Missouri lawmakers want stadium law nixed amid Royals fight

While the Kansas City Royals weigh where they want to build a new stadium, a pair of Republican state lawmakers were in court Friday seeking to strike down a law designed to keep the team in Missouri.

Cole County Circuit Court Judge Christopher Limbaugh held a roughly two-hour hearing on Friday in a lawsuit that could ultimately determine whether Missouri’s sweeping stadium-funding law will remain in effect.

The lawsuit was filed in July by Sen. Mike Moon, an Ash Grove Republican, Rep. Bryant Wolfin, a St. Genevieve Republican and conservative activist Ron Calzone, who argue that the law is unconstitutional and should be struck down.

Limbaugh did not rule on the merits of the lawsuit on Friday, but the case could have broader implications on Missouri’s efforts to keep the Royals inside state lines. The law, approved by state lawmakers last summer, served as Missouri’s bid to prevent the Royals and Kansas City Chiefs from moving to Kansas.

Moon, the lead plaintiff in the case, told The Star after the hearing that he supported the Royals remaining in Missouri, but that decision should not be left up to the state’s taxpayers.

“I think it’s great for the state to have them,” said Moon, who voted against the law in the Senate. “But it’s a choice that they need to make and it’s not up to the legislature to give public money to a private entity in order to tease them to stay here.”

Clayton Weems with the Missouri Attorney General’s Office and Marc Ellinger, an attorney representing the leaders of the Missouri House and Senate, argued on Friday that Limbaugh should dismiss the case outright.

The two attorneys made a slew of arguments to defend their position, including that the pair of lawmakers did not have legal standing to bring a suit related to their official duties in the first place.

“The forum for this is in the Capitol. The forum for this is not the courtroom,” Ellinger told Limbaugh. “The two legislators that are here, they voted against this bill. They lost…They’ve chosen to invoke an entire separate branch of government to get involved in what are purely political decisions.”

Friday’s hearing came just weeks after the Chiefs announced plans to move across the state line, a decision fueled by Kansas’ supercharged bonding program known as STAR bonds.

The Chiefs’ announcement has energized Missouri leaders around keeping the Royals. But, amid all the energy surrounding the team’s future, the looming lawsuit against Missouri’s stadium-funding plan has drawn little public attention over the past several weeks.

The suit, among other allegations, takes aim at several amendments lawmakers added to the legislation during a chaotic special session designed to incentivize the teams to remain in the state, including disaster money for residents affected by tornadoes in St. Louis and property tax changes that affect only some Missouri counties.

The addition of those provisions, the lawsuit argues, violated a requirement in the Missouri Constitution that laws only deal with one subject. The suit also specifically pushes back on the incentives Missouri passed for the teams, calling them a “direct gift or bribe” to the Chiefs and Royals owners.

Friday’s courtroom dispute also came as recent comments in Kansas and Clay County have suggested that the Royals’ options could be narrowing. The Royals have said they plan to move out of their home at the Truman Sports Complex after their lease expires in 2031.

The leader of the Kansas House has argued that the Royals missed a Dec. 31 deadline to take advantage of his state’s bonding program for a move across the stateline. Meanwhile, a Clay County official told The Star that the team was expected to miss a Thursday deadline to commit to North Kansas City.

Over the past several months, three potential stadium locations have been publicly floated for the team: downtown Kansas City at Washington Square Park, North Kansas City in Clay County and Overland Park in Kansas.