Kansas has been quietly building a pot of more than $26 million that can be used for attracting professional sports teams to the state, giving the state an edge in its “border war” with Missouri.
Totaling more than $26.2 million and counting, those funds are for the Attracting Professional Sports to Kansas Fund, which can be used to woo any professional sports team, including the Missouri-based Kansas City Chiefs or the Kansas City Royals, to Kansas.
For years, Kansas has been trying to sway the region’s NFL and MLB teams to cross the border. Lawmakers in both states, motivated by pride and potential revenue, have lobbed tax incentives, construction fund packages and seemingly arbitrary decision deadlines at the teams.
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The inclusion of millions of dollars to cover costs not already included in other potential deals strengthens Kansas’ argument, particularly after Missouri lawmakers passed a stadium incentive package earlier this year. Kansas lawmakers authorized a deadline extension until the end of the year for the Chiefs and Royals to accept stadium incentives totaling hundreds of millions of dollars.
During a recent legislative session, Sen. Mike Thompson, a Shawnee Republican, questioned how Kansas had amassed millions for professional sports teams with little attention.
“If you read that statute very carefully, it draws some questions,” according to him.
According to the law, the fund can pay the principal or interest costs on any state or municipal bonds, “which shall include any such financing structured as pay-as-you-go, issued to fund the construction, rehabilitation, revitalization, or expansion of a professional sports team’s primary facility or any other ancillary development to such primary facility.”
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