Friday draws a large crowd to training camp

By Jenna Wilson

Chiefs fans have been making their way through training camp all week long, but the start of the weekend was an opportunity for more fans to come out, making a busy day for attendees.

While Chiefs camp is busy with visitors every day of the week, if you ask fans and staff, the largest group of fans that come out to cheer on the team starts on Friday.

Season ticket holders who have visited camp multiple times said they had better luck getting through food lines faster and getting autographs from some of their favorite players while attending camp on a Monday.

“This is a crazy crowd,” said Anna Vaughn, a Chiefs fan. “I can say, this is definitely some of the nicest weather we’ve seen this week, but I feel like I have to keep an extra eye on my kids today so we probably won’t wait in that long line to get autographs today.”

When there’s a big crowd on days like this, officials must take extra precautions to ensure children don’t get lost and that an emergency doesn’t occur.

“This is certainly one of our busier days out of the week and it’s been complicated by the heat,” said Jill Voltmer, chief of police for MWSU. “There’s a lot of planning and we also have a lot of contingencies we put in place as far as if something comes up or there’s an accident or something like that. But a collaboration with everybody on the campus and our community is what makes this work. We rely on the St. Joe, Missouri Police Department as partners and collaborate well together no matter how busy it can get.”

There wasn’t too much of an opportunity for some people to get a nice seat in the shade or an up-close spot on the sidelines to meet some of the players, but families still enjoyed starting their weekend by watching their hometown team.

“We’re just happy to be here,” said Vaughn. “We come here every day because the kids are enjoying it and that’s what’s important to us.”

A complete schedule of the 2024 Kansas City Chiefs training camp schedule can be found at https://www.chiefs.com/trainingcamp/schedule.