As the Kansas City Chiefs and Royals consider their future in Missouri, a new poll finds that Missouri voters believe team owners should pay the lion’s share of the cost of building a new stadium.
The poll, released Thursday by Saint Louis University and British pollster YouGov, found that Missouri voters believe owners should pay an average of 67% of stadium costs. Respondents believe local and state governments should each pay an average of 17% of costs, the poll found.
The results offer the latest portrait of Missourians’ thinking on whether local and state governments should provide public funding for stadiums. It comes after Kansas adopted an aggressive bonding plan to try to lure one or both of its teams across the state line.
The new survey of 900 likely Missouri voters was conducted Aug. 8-16 and has a margin of error of 3.79 percent. The poll also asked voters to weigh in on a range of other issues, including results suggesting voters support ballot measures to enshrine abortion rights and raise the minimum wage.
Unlike other questions that required voters to answer yes or no about their opinions on political issues, the stadium questions asked respondents what percentage of stadium construction costs owners and local and state governments should pay.
“Missourians, on average, thought that owners…had to pay for about two-thirds of newly built sports stadiums,” Steve Rogers, an associate professor of political science at Saint Louis University who conducted the poll. “That says a lot about what’s happening in Kansas City with the Chiefs and the Royals.”
The results come after Missouri lawmakers held a series of meetings with the Chiefs and Royals as officials consider how best to respond to Kansas’ bid to attract the teams.
While there is no concrete plan yet, Gov. Mike Parson has expressed confidence that Missouri can develop an attractive package for the teams in the coming months. Earlier this week, the Jackson County Legislature rejected a proposal to put a sales tax measure for the Chiefs only on the November ballot in an effort to keep the team.
The ongoing bidding war for the two teams comes after Jackson County voters in April rejected a stadium tax that would have effectively kept the teams in Missouri after their 25-year leases expire in January 2031.
