Since Kansas City’s announcement as a 2026 FIFA World Cup host, there’s been much ado about how to pay for temporary changes to GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium to accommodate playing soccer — but little in the way of specifics shared.

A possible answer could lie in a funding source Jackson County officials briefly discussed with the county’s former financial advisers last fall.

If revisited, the mechanism in question could see tens of millions of dollars channeled into Arrowhead’s modifications — without costing taxpayers a dime — so long as the Kansas City Chiefs and Kansas City Royals first give the go-ahead.

In late September 2021, financial advisory firm Stifel Nicolaus & Co. Inc. presented County Administrator Troy Schulte an option for a direct-purchase transaction that would involve issuing new bonds for Truman Sports Complex that would be retired using stadium revenues.

Morgan Stanley, an approved underwriter, would buy the bonds — in a principal amount not to exceed $40 million — and generate proceeds that Jackson County could use on certain tax-exempt eligible projects, according to a preliminary term sheet included among records the Kansas City Business Journal obtained through a Sunshine Law request.

With the Chiefs’ and Royals’ agreement, those new bonds would be paid from current stadium revenues at no additional cost to Jackson County, according to December meeting documents. Team revenues for the Chiefs’ and Royals’ 2021 seasons totaled $495 million and $263 million, respectively, according to Forbes‘ most recent annual assessments.