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A proposed sales tax hike to fund stadium projects in Kansas City failed this week at the ballot box. When pro sports teams don’t get the public funds they seek, some double down on a pitch to voters or go to legislators. Others threaten to move. Like a loss in the playoffs, voter rejection of a stadium tax plan will force the Kansas City Royals and Chiefs to reevaluate their approach. The April 2 defeat of a three-eighths cent sales tax to fund a new downtown Royals ballpark and renovate the Chiefs’ Arrowhead Stadium was almost assuredly not the end...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- The future of the Royals and Chiefs in Kansas City was thrown into question Tuesday night when residents of Jackson County, Missouri, resoundingly voted down a sales tax measure that would helped to fund a new downtown ballpark along with major renovations to Arrowhead Stadium. Royals owner John Sherman and Chiefs president Mark Donovan acknowledged long before the final tally that the initiative would fail. More than 58% of voters ultimately rejected the plan, which would have replaced an existing three-eighths of a cent sales tax that has been paying for the upkeep of Truman...

Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman isn't exactly extending a warm embrace to the Oakland Athletics, who plan to build a $1.5 billion stadium in her city. In fact, Goodman said the team's stadium plan "does not make sense" and that A's ownership should go back to the drawing board and pitch a new plan in the Bay Area. "I personally think [the A's have] got to figure out a way to stay in Oakland to make their dream come true," Goodman told the Front Office Sports Today podcast, which was released Tuesday.

Sports fans like me love gleaming new stadiums. But few of us are aware that the deals made to secure their financing now come with discriminatory diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) quotas attached. I was relieved last year when officials reached a deal to keep my beloved Bills in Buffalo, where I grew up. But I was unaware of the associated DEI requirements until I noticed recent news coverage on stadium concessions preferences for women, minorities, and other groups. Apparently, such quotas are now common not just in New York and California but also in “purple” states like Nevada, and...

The Jackson County Legislature must decide by January 23 if it will put a measure before voters in the April election that would renew the 3/8-cents sales tax, which helps fund both Kauffman and Arrowhead stadiums. If voters pass the measure, the Chiefs and Royals say they'll commit to staying in Kansas City. Following months of speculation over where the Kansas City Royals will build a new ballpark — and concerns from legislators that the Royals and Chiefs may be courted across state lines — both teams announced Friday that they will commit to staying in Jackson County if voters...

A new round of stadium construction is underway for professional sports teams across the U.S., and taxpayers will be helping to pay the multibillion-dollar tab. The wave of construction has seen teams chasing both repairs and luxurious additions. Some teams have sought new public funding for the projects — with mixed support — even while debt from the last round of renovations a couple decades ago is still being paid off. This year alone, The Associated Press tallied about a dozen stadium projects that were unveiled or already underway for Major League Baseball and National Football League franchises. That doesn’t...

Standing on a portable stage erected at home plate of the Milwaukee Brewers ballpark, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers recently praised the professional baseball team as an “essential part” of the state's “culture and identity” and “economic success.” With fanfare, Evers then signed off on $500 million in public aid for the stadium's renovation, adding to a remarkable run of such blockbuster deals. This year alone, about a dozen Major League Baseball and National Football League franchises took steps toward new or improved stadiums. A new wave of sports facility construction is underway. One driven, in part, by a race to...

The American people are being forced to pay billions across the country to build stadiums for the NFL to play in, despite the fact that the league is worth an estimated $132 billion as a whole. While it is difficult to put a firm price tag on the NFL, Sportico recently estimated that the average team is worth $4.14 billion, and the business and real estate holdings of the league as a whole are worth upwards of $132 billion.

Last week, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed $35 million the state legislature had approved in the latest state budget to help build a spring training facility for the Tampa Bay Rays. “I don’t support giving taxpayer dollars to professional sports stadiums, period,” DeSantis said.

More than 65,000 fans packed a stadium in Tampa to watch Tom Brady lead the Buccaneers to a win in the NFL’s season opener, just hours after President Joe Biden announced a sweeping new plan to slow the latest COVID-19 surge. Most people at the open-air stadium Thursday night didn’t wear masks. There was no vaccine requirement for fans, something Biden has urged sports and entertainment venues to impose. Many other football stadiums are taking a similarly lax approach to pandemic measures this fall, and that worries health experts. This fall’s crowded college and professional football stadiums could create ripe...

