It is listed as the last item on the ballot as Question 1.

And no, the measure asking Jackson County, Missouri, residents to support another stadium tax to help finance upgrades at Arrowhead Stadium and a new baseball stadium a few miles away is hardly the only question.

What if it fails when voters determine whether to approve the measure during a special election on Tuesday? Could it get to the point that the Kansas City Chiefs would consider moving?

‘I’m not going to quantify it one way or another,’ Chiefs owner Clark Hunt told USA TODAY Sports during the NFL meetings last week when asked whether leaving the market is an option.

While Hunt maintained that he expects the measure will pass, the matter is seemingly too close to call. KSHB 41-TV, the NBC affiliate in Kansas City, recently cited polling from the Remington Research Group that had 47% of respondents in favor and 46% against.

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That’s against the backdrop of recent comments from Chiefs president Mark Donovan, who said that while the goal is to stay put after its Arrowhead Stadium lease expires in 2031, the team would consider ‘all options’ if the measure fails.

The option of leaving Arrowhead? Say it ain’t so. And not just because the Chiefs’ iconic home with the electric atmosphere also has the best aroma of any parking lot in the NFL for tailgating.

‘I think Mark was just stating the obvious,’ Hunt said. ‘If it doesn’t pass, we will have to consider our options.’

That sounds like some scare tactic of a threat.

‘I don’t really think so,’ Hunt countered. ‘I think it’s obvious that that’s what we’ll have to do, because we have a lease with seven years left on it. We have to figure out what the solution is, going forward.’

How about this as a solution: The Chiefs, who have committed $300 million to an $800 million makeover for Arrowhead, privately finance the rest of the cost rather than asking for more public funding that would come with a 40-year extension of a 3/8-cent sales tax.

It’s the principle. Upgrades at a renovated Arrowhead would include a new video board, more parking, enhanced suites and a covered fan zone at the site where Kaufmann Stadium, home of the Kansas City Royals, currently sits. Profits flowing from the makeover (after a community benefits package pays out $3.5 million per year) would go to the Chiefs and one of the richest NFL billionaires.

Sure, it would be great for business to spruce up Arrowhead, allowing the Chiefs to command more for suites, parking, concessions and then some. Yet this looms as another case where taxpayers foot the bill for private profit. If there’s more tax money to be had, why not more funding for schools and other essentials that would benefit the public a lot more than a football team?

Frank White, the Royals legend who serves as Jackson County executive, has been a vocal critic of the measure that would extend the current sales tax, which projects to generate $2 billion.

‘The county spends more money on the two sports teams every year than we do on our parks and playgrounds, public housing and roads and bridges – combined,’ White said in a statement.

White tried to keep the measure off the ballot with a veto, contending that the process was rushed. But Jackson County legislators overruled, and the Chiefs and Royals have struck long-term lease agreements contingent on the passage of the ballot measure.

The next move rests with the voters.

Despite examples of privately financed NFL homes (SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, and Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts), the standard NFL playbook for such projects outside of California has been long-established. Typically, it’s a matter of finding (or wooing) the public money. Remember, the Raiders left Oakland for Las Vegas and the Chargers left San Diego for L.A. after efforts for new stadiums failed.

Leaving the Kansas City market? That would undoubtedly represent a nuclear option for the Chiefs. If the measure fails and the Chiefs were left to look for a new home, they might need only to move a few miles away to Kansas City, Kansas – where public funding could be waiting.

Stay tuned.

The drama surrounding the Chiefs since their latest Super Bowl triumph has come with such wide variety. The tragedy of a mass shooting at the end of the championship parade. The stunning decision by Missouri Gov. Mike Parson to commute the prison sentence for Britt Reid, son of Chiefs coach Andy Reid, for his drunken-driving conviction stemming from a 2021 crash that left a 5-year-old girl with severe brain injuries. The sudden saga of budding star Rashee Rice, whom Dallas police are searching for after an alleged hit-and-run incident over the weekend.

And now a different type of intrigue with the election, which has been building for weeks.

In the ads from what was reportedly a $3 million campaign blitz urging voters to support the measure, Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce are featured in the 15-second spots. Talk about using your star power.

