JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — The stadium package for the Kansas City Chiefs and the Kansas City Royals has cleared its first hurdle in the Special Session of the Missouri Legislature. A State Senate Committee passed the vote 6-3 Tuesday.

A last-minute change on Monday made it easier for the Fiscal Oversight Committee to pass Senate Bill (SB) 3, one of the proposals read Monday that would try to keep the Chiefs and Royals in Missouri.

The bill’s sponsor, Republican State Senator Kurtis Gregory of Saline County and Marshall was put on the committee Monday. The move ensured one of the five votes was there to pass it out of committee.

After the vote Tuesday, Gregory talked about Republican State Senate President Cindy O’Laughlin of Shelby County, Missouri and Shelbina.

“That was the President Pro Tem’s decision,” Gregory said when asked if he was put on the committee just to make sure the stadium bill passed. “Her and I have talked a lot. I’ve asked questions, ‘What do we have to do to get this done?’ She called one day and [said], ‘You’re going to be on this committee.’ I said, ‘Okay, that’s great.’ I serve at the bequest of the President Pro Tem just like House members serve at the bequest of the Speaker of the House.”

A number of people testified in support of Senate Bill 3, which would allow the state to cover up to 50% of the stadium costs for the Chiefs and the Royals.

Rich AuBuchon is a lobbyist representing the Chiefs, testified in support of the team renovating GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium. He alluded that if the team stayed in Missouri, they’d renovate the current stadium renovate.

“It is a plan that costs $1.15 billion for the Chiefs as of today,” AuBuchon said to the committee.

At the end of February of 2024, FOX4 told you the renovation plan at the stadium called for the project to cost $800 million. The Hunt family, was supposed to put in $300 million of that, but the April sales tax vote in Jackson County failed that year.

Aubuchon also said if the team stays in Missouri, they’d stay for 30 years, another difference from the just 25 year guarantee they had for the April 2024 vote.

Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Joe Reardon spoke in favor of the senate bill. SB3 would allow the teams to bond up to the amount in state tax revenue that they generated in the year prior to the application.

The only person to testify against the package Tuesday was the Show-Me Institute’s Patrick Tuohey. He told committee members the Chiefs and the Royals are pitting Kansas and Missouri leaders against one another.

Monday, O’Laughlin told FOX4 that the full Senate debate on the stadium package would take place Wednesday.