Dr. Anthony Fauci warned that it’s too soon to head back to sports stadiums, which have been packed with fans not wearing masks as the Delta variant spreads — despite vaccinations showing strong protection against serious infection. “I don’t think it’s smart,” the White House chief medical adviser told CNN earlier this week. “Outdoors is always better than indoors, but even when you have such a congregate setting of people close together,” Fauci added. Fans are flocking to the arenas even as about 136,000 new cases are recorded daily across the US, according to the Centers for Disease Control and...

The nation’s top infectious disease expert, Anthony Fauci, condemned college football games that were packed with fans not wearing masks. “I don’t think it’s smart,” Fauci said during a CNN interview after he was shown pictures of college football stadiums with maskless fans. “Outdoors is always better than indoors, but even when you have such a congregate setting of people close together,” Fauci said. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that fully vaccinated individuals wear masks outside if they are in a crowded space where they are unable to practice social distancing.

With a focus on Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game and the season well underway, the fact that some stadiums are at greater fan capacity while others are still heavily restricted naturally raises questions. MLB announced that the 2021 season would begin with fans returning to the stands despite some fears over the continuing coronavirus pandemic. Though, what form that return is taking differs from team to team and stadium to stadium. Ahead of the season, the league told each team that they should craft their at-home attendance policies by first taking local government requirements as their guide.

Now that coronavirus vaccines are starting to roll out in the U.S. and abroad, many people may be dreaming of the day when they can travel, shop and go to the movies again. But in order to do those activities, you may eventually need something in addition to the vaccine: a vaccine passport application.

Now that coronavirus vaccines are starting to roll out in the US and abroad, many people may be dreaming of the day when they can travel, shop and go to the movies again. But in order to do those activities, you may eventually need something in addition to the vaccine: a vaccine passport application. Several companies and technology groups have begun developing smartphone apps or systems for individuals to upload details of their Covid-19 tests and vaccinations, creating digital credentials that could be shown in order to enter concert venues, stadiums, movie theaters, offices, or even countries. The Common Trust...

Dr. Anthony Fauci says that the NFL could have full stadiums again at the start of the 2021 season. Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, made the comments during an interview with Yahoo! Sports on Monday.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced Thursday that outdoor stadiums will be allowed to open to fans next month at limited capacity for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic began. While many state leaders have discussed the possibility of reopening stadiums to professional sports teams, most have said welcoming fans inside to watch competitions will not be possible until the country achieves better containment of the virus. Abbott signed the proclamation as an expansion of another he announced last week that approved more businesses and services to reopen. While the original proclamation last Friday allowed professional sports teams to resume...

During a COVID-19 update on Friday, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer reiterated that sports fans won't be able to fill stadiums until a vaccine is available. In the Friday press conference, Whitmer responded to a reporter's question about what conditions she thought that professional and college sports would be able to return to Michigan. "I think that we're going to be in a new normal for quite a while," Whitmer said. "We need a vaccine, and we need to have mask quantities available or we need to be able to test and acknowledge that we've got some immunity that's built up....

Sports fans in Michigan who are expecting a return to normal in the months ahead from a coronavirus shutdown received some disappointing news Tuesday from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. “Life’s going to be different,” Whitmer said, referring to the state’s eventual emergence from her virus-response order. “We’re not going to be filling stadiums in the fall.” That appeared to be bad news for fans of the NFL’s Detroit Lions, as well as college football teams in the state, such as the Michigan Wolverines and Michigan State Spartans. Whitmer’s remarks came during an interview on Detroit radio station WKQI-FM, according to the...

After a few false alarms and even a 13-year trip to Los Angeles, the Raiders are finally saying farewell to Oakland. For good ... assuming no delays with the stadium in Las Vegas, of course. Sunday will mark the end of an era. The Raiders will play their final home game in Oakland. They finish this season with two road games and then they’ll move to Las Vegas for the 2020 season. The Raiders moved into the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum on Sept. 18. 1966, after spending their first few seasons bouncing around a few stadiums. Four months after the Raiders...