RIVER FALLS, WIS. ? The $2.4 million Wisconsin spent to upgrade the Kansas City Chiefs’ training camp facilities should send a message to Missouri lawmakers who refused to earmark tax money for upkeep of the aging Truman Sports Complex, Carl Peterson said Friday.

While Wisconsin was finishing the new facilities in May, the Missouri House of Representatives refused to let a funding bill come up for a vote. The bill would have dedicated a tax on entertainers and athletes to the upkeep of Missouri stadiums, including the 33-year-old Truman Sports Complex.

“I’ll be candid, it’s a little bit disappointing that people … and even representatives of the constituents of Jackson County, could not agree on a tax that would tax no one in the state of Missouri, but only professional athletes and entertainers outside of Missouri,” said Peterson, the president and general manager of the Chiefs.

The measure in the Missouri Legislature would have funneled an estimated $30 million in the 2007 fiscal year to sports facilities around the state, including to help pay off the dome where the St. Louis Rams play, as well as provide for improvements and upkeep for the Chiefs’ Arrowhead Stadium and the Royals’ Kauffman Stadium.

Both Chiefs and Royals officials have said the aging stadiums could reach a crisis point if improvements were not made. The leases on each stadium mandate they must be maintained as state-of-the-art.

There has been speculation that the Chiefs might entertain thoughts of building a new stadium across the state line in Kansas. Asked if he had had conversations on the subject with Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, Peterson said, “I won’t comment on that.”