The Kansas City–area border war that many officials in the area were hoping to avoid is heating up as Missouri is heightening its efforts to retain the NFL’s Chiefs and MLB’s Royals in the wake of new legislation from Kansas.

Less than three weeks after the Kansas legislature approved bonding to help build new stadiums for the two teams, Missouri Gov. Mike Parson (above) met this week with key figures including Kansas City mayor Quinton Lucas and Jackson County, Mo., county executive Frank White Jr. about stepping up their efforts to retain the Chiefs and Royals. Senior officials for both teams, meanwhile, held separate sessions with other Missouri leaders, including House majority leader Jonathan Patterson.

“We just need to have a plan in place and to move forward, and I think there’s a real opportunity to do that,” Parson said.

Patterson went even further, telling The Kansas City Star that “I do think, before all this is said and done, Jackson County is going to have another vote” on public funding for facilities for the Chiefs and Royals.

Such a move would represent returning to the same voters who soundly rejected a sales tax measure for stadium funding back in April. 

Different Strategies

As expected, the revived Missouri consideration of stadium funding for the two teams is based in part on evaluating the needs of the Chiefs and Royals as separately as possible. In particular, the Royals’ situation would likely need to be reconsidered, as a prior ballpark plan for Kansas City’s Crossroads neighborhood ran into local opposition beyond the broader voter concerns about the funding.

“The Royals are going to have to figure out what it is they want to do, and what that site selection [is],” Parson said. “Site selection for the Royals is a big issue.”

White, meanwhile, remains another obstacle. The former Royals star second baseman, who has been estranged from the team for many years, has renewed his prior objections about supporting the two teams with a large outlay of public dollars.

“I made it clear to Gov. Parson—as I have to the public before, during, and after the recent stadium sales tax campaign—that before I can support any new proposal, it must offer clear and significant benefits to the taxpayers of Jackson County,” White said. “Maintaining the current financial arrangement is not in the best interest of Jackson County and its residents.”

Tough Talk?

Despite the rival push from across the border, Parson joked he has plenty of time to complete a stadium deal with the teams before the end of his term in January. 

“I’m not too worried about Kansas at this point. I’ve got six months. How much more time do you need?” he quipped.

More seriously, he added that “it’s a big business deal. It’s a big adventure for what we’re trying to do, but … we’re going to try to compete, and we will.”

LIV Golf has disrupted almost every aspect of the sport, from major championships and the PGA Tour to broadcasters, sponsors, and more. Now, Team USA’s hopes of Tiger Woods captaining a Ryder Cup team can be added to that list, too.

The PGA of America selected Keegan Bradley (above) as captain of the 2025 U.S. Ryder Cup team after Woods declined the opportunity due to his role in ongoing negotiations with LIV’s financial backers at the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia. “With my new responsibilities to the Tour and time commitments involved, I felt I would not be able to commit the time to Team USA and the players required as a captain,” Woods said. “That does not mean I wouldn’t want to captain a team in the future.” At the U.S. Open, Woods said the PGA Tour and PIF were exploring how they could reach the “endgame.”

Bradley said Woods can be as involved as he wants to be. “I think it shows you how much he cares by turning this position down, because he didn’t feel like he could put in what he needed to do,” Bradley said. Despite LIV’s presence preventing a Woods captaincy, Bradley said players from the offshoot tour are fair game for the U.S. Ryder Cup team: “I’m going to have the 12 best players on the team. … I’m not worried about the LIV stuff.”

Netflix Bump?

The selection of Bradley, who is 38 and still a full-time member on the PGA Tour, is an unexpected change of pace. Recent Ryder Cup captains have typically been older players who are often considered past their playing prime and usually not competing on a weekly basis. Bradley, a two-time U.S. Ryder Cup team member, won the 2011 PGA Championship and is currently ranked No. 19 in the world.

But Bradley was the first man left off last year’s U.S. team, a situation that was captured by Netflix cameras and eventually played out on Season 2 of Full Swing. The golfer’s composure and relatability led to rave reviews for his episode of the docuseries. Bradley said he had an “unbelievable experience” with the show, but he pushed back on the notion that it led to his unconventional captaincy. “I couldn’t imagine that they would decide based on how Netflix portrayed me in filming,” he said.

Looking ahead to next fall, when the U.S. will host the Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black in New York, Bradley said it’s too early to say whether the U.S. players will allow Netflix cameras to film inside their team room—something they didn’t do last year in Rome.