Kansas eyes extension for sports stadium bond financing law

MANICA

Kansas lawmakers will consider extending a deadline for a bond program aimed at luring the Kansas City professional football and baseball teams from Missouri, which just enacted its own bond-financing plan to keep them from moving.

With a 2024 stadium financing law expiring on Monday, Kansas Senate President Ty Masterson scheduled a July 7 meeting of the Legislative Coordinating Council to keep the measure alive after Mark Donovan, president of the National Football League's Kansas City Chiefs, requested more time.

In a letter Thursday to Masterson, Donovan pointed to "significant progress on the core deal components" for a domed stadium, team headquarters, a state-of-the-art practice facility, and a mixed-use and entertainment district.

"The letter from Mark Donovan indicates that the drive to bring this historic project to Kansas is moving down the field," Masterson said in a statement. "Now that we are in the red zone, this extension will provide stakeholders sufficient time to ensure the ball crosses the goal line." 

In a special legislative session a year ago, Kansas lawmakers overwhelmingly approved a plan permitting sales and tax revenue bonds to cover 70% of the cost of professional sports facility projects, including a stadium for Major League Baseball's Kansas City Royals, that carry a price tag of $1 billion or more.

The Legislative Coordinating Council, consisting of the Senate president, House speaker, and three lawmakers from each chamber, is empowered to approve or reject sports team projects. It can extend the law's June 30 deadline by a year.  

The professional sports facilities STAR bonds, which could be issued by a city, county, or the Kansas Development Finance Authority, would be backed by the incremental increase in sales taxes collected in a district created for the project and up to 100% of liquor sales within that district. The law also includes potential slices of sports betting and state lottery revenue.

Besides expanding STAR bond financing to 70% of a project's costs from a previous 50%, the law extends the maximum maturity of the debt to as much as 30 years, up from 20 years. It also contemplates the possibility of a stadium project being located in an existing STAR bond district by mandating priority repayment for outstanding bonds. 

Missouri shot back with Gov. Mike Kehoe on June 16 signing into law a bill that offers tax credits and allows for bonds backed by annual state appropriations to cover up to 50% of the total project costs of a new or renovated stadium.