When voters say ‘no’ to new stadiums, what do professional sports teams do next?

By DAVID A. LIEB
Associated Press

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Voter rejection of a stadium sales tax plan for the Kansas City Royals and Chiefs has raised questions about what happens next. They’re not the first teams to face such questions. Public finance professor Geoffrey Propheter, of the University of Colorado Denver, has tracked stadium referenda. Since 1990, he found voters approved 35 stadium plans and defeated 22. Some teams move after voters reject stadium subsidies, but that’s rare. More often, teams regroup and eventually win public funding for stadiums. Many teams sidestep voters altogether by getting approval straight from local or state lawmakers.