Kansas City OK’s Stadium Renovation, Rejects Rolling Roof

Jackson County voters were fine with renovating Kauffman and Arrowhead Stadiums but gave a thumbs-down to a rolling roof on Tuesday. The football and baseball stadiums will get facelifts, thanks to a 3/8 cents sales tax, which will produce $425 million over the next 25 years. The total renovation will cost $575 million. The passage of the sales tax means the lease the two teams signed earlier this year—which runs through 2031—will be enacted. It also means that Kauffman Stadium will be awarded an All-Star Game between 2010 and 20-15. Question 1, which needed only a simple majority to pass, was passed 53 percent to 47 percent.

Question 2, which would have enacted a use tax to raise $170 million for a rolling roof, failed 51 percent to 49 percent. That was less than 4,000 votes. The rolling roof would have ensured Arrowhead Stadium a Super Bowl in 2015 and put Kansas City on the priority list for an NCAA Men’s Final Four.