Missouri’s Billion-Dollar Stadium Giveaway

In the special legislative session called by Governor Mike Kehoe, Missouri’s lawmakers have approved a stadium funding package that could cost taxpayers up to $1.5 billion. The package is designed to benefit billionaire team owners while leaving ordinary citizens to take all the risks and ultimately foot the bill.

At first glance, the deal sounds harmless. Legislators claim they will set up a system to match bond payments using tax revenue generated by the teams themselves. In other words, taxes collected due to team operations would help pay off the bond. They argue that the additional tax money wouldn’t exist without the teams, so in a sense, it’s “found money” being used to fund the stadium. But here’s where it gets tricky: this system doesn’t give the public a clear picture of how they calculate this “additional tax” and how it’s being used to pay off the bond. It’s a system of accounting gimmicks dressed up as fiscal responsibility.

Looking closer at the mechanics, the funding scheme links state support to team-generated tax revenue. The flow of money as it passes through bonds, debt service, matched payments, and diverted taxes is so complex that even financial experts scratch their heads. There’s no way for the average citizen to track these dollars or hold anyone accountable if money goes missing. The structure effectively shields the deal behind an impenetrable financial wall, where public resources flow to private owners without clear oversight or transparency.

And that’s no accident. This complexity benefits wealthy team owners and their lobbyists, who work hard to shape a system where they can collect profits while taxpayers absorb the risk.

What makes this even worse is the opportunity cost. Up to $1.5 billion of public funds could have gone to schools, public safety, roads, or healthcare. Instead, it’s tied up in a financial maze that, due to its lack of transparency, fuels public distrust and deepens cynicism about whether our government serves the people or the powerful. (Unfortunately, we already know the answer to that question.)

If lawmakers truly believed in fair economic growth, they could have offered low-interest loans or required owners to fund their own stadiums, ensuring transparency and fairness. Further, it would force the wealthy to absorb the risk, rather than leaving hardworking Missouri families holding the bag. But our lawmakers chose complexity over clarity, and billionaires over ordinary Missourians.

Missourians deserve transparency, accountability, and leadership that prioritizes public needs over private greed. It’s time to demand better and hold our lawmakers to it.