Kansas Rushes to Lure NFL’s Chiefs After Missouri Rebuffs Team

(Bloomberg) — Kansas Governor Laura Kelly signed a bill intended to entice the National Football League’s Kansas City Chiefs or Major League Baseball’s Kansas City Royals to move across state lines from Missouri.

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The legislation, approved by lawmakers earlier in the week, allows the sale of bonds to help pay for stadium or ballpark construction for the professional sports teams. The bonds would be paid off through the sales tax revenue generated by development around the sports complex.

The bid by Kansas comes after voters in a Missouri county earlier this year rejected the extension of a tax to help fund a revamp of the Chiefs’ longtime home in Kansas City and a new ballpark for the Royals. The Kansas City metropolitan area in Missouri straddles the border with Kansas.

Related: NFL’s Chiefs Closer to Securing Subsidy to Move From Missouri

The Kansas legislation authorizes the state’s secretary of commerce to enter into an agreement with one or more major professional sports franchises to establish a STAR bond district and project for a major professional sports complex.

“We know that modernizing our economic development tools provides the opportunity to increase private investment into the state,” Kelly said in a statement. “By modifying the STAR Bonds program, one of our strongest economic development mechanisms, lawmakers crafted a viable option for attracting professional sports teams to Kansas.”

The Chiefs said in an emailed statement that the team appreciates that the state’s leaders proactively reached out to the team for input.

“We support their efforts to expand the existing program and congratulate them on passing the legislation in special session,” the team said the statement. “We look forward to exploring the options this legislation may provide.”

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While the legislation was swiftly passed by the Kansas legislature, it did encounter criticism. Republican lawmaker Paul Waggoner said in an interview after the vote that he was worried that the financing could eventually represent a blank check for the Chiefs.

“If you look at what any economist has to say about sports stadiums being a good use of public money — they tell you no,” he said.

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