Substitute for HB 2346 by Committee on Commerce, Labor and Economic Development - Establishing the Kansas sports tourism grant program administered by the secretary of commerce to provide matching grants to communities for developing and continuing sporting events and providing for funding of such grants from the state economic development initiatives fund.

Added a requirement that when grant applications exceed available funding, the secretary must prioritize awarding grants to new planned events over existing recurring events.

Updated the document header to reflect the Senate Committee's amendments instead of the House Committee's amendments.

Updated the document header to indicate the bill was amended by the House Committee of the Whole instead of the House Committee.

Reformatted line breaks and renumbered lines to align with the new committee version.

Changed the grant mechanism from direct awards to a $1-for-$1 matching grant that is only awarded after an event occurs, contingent on the applicant securing private sponsor funding.

Removed the formal Kansas Sports Tourism Grant Committee, replacing its decision-making authority with the Secretary of Commerce who now has sole discretion to award grants.

Mandated that applicants must obtain grant sponsorship from local government or tourism organizations before applying for state funds.

Introduced a $100 application fee to cover administrative costs and required the use of a specific calculator to estimate economic impact.

Added specific eligibility criteria requiring a minimum of $2.5 million economic impact and 3,000 hotel room nights for top-tier grants, and $250,000 impact or 500 room nights for smaller grants.

Explicitly prohibited grants for events involving the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, MLS, professional women's soccer, and established Kansas professional sports teams.