Chiefs have a June 30 deadline to accept Kansas stadium offer

The clock is ticking on a potential Chiefs move from one Kansas City to the other.

Matthew Kelly of the Kansas City Star reports that Kansas may pull its new-stadium offer off the table on June 30.

House speaker Dan Hawkins told Kelly he doesn’t want to extend the expiration date for the Chiefs or MLB’s Royals.

“I think if they want to get it done, they’ve still got time to get it done,” Hawkins said.

Hawkins doesn’t want to extend the deadline, because doing so gives the Chiefs (and Royals) leverage in their ongoing efforts to get stadium solutions in Missouri.

“If one of them wants to — or both — wants to come to Kansas, we’d love to have them,” Hawkins told Kelly. “We have the tools.”

The Chiefs may prefer at this point a new stadium, given that (as noted by Nate Taylor of TheAthletic.com) owner Clark Hunt and team president Mark Donovan envision a dome for the Chiefs. As with other open-air teams looking for new stadiums, a dome opens the door to events throughout the year.

And Hunt has said he’d like the Chiefs to host a Super Bowl.

It’s part of the loose, unofficial quid pro quo for cold-weather cities that build domed stadiums with significant taxpayer money.

However it plays out, Donovan realizes that Kansas isn’t bluffing. “Hypothetically, as you’re trying to figure out how to put a deal together, if you’re on either side of the table, you look at deadlines,” Donovan said, per Taylor. “That June 30 [deadline] is real.”

While that may indeed be a statement of fact, it’s also a clear warning to Missouri that time is running out on keeping Arrowhead Stadium the home of the Chiefs.

The Chiefs’ current lease runs through the 2030 season. Which means that can make the short trek from Kansas City, Missouri to Kansas City, Kansas as soon as 2031.