The month began with the Chiefs hoping that Jackson County, Missouri voters would choose to extend a sales tax that would finance a new stadium for the Royals and a renovated venue for the Chiefs. It failed. Miserably.
On Saturday, Chiefs owner Clark Hunt addressed the situation in a press conference.
“Well, we’re definitely disappointed with how the stadium vote turned out,” Hunt said. “It was something that we had worked on for several years, and we were excited about the opportunity to be able to renovate [Arrowhead Stadium]. And unfortunately it just didn’t pass. I’ve been through a few of these processes, and I know from that experience that what you try first doesn’t always succeed. So we’ll be in a situation where we go back to the drawing board. We will look at all of our options going forward, which is something we mentioned before the vote. So that’ll be our focus.”
Hunt said the Chiefs have yet to study why the voters rejected the extension of a sales tax that had been in place for years. The bigger focus will be coming up with a solution to a stadium situation that has six and a half years left on the lease.
“I do feel very much of a sense of urgency, and we will approach it from a broader perspective going forward because time is short of us at this point and so we need to see what other options are out there for us,” Hunt said.
One option won’t be working with the Royals.
“I really think at this point it makes sense for us to go our separate ways,” Hunt said.
Hunt said that staying at Arrowhead is “definitely” an option, but that it’s not the only one.
“Arrowhead is a special place for our family and our fan base,” Hunt said. “Going forward it may make more sense for us to be in a new stadium.”
Hunt said renovations could extend Arrowhead Stadium’s useful life for another 25 years. If it’s a new stadium, it could be open air and it could be domed.
And if it’s a new stadium, where would it be? In the area? Missouri or Kansas City? Or relocation? That didn’t come up during the press conference.
The mere possibility of another city snagging the Chiefs should compel the powers-that-be to break open the piggy bank in order to give the Chiefs whatever taxpayer money they want to keep them from going wherever they could go.
Remember this. The Chiefs started in Dallas, as the Texans. They only left because they couldn’t compete with the Cowboys. If relocation was an option in the early 1960s, how can it not be an option now — especially if the mere threat of it might get the Chiefs the free money they have been unable to secure?