The spot opens with Kelce imploring, ‘We need you!’

Other Chiefs and Royals players have similar pleas. Then Mahomes chimes in, ‘There’s no better place to play than Arrowhead Stadium.’

To which Kelce adds, ‘Let’s keep it that way.’

The marquee men from the Chiefs’ championship operation, who recently announced plans to open a restaurant in Kansas City, haven’t campaigned with any appearances on the ground, so to speak. But with three Super Bowl triumphs in five years, there are no better pitchmen (along with Andy Reid, also featured on the spot) to speak to the Chiefs fan base.

Will it help Question 1 pass?

That’s a question to be answered in the equation at the ballot box.

Minnesota Twins center fielder Byron Buxton had a very close call during the Milwaukee Brewers’ sausage race.

As Buxton was exiting the dugout to head onto the field in his team’s game Tuesday against the Brewers, he nearly collided with the bratwurst in the sausage race as it was rounding the lap.

Buxton made a smooth move to get back into the dugout before the bratwurst ran into him, which would’ve been deeply unfortunate for everyone involved.

The poor person in the bratwurst costume can’t see very well while they’re running, so we’re guessing that the Brewers might try to help the visibility for those running in the sausage race from here on out.

For Buxton and the bratwurst, it was a very lucky miss that could’ve gone horribly wrong.

The Brewers won their home opener, 3-2.

On Tuesday, the Minnesota Vikings suspended offensive coordinator Wes Phillips for three weeks without pay after the assistant coach pleaded guilty to careless driving last month.

Phillips will be eligible to return to work on April 23 in time for the NFL draft, which starts April 25.

On Dec. 8, police pulled Phillips over for speeding on Interstate 394 in Minneapolis. His blood alcohol level tested .10%. The legal state limit is .08%.

ESPN reported that Phillips pleaded guilty to careless driving in February. He was ordered to pay a fine of $300 and perform eight hours of community service. His initial charge was misdemeanor operation of a vehicle while under the influence of alcohol. After he was arrested, he posted $300 bond before traveling with the team to face the Las Vegas Raiders in Week 14. He coached the last five games of the Vikings’ season.

‘Aside from the standards I have for myself, I do understand that as a coach in this league there are certain standards from the NFL and from the Minnesota Vikings, and I didn’t live up to those standards,’ Phillips said in December, according to ESPN. ‘The last thing I would ever want to do is detract from the attention being on the great things these guys do on the field. … I do believe in being accountable, and learning from your mistakes, accepting whatever discipline that may come down the road, growing from it and going forward with a positive attitude.’

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Phillips became the Vikings’ offensive coordinator in 2022, following head coach Kevin O’Connell from the Los Angeles Rams. He won Super Bowl 56 as the pass game coordinator/tight ends coach for the Rams. Under his leadership with the Vikings in 2022, wide receiver Justin Jefferson had an All-Pro season in which he led the league in receptions (128) and yards (1,809). Quarterback Kirk Cousins and tight end T.J. Hockenson also each earned Pro Bowl berths. Cousins tore his Achilles last season, which led the Vikings to start four different quarterbacks. Cousins signed with the Atlanta Falcons this offseason, so the Vikings are assessing their quarterback options in the draft after landing Sam Darnold in free agency.

In his latest mock draft, USA TODAY Sports’ NFL editor Michael Middlehurst-Schwartz has the Vikings taking Michigan quarterback J.J. McCarthy with the No. 4 pick in a projected trade with the Arizona Cardinals.

Ten women have settled a federal lawsuit against Louisiana State University in which they alleged that the school mishandled their sexual misconduct cases, according to court records.

In light of the settlement agreement, U.S. District Court Judge Wendy Vitter closed the case on Thursday, three years after the lawsuit was filed. Vitter had denied the university’s motion to dismiss several of the women’s claims in December.

Settlement details are not yet public.

Their lawsuit accused the LSU athletic department of implementing a “purposefully deficient” sexual misconduct reporting scheme separate from the LSU Title IX office to keep allegations against athletes in house, in violation of federal and state law.

Several women had accused former star LSU running back Derrius Guice of a range of sexual misconduct, including rape and taking and sharing illicit photos without consent. Former LSU tennis player Jade Lewis said football player Drake Davis physically assaulted her on multiple occasions. 

