Kansas City Chiefs’ CEO speaks on future of Arrowhead Stadium
By Calvin Silvers
The Kansas City Chiefs had their first off day from training camp on Thursday, allowing the players to rest and maybe even see family, before putting the pads on Friday. Despite the off day, the Chiefs are still making headlines due to a pressing off field issue.
In 1963, owner Lamar Hunt moved the team to Kansas City and shortly after renamed the teams to the Chiefs. The Chiefs won three AFL championships in the 1960s, the most of any team during that period.
Over the course of 61 years in Kansas City, the team has captured four Super Bowls, but as the 2024 offseason rolled around, questions about the future of Arrowhead Stadium began to rise, leading to several options being presented.
“GEHA Field at Arrowhead is a special place, and it’s special for our fans and it’s special for the players and coaches,” Hunt said. “I had a bunch of season ticket holders come up to me to share how special Arrowhead is with them and we know that, but we do have to look to the future.”
One of those options was a sales tax measure that Jackson County voters rejected April, a tax that would’ve helped fund major renovations to Arrowhead Stadium and a new downtown ballpark for the Kansas City Royals.
After this failed attempt, Kansas lawmakers approved a house bill that changed certain criteria to qualify for STAR Bonds. STAR Bonds are a financing tool designed to help spur development of major commercial, entertainment and tourism projects.
“We really appreciate what the Kansas legislature did in passing the upgrade to the STAR Bond bill that potentially would give us an opportunity to look at a stadium over there,” Hunt said. (We’re) looking at whether we’re better off in a renovated building or in a new stadium, and that new stadium could be on the Missouri side as well, it doesn’t have to have to be on the Kansas side.”
Chiefs’ team president Mark Donovan pressed the importance of the situation last week, stating that the organization would prefer to finalize its stadium plans in the next six months, with the team’s lease ending in 2031.
“We would like to make some significant progress over the next six months,” Clark said. “I know from having been through a few stadium efforts that they’re slow-moving and unpredictable, so to say we’ll be able to get to the finish line in six months is probably optimistic.”
If the Chiefs do decide to build a new stadium instead of renovating Arrowhead Stadium, fans may not have to sit through another game with minus 27-degree wind chill.
“I think if we went that route, certainly we would have to look at a dome,” Hunt said. A dome gives you the ability to host a lot of other events which could be important for the community.”
