Arrowhead Stadium needs a lot of expensive work for the World Cup. Who’ll pay for it?

We know over the next four years, the Kansas City Chiefs will need to spend tens of millions of dollars to upgrade Arrowhead Stadium in preparation for the FIFA World Cup games in 2026. But who will cover the entire cost to renovate the iconic stadium to meet FIFA specifications? And where will the money come from?

Nobody in the know seems to have the answer, which raises even more questions.

It is too early for financial projections associated with the World Cup, Chiefs officials have said. But Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas’ guesstimate is on record: State and private funding will be needed to cover the $50 million price tag.

Critics have said Lucas’ estimate is on the low end.

Toronto will spend about $290 million to get its city-owned BMO Field in compliance for its World Cup games.

Will Kansas City be ready to host in 2026 at Arrowhead’s GEHA Field? Seats will have to be removed from the stadium. The reconfigured field must meet FIFA standards for soccer. Turnstiles must be added, among other changes.

Gillette Stadium in Boston was also selected as a World Cup site for 2026. When Boston hosted World Cup games in 1994, corner seats at Foxboro Stadium were removed with jackhammers to accommodate the extra security and media personnel needed to cover the event.

Those and other infrastructure changes will be needed at Arrowhead.

Bring it on, Missouri Gov. Mike Parson said Thursday during a special ceremony.

“We are the only Midwest city to host a World Cup,” Missouri’s 57th governor said before signing a state Senate bill that waives the sales tax on World Cup tickets. The region and state have to be ready, “and we will be,” Parson said.

Later, Parson was asked about the funding source needed to reconfigure GEHA Field. At this point, nobody knows, he said.

Nothing is set in stone, Chiefs officials told us. The news that Kansas City is a World Cup city is still fresh, a spokesman for the club said.

But the bid process, successfully led by the Kansas City Sports Commission, wasn’t done in a vacuum. The Chiefs surely have a plan. Mark Donovan, team president, has said as much.

“As part of the bid process we had to show them a complete plan that gets (Arrowhead) in compliance,” Donovan said recently. If those intentions include asking for public money, then taxpayers in Missouri have a right to know that.

When Arrowhead underwent a $375 million renovation project more than a decade ago, taxpayers covered $212.5 million of the cost with Jackson County sales tax revenues. Missouri state government provided $37.5 million.

Would the Jackson County Sports Complex Authority, the taxpayer-funded landlord of Arrowhead Stadium and neighboring Kauffman Stadium, pay for the improvements?

No, Jim Rowland, Sports Complex Authority executive director, said this week.

The multi-year project to get Arrowhead in shape to host the World Cup includes many challenges. Securing funding is top priority. But all Missourians deserve to know where the money will come from.