Sorry, Chiefs Fans: Your Vanity License Plates Could Soon Be Banned
Missouri drivers may want to get a brand new Kansas City Chiefs license plate as soon as possible. That’s because a state lawmaker has introduced a bill that would end the production of Chiefs-branded specialty plates in Missouri.
House Bill 3050, filed in late January by Rep. Chad Perkins of Bowling Green, would terminate Missouri’s emblem agreement with the Chiefs starting August 28, 2026. After that date, no new plates featuring the team’s logo would be issued anywhere in the state. Plus, those annual $35 donations drivers currently pay to keep the plates would no longer be collected after that date, either. That said, if you already have one of these plates on your car, they’d actually stay valid until they expire.
For some background on how these plates work, Missouri has offered them since 1999. To get one, you had to donate $35 each year to the Chiefs Children’s Fund (a nonprofit now called the Hunt Family Foundation). Then, you bring your receipt over to a license office and pay another $15 processing fee. It costs extra money, but roughly 656 Missourians were reportedly rocking them as of December 2025, according to the Missouri Department of Revenue. Sure, the news is a shocker, but it’s nothing compared to the kind of headaches some of the most regrettable vanity plates in history have caused their owners.
The reasoning behind the ban is actually really petty. It all goes back to December, when Chiefs officials announced plans to leave Arrowhead Stadium – the team’s longtime home in Missouri – and relocate across the state line to Kansas City, Kansas. The plan is to build a new domed stadium over there that would open for the 2031 NFL season, essentially meaning that Missouri loses the team for good once their current lease expires.
The beef doesn’t end there
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The announcement didn’t sit well with a lot of folks in Missouri. Besides Perkins’ bill, Sen. Nick Schroer, a Republican from Defiance, filed three separate bills late last year. These were again seemingly aimed at financially punishing the Chiefs. The first of those would force any lessee of a publicly owned stadium with a capacity above 60,000 to cover the full cost of demolishing it if it can’t reasonably be repurposed for something else. The second would block pro sports teams from receiving tax credits if they play in a venue that seats 75,000 or more. The third would add an extra $50 to every ticket sold, plus a 5% surcharge on in-stadium purchases.
The Chiefs aren’t named directly in any of those bill summaries. As for Schroer, he’s pushed back on the idea that these are punitive. In an interview with The Kansas City Star, he framed them instead as a way to protect taxpayers who’ve invested in the team’s infrastructure over the years.
Of course, whether any of the proposals actually go anywhere is a different question entirely. Missouri’s legislative session is reportedly already packed with other priorities. At the same time, while House Speaker Jonathan Patterson hasn’t weighed in on Perkins’ plate bill specifically, he’s been skeptical about the broader anti-Chiefs push. He told the publication he’d rather see the legislature focus on issues affecting all Missourians instead of targeting one organization, even if doing so “feels good.”
Meanwhile, Kansas residents have been able to get their own Chiefs custom plates for years already, so it’s not like the plates are disappearing entirely. But when it’s actually replacement time, there’s a good reason to not throw away old license plates.
