In September, Kansas City’s favorite passions came together on a racecar. Ryan Ellis had a new look on his No. 71 DGM Racing Chevrolet, featuring a football-themed paint scheme. On the hood was the TabloTV logo, with a football going through the field goal uprights. Below the football is the tagline “Pay once, watch forever.” It was only one of the several NASCAR-NFL crossovers in the state, the home of the Kansas City Chiefs team.

Ryan Ellis has packed his bags and taken TabloTV to another NASCAR Xfinity Series team, but the collaborative spirit persists between both sports. Instead of a racecar, an entire racetrack is now the meeting point of the NFL and NASCAR – Kansas Speedway.

Chiefs may expand into NASCAR

The Kansas City Chiefs have proposed designing a stadium on the Kansas side of the state line with Missouri. That is why the Chiefs are also reportedly in negotiations with NASCAR and the state of Kansas to acquire land just west of the Kansas Speedway. Kevin Keitzman, a Kansas City radio host, said, “NASCAR owns a total of 880 acres of land at Village West, folks. They only use 300 of them.” He said the Chiefs also may be building a hotel by the Hollywood Casino and creating an entertainment district.

Despite this early evidence, Patrick Lowry, spokesman for the Kansas Department of Commerce, urged confidentiality. “Kansas Department of Commerce continues to conduct a careful analysis of costs and benefits as part of crafting agreements to keep the Chiefs and Royals in the region while maximizing growth opportunities for Kansas,” he said. The Kansas Legislature agreed to finance up to 70% of the Chiefs project, with a minimum $1 billion price tag. This was done by issuing bonds to be repaid with sales tax collected in the STAR Bond district.

This marks a notable move towards a bond between the Chiefs and NASCAR in Kansas. This year in May, Kyle Larson led for 221 of 267 laps to win the AdventHealth 400 at the 1.5-mile track. It marked his third and final trophy for this season, although Larson emerged as the 2025 Cup Series champion. Then in September, Chase Elliott zoomed from 10th to first on the final restart in double overtime to win the Hollywood Casino 400 in Kansas.

And the season marked more crossovers between NASCAR and the NFL. Amazon Prime debuted spectacularly in the sport and also ended its five-race tenure with a bang at Pocono Raceway. NFL analysts Ryan Fitzpatrick and Andrew Whitworth attended the race and appeared on air, creating a sensational event. Then, NASCAR history is strewn with instances of crossovers – from Baltimore Ravens legend Ray Lewis waving the green flag for the 2013 Daytona 500 to Hall-of-Famers Tony Dorsett (left) and Tim Brown giving the command to start engines at Texas in 2021.

So, the NFL wishes to tap into its rich ties with NASCAR for the latest endeavor. However, there are some hurdles to cross.

Analyzing the economic impact

While the idea of a new Kansas City Chiefs stadium springing up close to NASCAR racing sounds impressive, the reality may be concerning. That is what J.C. Bradbury, an economist and professor at Kennesaw State University in Georgia, emphasized recently. He claimed that there is no economic benefit to building a stadium. “Economists use the term economic development to describe improving economic outcomes. And stadiums are absolutely not true economic development catalysts,” he said.

When stadiums are built, multiple changes drive people’s belief in the economic benefits. However, most of the spending happens outside the stadiums around restaurants and stores. Other businesses cannot open, like doctors’ offices and retail stores, because of traffic and people who don’t want to live near stadiums. “There’s actually some negative spillover effects that no one likes to talk about,” Bradbury said.

“This is a private business that largely benefits the owners of the team. It’s generating hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars,” Bradbury said. “Athletes are paid millions of dollars of salaries. These organizations exist as economic entities because they’re profitable. There’s zero justification for taxpayers putting a dime for professional sports stadiums, but we just sort of got in the habit of doing that, and now I’m hoping to try to break this habit.”

Evidently, the NFL’s new project with NASCAR is harboring a mixed approach. We can only wait and see what unfolds in the future, and if we can see a sports crossover in Kansas.