It felt like an early Christmas present to learn that the Kansas City Chiefs will be based in Kansas in the future.
Ever since the Chiefs won Super Bowl IV in 1970 (beating the Minnesota Vikings), I rooted for their return. When we were finally headed to Super Bowl LIV to face the San Francisco 49ers, I said, “I bet Coach Andy Reid wants us to win almost as much as I do!”
Obviously, the coach and every player on the team had a lot more invested in a Chiefs victory than me. But still.
So this year has been a combination of “best Christmas ever” and “what did I do to deserve this lump of coal?”
For the first time since 2014, the Chiefs missed advancing to the playoffs. On Dec. 14, Quarterback Patrick Mahomes suffered a torn ACL and LCL in his left knee. That means he won’t be playing for nine months. (The good news, he underwent a successful surgery and the recovery process will begin immediately.)
The Chiefs played a Christmas Day game and lost to the Broncos. That’s never good, but it felt like a good game that must have given Denver a scare. It was the last home game of the season and for some players that will mean the last home game. I’m sure it would have been a good game to watch, but the NFL chose NOT to show the game on any major network. Those of us who didn’t subscribe to Amazon Prime could only listen on the radio (thanks Eagle Radio, for broadcasting Chiefs games).
Back to the good news. The Chiefs are coming to Kansas, and will be here for at least 30 years. In the future, the Sunflower State may HOST the Super Bowl in the $3 billion stadium to be built by 2031. Sales Tax and Revenue Bonds (STAR Bonds) will finance up to 70% of the cost using sales taxes generated in and around the taxing district created for this project.
Gov. Laura Kelly said, “Very significantly, this agreement protects Kansas taxpayers with the state portion coming from revenue generated by the stadium, entertainment venues and the STAR bond district, as well as lottery funds. Let me repeat: the state’s portion of this project is paid for with revenue generated from the project – not with new taxes, not by shifting funding from other essential state services, but with the new revenue that will be generated by the project itself.”
Great Bend is also aiming for its own STAR bond project, by the way. And while cheerleaders may oversell the benefits to economic development, we’re excited. Gov. Kelly said Kansas should no longer be called a fly-over state. “We are a touchdown state.”
Who knows? Maybe we can hit a home run and also get the Royals to move to Kansas. For a trifecta, what if the National Hot Rod Association someday makes Great Bend’s dragstrip the home for the U.S. Nationals?
We can always dream.
