Kansas Governor Laura Kelly announced Monday, Dec. 22, 2025, in Topeka that the Kansas City Chiefs will build their new stadium in Kansas City, Kansas. Kelly presented Chiefs CEO Clark Hunt with a football as others looked on during the announcement.
A year and a half of secretive negotiations to lure the Kansas City Chiefs across the Missouri border culminated in a triumphant stadium announcement in Topeka.
As officials traded self-congratulations and football puns Monday afternoon, the Kansas Department of Commerce published the preliminary Sales Tax and Revenue, or STAR bond, agreement underpinning one of the largest economic development projects in state history.
The deal consists of 33 pages of dense legal writing outlining the terms under which the team will construct a $3 billion stadium in Wyandotte County, a headquarters and training facility in Olathe, and mixed-use developments around both sites.
The project’s overall price tag is expected to top $4 billion, including what will amount to more than $2 billion in public financing through a souped-up version of Kansas’ STAR bond program.
Many details of the multi-faceted agreement still have to be finalized, including the extent to which local incentives will supplement the state-issued bonds.
The document calls for the parties to forge “final, definitive long-form agreements . . . to govern the Project in greater detail” by Oct. 31, 2026.
Who will own Chiefs stadium?
As with Arrowhead Stadium, the Chiefs will rent — not own — the planned state-of-the-art domed stadium, which will have to open in time for the 2031 NFL season.
The agreement says that before the STAR bonds can be issued, the Chiefs must convey ownership of the land the stadium will be built on to the state.
Patrick Lowry, a spokesperson for the Department of Commerce, said in an email that the stadium will be owned by a “quasi-governmental entity” that the state will establish.
“The ancillary development will be owned by the developers who may be the team or other private developers,” Lowry said.
The public ownership aspect of the deal means the Chiefs won’t be responsible for paying Wyandotte County property taxes on the stadium. The agreement also leaves the door open for possible public ownership of the practice facility and headquarters that would maximize further tax savings for the Chiefs.
How much public money goes into the project?
Public dollars will finance 60% of construction costs, including up to $1.8 billion towards the stadium. The agreement authorizes the state to publicly finance as much as $975 million during three phases of construction on the mixed-use developments.
Kansas will tap into its sports betting tax revenue to cover the cost of issuing the bonds. The agreement calls for Kansas to spend 65% of its sports betting fund, which had a $26.2 million balance as of October, on bond purchasing.
The greatest portion of the public contribution will come in the form of new sales tax revenue being siphoned off to pay down debt and ultimately retire the bonds.
That tax revenue will be collected not just from new development surrounding the stadium and team facilities, but from retailers across the expansive new STAR bond district, which includes essentially all of Wyandotte County and a broad swath of western Johnson County.
“For existing businesses that end up within a STAR Bond District, only the incremental revenue increases would be used to pay down debt,” Lowry said.
How much public money goes into the project?
The Chiefs will pay a base rent of $7 million, adjusted annually for inflation, compared to their $1.1 million annual lease at the Truman Sports Complex.
Rent money won’t be returned to Kansas’ state government coffers, though. Instead, it will go into a separate fund for stadium management, maintenance and repair work, which the Chiefs will be responsible for completing.
That fund will also be supplemented by Kansas through the same sports betting revenue to the tune of at least $10 million annually.
Under the agreement, $17 million must be made available in the maintenance fund each year, with annual increases of at least 2%. The Chiefs will only have to pay out of pocket for cost overruns.
Who names the stadium?
The Chiefs can name their new home or outsource naming rights and sponsorship to any outside entity they choose, “provided that any such name will not unreasonably cause embarrassment or disparagement to the Public,” the agreement says.
Kansas’ newly established stadium ownership entity will have the power to “reject any proposed naming rights sponsor in any of the following categories: tobacco, vaping, adult entertainment, firearms, or political entities.”
What if the Chiefs leave?
As part of the deal, the Chiefs locked in a three-decade commitment to Kansas and the stadium.
If the team stops playing all of its home games there before the end of the 30-year non-relocation provision, Kansas could claw back public money that made construction possible.
The potential damages Chiefs ownership would find themselves on the hook for depends on when in the 30-year window the team attempted to abandon the Kansas stadium.
Leaving in years one through 14 of the lease agreement would require the team to pay back 100% of the public money that helped finance the stadium, practice facility and headquarters, plus interest accrued on the bonds.
The damages fall to 93.75% of the public contribution in year 15 of the lease. By year 22, damages amount to 50% of public money spent, and by year 29, the rate drops to 6.25%.
This story was originally published December 24, 2025 at 2:41 PM.
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Matthew Kelly
The Kansas City Star
Matthew Kelly is The Kansas City Star’s Kansas State Government reporter. He previously covered local government for The Wichita Eagle. Kelly holds a political science degree from Wichita State University.