Other women said the school failed to appropriately respond to their Title IX complaints against regular students, in some cases unnecessarily delaying the investigation process and allowing their alleged perpetrators to remain on campus with little more than a slap on the wrist.

The lawsuit had also named as defendants former head football coaches Ed Orgeron, former athletic director Joe Alleva, former tennis coaches Julia and Michael Sell and several other LSU athletics and campus officials, each of whom was dismissed from the case in January 2022.

LSU did not immediately comment for this story. Karen Truszkowski, an attorney representing the women, declined to comment.

Several of the plaintiffs spoke publicly about their experiences for the first time in a 2020 USA TODAY investigation, the fallout from which was fast and sweeping.

LSU hired an outside law firm, Husch Blackwell, to conduct an independent investigation of its handling of those women’s cases and others. Its scathing report in March 2021 confirmed USA TODAY’s reporting, calling it a “serious institutional failure” created by campus leaders who never spent enough money, left investigative offices understaffed and, ultimately, left students at risk by not recognizing the trauma abuse victims experience.

Then-Interim President Thomas Galligan called the report a “brutally honest and objective evaluation of our culture” and began implementing more than a dozen of its recommendations. Galligan also suspended without pay two officials named in USA TODAY’s reporting for having mishandled complaints against athletes: deputy athletic director Verge Ausberry and senior associate athletic director Miriam Segar. Both of them remain employed at LSU today.

The fallout also reached two other campuses. F. King Alexander, LSU’s president when many of the cases were mishandled, was forced to resign from his new job as president of Oregon State University. 

LSU’s former national-championship-winning head football coach Les Miles was also forced to step down as head coach of the University of Kansas after USA TODAY successfully sued LSU for a copy of a long-buried investigation report into allegations that Miles sexualized the team’s football recruiting office and sexually harassed two student workers.

The Louisiana Legislature’s Senate Select Committee on Women and Children held hearings in Spring 2021 where lawmakers excoriated LSU officials and heard testimony from several survivors. Several laws were passed in subsequent months aimed at reforming how universities across the state handle complaints of power-based violence, which encompasses sexual and domestic violence and stalking.

Following widespread media coverage of the LSU scandal, the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights, which enforces Title IX, also launched an investigation into the university in March 2021 for alleged violations of the law. 

The office dropped the case in June 2023, however, saying it was no longer necessary because any relief that a finding of noncompliance with the law would have brought was the same as that sought by the lawsuit. 

A separate Education Department investigation into LSU for alleged violations of the Clery Act with respect to the women’s allegations continues.

Kenny Jacoby is an investigative reporter for USA TODAY covering sports and sexual misconduct. Contact him by email at kjacoby@usatoday.com or follow him on X@kennyjacoby.  

Larry Lucchino, who served as president of three different MLB teams, has died at the age of 78, the Boston Red Sox announced Tuesday.

Lucchino won three World Series titles during his 14-year tenure in Boston, bringing a long-awaited championship to the city in 2004 and ending an 86-year drought. The team would go on to add titles in 2007 and 2013.

Red Sox owner John Henry hailed Lucchino as ‘one of the most important executives in baseball history,’ in comments to the Boston Globe.

Perhaps more than anything else during his 27-year career in baseball, Lucchino played a major role in the building or renovation of iconic ballparks in which his teams played.

First as president of the Baltimore Orioles, he supervised the construction of Oriole Park at Camden Yards. The stadium bucked the prevailing trend of generic, symmetrical multipurpose facilities by championing the incorporation of the brick-walled B&O Railroad warehouse in its design. The immediate glowing reviews for Oriole Park when it opened in 1992 jump-started a new era of modern ballparks built solely for baseball.

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After joining the San Diego Padres in 1995, Lucchino presided over the construction of Petco Park in the heart of the city’s thriving Gaslamp Quarter.

And then after he arrived in Boston in 2002, Lucchino was the driving force behind the decision to renovate the historic, but aging Fenway Park instead of bulding a new stadium. In addition, he hired a relatively unknown 28-year-old Theo Esptein as general manager. Two years later, the Red Sox were able to ‘reverse the curse’ and win the World Series for the first time since 1918.

