fix to that is having a public authority.”
The finer points of Kansas’ stadium-financing agreement with the Chiefs are being hammered out behind closed doors by team representatives, Department of Commerce officials and bond underwriters.
But for the heavily subsidized project to come to fruition, lawmakers will have to support several important measures in 2026, including the establishment of a stadium authority and the extension of the state’s underlying STAR bond program. Upcoming stadium votes The supercharged STAR bond stadium incentive bill won the broad approval of lawmakers in the House and Senate during a 2024 special session. But now that the terms of the deal have been made public and scrutinized by critics, some lawmakers may find it more difficult to lend their support on key votes.
At Wednesday’s joint commerce meeting, Rep. Lynn Melton, a Kansas City Democrat, told Korb that she has real doubts about whether the stadium project will produce the economic boom that has been promised. Her doubts trace back to Kansas’ very first STAR bond project — Kansas Speedway.
“When the STAR bonds came for the Legends, I lived in that district and attended most of those meetings,” Melton said. “We were told, ‘Oh, when the STAR bonds pay off, it’s going to be wonderful. You guys are going to have so much property tax relief. The schools aren’t going to be hitting you with bonds all the time.’ Well, none of that has been true.”
In response, Korb noted that the Unified Government’s budget has increased substantially in the 25 years since the speedway opened. He attributed that in part to the track’s success.
“I think we just need to work on making sure all of that revenue is getting the most bang for the buck out there, and those are the kinds of things we work on with the Unified Government,” Korb said.
In addition to voting on the establishment of a Kansas stadium authority, lawmakers will also be asked to extend the STAR bond program through 2030. Without legislative action, the incentive tool is set to expire at the end of June.
