Kansas lawmakers approve plan to lure Chiefs from Missouri - ESPN

TOPEKA, Kan. — Kansas legislators approved a bipartisan plan Tuesday aimed at luring the Kansas City Chiefs away from Missouri by helping to finance a new stadium for the Super Bowl champions.

The bill passed by the Republican-controlled Legislature and sent to Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly would allow Kansas to issue bonds to cover up to 70% of the costs of a new stadium in the state for the Chiefs and another for Major League Baseball's Kansas City Royals. The plan also encourages the teams to move their practice facilities to the Kansas side of the metropolitan area, which is split by the two states' border.

Kansas would pay off its bonds over 30 years with revenues from sports betting, Kansas Lottery ticket sales and new sales and alcohol taxes collected from shopping and entertainment districts around the sites for the new stadiums.

Korb Maxwell, an attorney for the Chiefs who lives on the Kansas side of the border, said the state's lawmakers were «embracing the possibility of the Chiefs and the Royals» and can now make a «very compelling offer» to the NFL team.

«We're excited about what happened here today,» he said after the bill cleared the Legislature. «This is incredibly real.»

The votes were 84-38 in the House and 27-8 in the Senate. Kelly stopped short of saying she'll sign the stadium-financing bill, but in a statement, she praised the effort behind it.

«Kansas now has the opportunity to become a professional sports powerhouse,» she said.

Kansas legislators see the two teams as in play because in April, voters on the Missouri side of the Kansas City metropolitan area refused to extend a sales tax used to keep up the teams' existing stadiums, which sit side by side.

Top Republicans in the GOP-controlled