Chiefs to Consider Stadium Options Beyond Arrowhead After Sales Tax Measure Rejected

The Kansas City Chiefs will consider relocating to a new stadium when their current lease with Arrowhead Stadium expires in 2031.

Chiefs chairman Clark Hunt spoke about the potential change with reporters Saturday, three weeks after Jackson County, Missouri voters rejected a new stadium tax the team had hoped would fund stadium renovations.

"Arrowhead is a special place for our family and our fan base," Hunt said, per ESPN's Adam Teicher. "That was one of the reasons that we focused on it with the last effort, but going forward it may make more sense for us to be in a new stadium.''

The Chiefs have played at Arrowhead Stadium since 1972.

Hunt said he felt "a sense of urgency" about the stadium plans with fewer than seven years remaining on the lease, Teicher reported.

"Stadium development projects just take a long time and I don't want to put a specific number on it, but with only 6½ years left on the lease, we're going to have to work very hard over the next year, year and a half to see if we can find an option," Hunt said, per Teicher.

The existing three-eighths cent sales tax funding the Truman Sports Complex, which houses the Chiefs' Arrowhead Stadium and Kansas City Royals' Kauffman Stadium, is currently set to expire in 2031.

The failed proposal, which was rejected by 58 percent of voters, would have extended another stadium tax through 2064, per the Associated Press.

The tax would have added up to approximately $2 billion over those four decades, according to KSHB 41's Kevin Holmes.

The Chiefs planned to use proceeds from the tax to fund part of a planned $800 million renovation project for Arrowhead Stadium beginning in 2027.

Kansas City was hoping to put $500 million in taxpayer money toward the renovations, in addition to $300 million contributed by the Hunt family.

When announcing the plan in February, Hunt said the team's ability to renew the lease would depend on the renovation plans going through.

"We would not be willing to sign a lease for another 25 years without the financing to properly renovate and reimagine the stadium," Hunt said in February, per the AP. "So the financing puzzle is very important to us to make sure we have enough funds to do everything we've outlined."

Chiefs president Mark Donovan told Holmes in May that the team's options "would have to include leaving Kansas City" if unable to gather the renovation funds.

"But our goal here is, we want to stay here," Donovan said, per Holmes. "And we're willing to accept a deal for the county to actually stay here."

Royals owner John Sherman announced in 2022 that the MLB team plans to leave Kauffman Stadium, where they have played since 1973, by 2031.

Kansas City's NFL team, on the other hand, has not yet committed to leaving the Truman Sports Complex. Hunt said Saturday that the Royals and Chiefs would "work independently" on their future stadium plans going forward.