No vote on Kansas bill to draw Chiefs, Royals across border - ESPN

TOPEKA, Kan. — Some Kansas lawmakers see a chance to lure Kansas City's two biggest professional sports teams across the Missouri border, but an effort to help the Super Bowl champion Chiefs and Major League Baseball's Royals finance new stadiums in the state fizzed over concerns about how it might look to taxpayers.

Members of the Republican-controlled Legislature pushed a bill Tuesday that would have allowed Kansas officials to authorize at least $1 billion in bonds to cover the entire cost of building each new stadium, paying the debt off with tax revenues generated in the area over 30 years. But GOP leaders didn't bring it up for a vote before lawmakers adjourned their annual session early Wednesday.

Some critics derided the plan as corporate welfare. Others were receptive but didn't want to pass the proposal until the Legislature approved a broad package of tax cuts for their constituents that Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly would sign, which didn't happen either.

Legislators' work on a plan began in earnest behind the scenes after voters on the Missouri side of the Kansas City metropolitan area refused earlier this month to extend a local sales tax used to keep up the complex housing the Chiefs' Arrowhead Stadium and the Royals' Kauffman Stadium for more than 50 years.

The bill's biggest champion, Kansas House Commerce Committee Chair Sean Tarwater, a Kansas City-area Republican, said supporters want to give the two professional sports teams another option should they contemplate leaving Kansas City, which he said would be devastating to both states.

«You miss 100% of the shots you don't take,» Tarwater said. «We need them to stay in the metroplex.»

The idea isn't dead yet.

Kelly and her staff signaled Tuesday that she