“Larry Lucchino was one of the most accomplished executives that our industry has ever had,’ MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement. ‘He was deeply driven, he understood baseball’s place in our communities, and he had a keen eye for executive talent.’

He also oversaw the construction of new ballparks at the Red Sox’s spring training home in Fort Myers, Fla. and their top minor league affiliate in Worcester, Mass.

A lawyer by trade, Lucchino was born Sept. 6, 1945, in Pittsburgh. He played college basketball at Princeton, where he was a teammate of future NBA star and U.S. Senator Bill Bradley on a Tigers squad that reached the NCAA Tournament’s Final Four in 1965.

After graduating from Yale Law School, Lucchino joined the law firm headed by Baltimore Orioles and Washington Redskins team owner Edward Bennett Williams. He served as executive counsel for both teams before Williams named him president of the Orioles and launched his lengthy second career in baseball.

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SMU named Andy Enfield its new basketball head coach Monday, luring him away from Southern California after 11 seasons.

Enfield replaces Rob Lanier, fired last month after a 20-win season, just his second in Dallas. SMU will play in the Atlantic Coast Conference beginning next season.

‘We are excited to announce Andy Enfield as Head Men’s Basketball Coach at SMU,’ athletics director Rick Hart said in a release. ‘Coach Enfield is enthusiastic about joining the Mustang family and the ACC. He has a strong track record of building winning teams on the court and in the classroom and pursuing championships with integrity. We believe he is a game changer for SMU Men’s Basketball.’

Enfield was reportedly the sole target of the Mustangs after they fired Lanier on March 21, a day after they lost a first-round game in the NIT to Indiana State.

He will be introduced on Tuesday.

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‘I am so excited to join the SMU family,’ said Enfield. ‘It is an incredible time for the university as we enter the ACC. We will make Mustang fans and the city of Dallas proud and cannot wait to get started.’

Enfield, 54, just concluded his 11th season at USC. Several key players missed time with injuries as the Trojans finished the season 15-18.

Enfield went 220-147 at USC, with five NCAA Tournament appearances. The Trojans reached the Elite Eight in the 2020-21 season. He previously coached at Florida Gulf Coast, guiding the 15th-seeded Eagles to the NCAA Tournament’s Sweet 16 in 2013.

SMU, which finished 20-13 this season, reportedly wanted a high-profile hire for its move to the ACC. The Mustangs, who went just 10-22 in 2022-23, lost seven of their last eight games this season, and Lanier was let go after two seasons at the school.

The Mustangs have not made the NCAA Tournament since losing in the first round in 2016-17.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Inter Miami star Lionel Messi returned to practice with his teammates Tuesday, but coach Tata Martino said he will be a game-day decision for Wednesday’s highly anticipated Concacaf Champions Cup match.

Messi has been sidelined since March 13 with a right hamstring injury, with a targeted return date of Wednesday for the first of two matches against LIGA MX powerhouse Monterrey in the Champions Cup quarterfinals. 

It’s unclear whether Messi is ready to return, with Martino suggesting Inter Miami must keep the length of the MLS season in mind despite the significance of the Monterrey match. It’s also important to note if Messi plays, it’s unclear how much he will participate, and whether he would start or come off the bench.

“Tomorrow. Tomorrow, we’ll figure it out. He trained today. We still have 24 hours,” Martino said with a smile during a news conference Tuesday. “The first thing is Leo has been injured, and to manage that injury. We know we’re going to have a very important game.

“We just began April. This is just the beginning for us, and we can’t risk the physical condition of our players. We’re going to decide what’s best for Leo, and we’re going to make the appropriate decisions.”

Messi was hampered by his hamstring injury during Inter Miami’s win over Nashville SC in the quarterfinal of the tournament early last month. Messi played 50 minutes of the second-leg match before an early exit March 13, and was seen getting his hamstring massaged by trainers during the first leg one week earlier. 

Along with missing three Inter Miami matches, which resulted in a win, loss and draw for the MLS regular season, Messi missed two friendlies with Argentina in Philadelphia and Los Angeles late last month to rehab the injury. 

