The Chiefs plan to move from Missouri to Kansas in 2031. The agreement between the team and its new home state was announced on Monday. The 33-page document signed that day was the result of negotiations that had likely lingered for weeks, if not months.
There’s an obvious takeaway from the full agreement, which has been posted online. It’s not final. Which means there’s a chance it won’t be.
The arrangement with Kansas splits the costs of the domed stadium, at an estimated price tag of $3 billion, on a 60-40 basis. The Chiefs are responsible for 40 percent ($1.2 billion), and Kansas will pick up the other 60 percent ($1.8 billion). The Chiefs will be on the hook for any cost overruns.
The Chiefs also will pay $7 million per year in rent. Of that amount, $350,000 will cover administrative costs on the governmental side. The rest will go into a fund earmarked for repairs, maintenance, management, and operation of the stadium.
The Chiefs will pay all stadium operating costs, including insurance. In return, the Chiefs will “retain all revenues” generated by the new stadium, including naming rights.
But, again, the agreement to move isn’t officially done. There are several “conditions precedent,” which is legalese for “stuff that has to happen before it’s real.” The Chiefs, for example, have to acquire, by purchase or long-term lease, the stadium site. And while the Chiefs have agreed to engage in no negotiations with anyone else while the process of hammering out a fully final and binding agreement with Kansas continues, the Chiefs have a hand in the ultimate kill switch for the project: Failure of the NFL to approve the Kansas deal by October 31, 2026.
Even though the Chiefs can’t negotiate with Missouri in the coming months, nothing stops Missouri from reacting to its recent “shock to the system” by coming up with an equal or better offer to keep the team at a renovated Arrowhead Stadium and to publicize those terms in advance of the eventual NFL vote to approve the Kansas stadium.
And so, like any other deal —no matter how big or small — nothing is done until it’s officially and finally done. While Kansas has crafted an inside track, the race isn’t over. Assuming, that is, Missouri becomes willing and able to make the kind of move that will get enough owners to decide that the team’s 50-plus year history at Arrowhead Stadium should not be so quickly disregarded under the terms currently offered (or whatever else they’d say to justify not approving the Kansas project).
That’s not to say it will happen. Under the agreement reached on Monday, however, it absolutely can. First, Missouri has to decide that it’s willing to try to throw a wrench into the planned relocation.
