The Kansas City Chiefs are planning to move from their current home in Jackson County, Missouri to the State of Kansas, with a new domed stadium in Wyandotte County and a new practice facility and team headquarters in Johnson County. The relocation, targeted for the 2031 NFL season, involves approximately $4.5 billion in total capital investment for the new facilities and ancillary private real estate development, including retail, residential, hospitality, and entertainment uses in the areas around the new stadium and practice facility.
To demonstrate the future impacts of this capital investment as well as projected team and stadium operations and visitor spending, Chiefs engaged ESI to provide an independent assessment of the projected economic and fiscal impacts that would be generated for the Johnson and Wyandotte bi-county region, the State of Kansas, and the Kansas City metropolitan statistical area (MSA) during the construction period and beyond.
ESI applied IMPLAN input-output modeling to translate direct spending into total economic impact across the study areas, addressing two categories of impact: the one-time effects of the $4.5 billion capital investment and the recurring annual effects of team and stadium operations and visitor spending once the facilities open in 2031.
The study gathered labor and operating expenditures from the Chiefs’ financial projections, with workforce relocation assumptions built from employee zip code data. ESI modeled visitor spending using projected attendance and spending profiles based on historical Chiefs patronage patterns and regional visitor survey data. Fiscal impacts applied effective state and local tax rates to the resulting direct, indirect, and induced activity, accounting for sales and use tax exemptions under the STAR Bond financing structure.
The analysis quantified substantial economic and fiscal benefits for study areas, distinguishing one-time construction impact from recurring operational impact.
The $4.5 billion capital investment is projected to:
- Generate $8.2 billion in one-time economic impact across the Kansas City MSA.
- Support 36,500 job-years and $2.7 billion in employee compensation, including $4.8 billion in Wyandotte County and $2.5 billion in Johnson County.
- Create a $106.4 million associated fiscal impact for the State of Kansas, including $6.8 million for Wyandotte County/Kansas City, Kansas and $2.5 million for Johnson County.
Upon completion, annual team and stadium operations and visitor spending are projected to:
- Generate $1.5 billion in annual economic impact across the MSA
- Support 8,500 jobs and $833.9 million in employee compensation, with $67.0 million in recurring annual fiscal impact for the State of Kansas.
