Chiefs’ new stadium Q&A: Here’s what you need to know about team’s move to Kansas – The New York Times

NFL
NFL Week 16
Kansas officials gave the Chiefs a warm welcome on Monday. The team won't play a game in its new state until 2031. Liam Keating / The Capital-Journal / USA Today Network via Imagn Images
TOPEKA, Kan. — About an hour after the official announcement — and once most of the television cameras had left — Kansas City Chiefs owner Clark Hunt emerged from the side door of the conference room on the third floor of the Docking State Office Building.
He had a few more pictures to take.
In the center of the room, where a news conference had taken place on Monday to announce the Chiefs were moving across state lines to Kansas, Hunt walked in front of two flags. One represented the state of Kansas, while a red one displayed the logo of his Kansas City Chiefs.
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Hunt posed for a few more photos with associates. The private moment, though, even further reflected this understanding:
He knew this was a momentous day in Chiefs history.
The team will officially be a Kansas resident starting in 2031. A $3 billion domed stadium is sure to bring attention to the area — along with other significant events as well.
With that in mind, let’s take a quick look at some new stadium questions you might be wondering about … and the answers from those who spoke in Topeka on Monday.
The most straightforward answer is two-pronged: Kansas provided an easier path and more ambitious opportunities.
For the last year, the Chiefs have had two options: a new domed stadium in Kansas costing roughly $3 billion or a renovated Arrowhead Stadium in Missouri that would’ve been about $1 billion.
With Kansas offering to pay 60 percent of the funding through state bonds — paid off over 30 years through sports betting, lottery ticket and tax revenue — the path to financing was easier. The Chiefs only had to work through a single entity during negotiations, whereas in Missouri, the process involved the governor’s office, county and city governments.
Hunt said the Chiefs remained in negotiations with the state of Missouri as recently as last week, but “not everything was resolved that needed to be resolved.”
Chiefs team president Mark Donovan said the final decision — made by the four siblings who own the Chiefs — was unanimous in the end.
“While it was emotional, they were decisive,” Donovan said. “And they’re really excited about the future.”
Hunt addressed this on Monday. He said moving to a new building would enhance the fan experience and affect multiple generations — potentially for 50-60 years.
K.C. can now also be bold when bidding to host events in the future, Hunt said, which could include the Super Bowl, College Football Playoff or Final Four.
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An exact location hasn’t been determined, but we have a pretty good idea.
The new stadium will be in Kansas’ Wyandotte County, with Donovan agreeing it will be near the Kansas Speedway. That location is roughly 20 miles west-northwest of the Chiefs’ current home at Arrowhead Stadium in Missouri.
Donovan said the Chiefs have multiple sites under control in Wyandotte County, but the team would decide on the precise location at a later date.
“That will play into the design process,” Donovan said. “But we are not definitive on the site at this point, other than we have land under control, so we can make a decision.”
It will be constructed about 20 miles south of the new stadium in Olathe, Kan.
Hunt said Monday that the new stadium is projected to cost $3 billion. The team’s new practice facility is expected to cost $300 million, while the cost of mixed-use districts near the stadium and practice facility is projected at $700 million.
Monday’s agreement is a 60/40 split. That means the Chiefs (and Hunt family) are slated to pay 40 percent of the costs across the $4 billion project.
Kansas Lt. Gov. David Toland said the state’s bonds were projected to pay $2.4 billion. That would leave the Chiefs with a $1.6 billion bill.
The Chiefs’ current lease in Jackson County, Mo., runs through January 2031. The new stadium should host Chiefs games beginning in the fall of 2031.
Toland estimated that, from this point, there would be 18 months of design, followed by three years of construction to hit that 2031 timeline.
It’s also worth noting that the Chiefs do not have any renderings for this new stadium. If you have seen any pictures of a projected new stadium online, those either are not from the Chiefs or were speculative renderings from a few years back.
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It’s very likely.
Donovan is on the NFL’s committee to select Super Bowl sites, and he has previously expressed optimism that the Chiefs would be chosen if they built a new indoor stadium.
He didn’t back off that optimism on Monday.
“We’re going to bid really, really hard for it,” Donovan said of a future Super Bowl in Kansas. “We’ve got an amazing city with a track record of really doing great things. … We think this puts us on the map to be able to competitively compete to bring that.”
The term sheet requires the Chiefs to build with a capacity of at least 65,000.
Donovan said most new NFL stadiums range from 62,000 to 68,000 seats. He anticipated the new Chiefs stadium would be “somewhere in that range.”
That’s still to be determined, but probably not. That feature has become less common with newer domed stadiums.
Hunt highlighted two important factors based on fan surveys: Having a loud stadium and one that features great tailgating.
“We’ll work really hard on both of those,” Hunt said, “to make sure that we deliver something that’s as good or better than they have now.”
Donovan said he believed there were design possibilities available that could make the Chiefs’ home stadium even louder than it is now.
One significant development could be future training camps.
The Chiefs are one of only a handful of teams that go away for training camp — in this case, to St. Joseph, Mo.
Donovan said the team would design a new facility that could host training camp if the current coach wanted it to be there.
Something else to watch? Donovan previously told The Athletic that he’d had preliminary conversations with Hunt about building a state-of-the-art flag football complex to host the U.S. national teams.
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“If it ends up being a (flag football) pro league, we want to be actively involved in that. If it ends up just being a training facility so that we have the best Olympic team in the world, we want to be part of that,” Donovan told The Athletic. “And we think we have the opportunity, with this stadium decision, to have that be a part potentially.”
It’s possible. The Royals are still weighing new stadium options in Kansas and Missouri, though Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly made clear Monday that wasn’t her focus for this week.
“We’re not even talking about Royals today,” Kelly said. “This is all about the Chiefs.”
Donovan said the team hadn’t discussed the new stadium’s name at this point.
“I think when you look at what we’re going to build and what we hope to design,” Donovan said, “we’ll make that decision later.”
Jesse Newell is a staff writer for The Athletic covering the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs. Before joining The Athletic, Jesse worked as a staff writer for the Kansas City Star, Topeka Capital-Journal and Lawrence Journal-World while covering the Chiefs and University of Kansas Athletics. Jesse has won an EPPY for best sports blog and previously has been named top beat writer in his circulation by AP’s Sports Editors. He is originally from Emporia, Kansas. Follow Jesse on Twitter @jessenewell

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