How to watch Inter Miami vs. Monterrey live stream? 

Inter Miami and Monterrey will begin at 8 p.m. ET at Chase Stadium in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. The game will air on FS1 in English, and TUDN in Spanish.

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What to know about Inter Miami vs. Monterrey?

Inter Miami won the Leagues Cup title shortly after Messi’s arrival last August, which granted the club a berth into the Champions Cup and a chance to compete for a second title in the Messi era. 

Monterrey is tied for first place in the LIGA MX Clasura table with Club América, which will compete against MLS club New England Revolution on Tuesday night in another Champions Cup quarterfinal matchup. 

Monterrey enters the match coming off its first loss in 13 matches (with eight previous wins and four draws) to start the calendar year after a 2-0 loss to Guadalajara on Saturday. 

How to watch Champions Cup quarterfinals live stream? 

The first leg of the quarterfinals are on Tuesday and Wednesday. The second legs will be played on April 9 and 10. All matches will be available on FS1. 

∎Tuesday: Columbus Crew (USA) vs. Tigres UANL (MEX), 7 p.m. ET

∎Tuesday: New England Revolution (USA) vs. Club America (MEX), 9 p.m. ET

∎Wednesday: Inter Miami CF (USA) vs. CF Monterrey (MEX), 8 p.m. ET

∎Wednesday: CS Herediano (CRC) vs. CF Pachuca (MEX), 10 p.m. ET

Second leg matchups: 

∎April 9: Tigres UANL (MEX) vs. Columbus Crew (USA), 8 p.m. ET

∎April 9: Club America (MEX) vs. New England Revolution (USA), 10:20 p.m. ET

∎April 10: CF Pachuca (MEX) vs CS Herediano (CRC), 8 p.m. ET

∎April 10: CF Monterrey (MEX) vs Inter Miami CF (USA), 10:20 p.m. ET

What is Inter Miami’s upcoming schedule? 

Expect Inter Miami to prioritize their Champions Cup matches, with Messi likely limited for MLS regular season matches in the next two weeks. 

∎Wednesday: Inter Miami vs. Monterrey in Champions Cup, 8 p.m. ET

∎April 6: Inter Miami vs. Colorado Rapids, 7:30 p.m. ET

∎April 10: Inter Miami at Monterrey in Champions Cup, 10:30 p.m. ET

∎April 13: Inter Miami at Sporting Kansas City at Aarowhead Stadium, 8:30 p.m. ET 

∎April 20: Inter Miami vs. Nashville, 7:30 p.m. ET 

Russia accused International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach on Tuesday of taking part in a ‘conspiracy’ with Ukraine to exclude its strongest athletes from this year’s Paris Games.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova made the allegation after two Russian pranksters known as Vovan and Lexus published a recording of a conversation with Bach in which he was falsely led to believe he was speaking to an African sports official.

Bach said in the call that the IOC had established a special panel to monitor the media and the internet and ensure that Russian athletes who had made political statements in support of their government could not take part in the Olympics.

‘We have also offered to the Ukrainian side – not only offered, but asked them – to provide us with their knowledge of the behaviour of such (Russian) athletes or officials,’ Bach could be heard saying in English on the recording.

Zakharova posted on Telegram that Bach had ‘entered into a political-administrative and, apparently, criminal conspiracy with one specific party’ – meaning Ukraine – ‘to exclude strong sports competitors from international competitions.’

She added: ‘The relationship of IOC President Bach with the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine and its officials, and the admissions of a ‘request to monitor Russian athletes’ should be the subject of a thorough investigation.’

Relations between Russia and the IOC have worsened sharply in the run-up to the Olympics, at which Russian and Belarusian athletes will compete as neutrals, without their flags and anthems, because of the war in Ukraine. They have also been banned from taking part in the opening parade.

Pre-empting the publication of the prank call, the IOC said last month that Bach had been the victim of a hoax.

The IOC has publicly announced the establishment of a review panel to evaluate the eligibility of every Russian or Belarusian athlete who qualifies for Paris. In order to be cleared to compete, athletes must not have actively supported the war in Ukraine and must not be contracted to any military or security agency.