Map of the city of Kansas, USA 1899

Truce is over

Kansas restarts the Kansas City Border War in attempt to poach the Chiefs from Missouri

6/21/24 11:21AM

When a pro sports team packs up and moves to a new state, it can deal a crushing blow to fans. When that new state ends up being just a few minutes away in the exact same metropolitan area, that blow might reopen decades-old wounds.

That’s what could happen with Super Bowl champion the Kansas City Chiefs, once their current lease on a sports complex shared with the MLB’s Kansas City Royals expires in 2031. In April, Missouri voters said “no thanks” to a tax measure that would’ve helped fund a new $2 billion stadium for the Royals and an $800 million overhaul of the Chiefs’ Arrowhead Stadium. Then, Kansas moved in.

$3.5B

Cost of two new stadiums

Up to 70% covered by Kansas

This week, Kansas lawmakers approved a tax-incentive bill that would allow the state to issue bonds covering up to 70% of the estimated $3.5 billion cost of two brand-new stadiums for the teams. Kansas would pay off the bonds over 30 years with money made from sports betting and the state lottery. Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly is expected to approve the proposal, which experts have called a “blank check” for the Chiefs.

For the Chiefs and Royals, moving would mean packing up their current stadiums in Kansas City, Missouri (population 509,000), and taking a short drive across state lines to their hypothetical new stadiums in Kansas City, Kansas (population 157,000).

A brief history of the Kansas City Border War

It might seem odd for neighboring states that share a metro area (and labor market) to compete for pro sports teams, but it’s far from the first time the states have feuded over business in the area. A “border war” went on for many years, with each spending millions of dollars in taxpayer money to tempt businesses from one side to the other. Companies like AMC Theatres and Applebee’s crossed state lines to claim subsidies, sometimes multiple times, before the two states finally reached a legally binding truce five years ago.

In the decade leading up to the truce, Kansas and Missouri spent an estimated $335 million luring companies from state to state. In the end, Kansas came out slightly on top with roughly 1,200 jobs.

“It was really, truly these companies moving a couple miles down the road and literally nothing changing,” said Pat Garofalo, director of state and local policy at the American Economic Liberties Project and author of “The Billionaire Boondoggle.” “Like, people had to alter their commutes a little bit.”

The Kansas City Border War

$151M

spent by Missouri to get Kansas companies to move

$184M

spent by Kansas to get Missouri companies to move

$335M

Total amount given away by the states

1,200

Net jobs that actually moved as a result

Whether the brazen attempt by Kansas to draw one of Missouri’s primary attractions over to its side of the river will reignite the border war is yet to be seen. Some Missouri lawmakers already see the tax-incentive bill as a violation of the truce, but Gov. Kelly has said the agreement was about businesses and not teams.

The Chiefs players would probably be happy with a change: the team's facilities and ownership got abysmal ratings on the NFL Players Association player survey this year. Wherever the KC teams end up, Garofalo says it won’t be all that clear which state actually “won" (though he added that Missouri-based fans might get a W just by being off the hook for a giant subsidy package).

A hard-won truce, thrown away for little gain

“There’s really no reason to think that this will be economically beneficial,” Garofalo said.

“The job creation is almost always zero in these instances anyway, and the jobs that are created are bad, because we’re talking about seasonal, no-benefit, you know, rocking-popcorn-in-the-stands-type gigs.”

Studies have long shown that subsidies for sports stadiums don’t pay off.

The MLB’s Atlanta Braves relocated from downtown Atlanta to a suburb 10 miles north in 2017, and economist J.C. Bradbury found that the deal is costing taxpayers about $15 million/year. In New York, a near $1.7 billion new stadium for the Buffalo Bills will cost taxpayers $850 million. A preliminary economic analysis of the stadium found that the largest fiscal revenue source the state gains from the deal comes from personal income taxes paid by the team’s players.

Garofalo notes that it’s not often economists agree on, well, anything. For stadium subsidies, though, that’s not the case.

“The evidence is just overwhelming. There’s no question anymore amongst the people who look at this on the data and academic side,” he said.

“Publicly funded sports stadiums do not provide economic benefits. Like, period, full stop, we’re done, no question about it.”

Jon Keegan20h

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According to a report from The Wall Street Journal, President Trump was ready to put Blackwell chips on the negotiating table for his meeting with Chinese President Xi to seek relief from China’s decision to block crucial rare earth exports to the US.

But according to the report, Trump advisers presented a unified front and were able to dissuade him from giving up the most powerful chips to China at the last minute. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer were among those opposed to the chip deal. After the meeting, Trump said he did not talk with Xi about Nvidia’s “super duper” chips.

Reportedly those opposed to the deal cited national security concerns, as well as wanting to keep a competitive edge as China seeks to challenge the US’s current dominance of the AI industry.

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Reportedly those opposed to the deal cited national security concerns, as well as wanting to keep a competitive edge as China seeks to challenge the US’s current dominance of the AI industry.

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OK, so when was the longest shutdown in US history?

The US government officially shut down at 12:01 a.m. on Wednesday after senators failed to agree on a last-minute funding bill. Though initially shrugging off the threat of a shutdown during yesterday’s session, stocks were mildly in the red on Wednesday as investors reacted to what is now the 11th shutdown in the government’s history.

Until this latest shutdown, there had been 20 government funding gaps experienced since 1976 — though not all ended in a full shutdown, with full closure averted in half of those cases.

Indeed, prior to the 1980s, funding gaps didn’t typically have major effects on government operations, with agencies continuing to operate on the basis that the funding would come eventually. However, a more stringent interpretation of the rules led to a stricter appropriations process from the early 1980s onward, with many subsequent funding gaps resulting in a shutdown of affected agencies (unless the gaps were quickly fixed or occurred over a weekend).

Obviously, the duration of the latest shutdown is still unclear, but it will continue until Congress passes a funding bill — most likely via a “continuing resolution,” which has ended every shutdown since 1990. Data analyzed by USAFacts suggest that it might not be a one- or two-day affair, as funding gaps have lengthened in recent years.

Government shutdown patterns — Sherwood News

Indeed, the last shutdown, which began in December 2018, ended up becoming the longest in history, at a whopping 34 days. By the time the government reopened in January 2019, about $3 billion (in 2019 dollars) had been wiped from the GDP in Q4, per data from the Congressional Budget Office, with approximately $18 billion in “federal discretionary spending” delayed over the roughly five-week stretch.