The Kansas City Chiefs are moving to Kansas.
The Chiefs, in conjucntion with Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, announced in a statement from owner and chairman Clark Hunt on Monday that the team will moved to a domed stadium in Kansas City, Kansas. The announcement came after a meeting of the Kansas Legislative Coordinating Council to discuss the Chiefs’ stadium plans.
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The new stadium is planned to be completed in time for the 2031 NFL season.
“Today we are excited to take another momentous step for the future of the franchise,” Hunt’s announcement reads. “We have entered into an agreement with the State of Kansas to host Chiefs football beginning with the 2031 NFL season.
“In the years ahead, we look forward to designing and building a state-of-the-art domed stadium and mixed-use district in Wyandotte County, and a best-in-class training facility, team headquarters, and mixed-use district in Olathe, totaling a minimum of $4 billion of development in the State of Kansas.”
The Chiefs’ lease at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri, goes through the 2031 season. The Chiefs have played at Arrowhead since 1972 and the stadium is currently the oldest in the NFL. Before Arrowhead was built, the Chiefs played at Municipal Stadium and have not been located outside the state of Missouri since the Dallas Texans became the Chiefs in 1963.
Why are the Chiefs moving?
A tug-of-war has unfolded for months between the states of Kansas and Missouri. And the Chiefs are moving because Kansas is willing to foot more of the bill than Missouri.
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Kansas’ proposal would use bonds from the state known as STAR bonds to help pay for up to 70% of the cost of the new stadium. Missouri, meanwhile, approved a plan during the summer of 2025 that would pay for up to half the cost of new stadiums for both the Chiefs and Kansas City Royals.
It’s not clear precisely how much of the new stadium will be publicly funded.
The Royals, who are embarking on a stadium location search of their own, were not included in Monday’s announcement.
Kauffman Stadium and Arrowhead Stadium are located next to each other at the Truman Sports Complex. The complex is owned by Jackson County, the most populous county in the Kansas City metro area.
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Voters in Jackson County rejected an extension of a 3/8-cent sales tax that would have funded improvements to Arrowhead Stadium and helped finance a new stadium for the Royals. After the tax proposal failed, the Royals’ search publicly expanded to sites outside the county and in the state of Kansas and the Chiefs also began to seriously explore their options.
Arrowhead Stadium recently completed a $20 million renovation so that it could host World Cup games in the summer of 2026. The stadium is the site of six games during the upcoming tournament and will host a quarterfinal.
The Chiefs say a domed stadium would allow Kansas City to host a Super Bowl and also other events like the men’s Final Four. Kansas City is the former home of the NCAA and has hosted the men’s Final Four 10 times. However, as the NCAA has increasingly searched for larger indoor venues for its marquee event, the Final Four hasn’t been held in Kansas City since 1988.
The announcement also comes less than a week after the Chicago Bears floated the idea of relocating to Northwest Indiana as they search for a site for their new stadium. The Bears said they had been told by Illinois legislators that financing for their stadium project would not be a priority in 2026.
This news was originally published on this post .
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