Hunt says Chiefs open to ‘hunt’ for home

Article posted by Coliseum, April 30^th, 2024

Image: Coliseum GSVA

The National Football League (NFL) team Kansas City Chiefs Chairman Clark Hunt said the team would look at options beyond renovating their home pitch – the GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri (US) – as it searches for a home beyond the expiration of its lease following the 2030 season.

The 2024 Coliseum Summit US will be held at the GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium, Kansas City, from June 5^th-6^th. An ice-breaker event including a stadium tour will be held at the 11,500-capacity CPKC Stadium in Kansas City (June 4^th), home arena of the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) team Kansas City Current. There will also be behind-the-scenes tours of the Arrowhead Stadium and the 18,467-capacity Children’s Mercy Park in Kansas City, the home of the Major League Soccer (MLS) team Sporting Kansas City.

‘ESPN’s quoted Hunt as saying, “We will approach it from a broader perspective going forward because time is short for us at this point and so we need to see what other options are out there for us. When we started on this process three years ago, it felt like we had a very long time, a long runway with about nine-and-a-half [years] left on our lease. We’re now down to six-and-a-half and so I do feel very much of a sense of urgency. The Arrowhead is a special place for our family and our fan base. That was one of the reasons that we focused on it with the last effort, but going forward it may make more sense for us to be in a new stadium.”

The Kansas City Chiefs are a professional American football team based in Kansas City, Missouri (US). The Chiefs compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league’s American Football Conference West division.

The 76,416-capacity GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium is an American football stadium in Kansas City, Missouri (US). It primarily serves as the home venue of the Kansas City Chiefs of the National Football League (NFL).

‘ESPN’ stated that voters in Jackson County, Missouri, rejected a sales tax measure earlier this month that would have helped fund major renovations to the Arrowhead Stadium as well as build a new ballpark for the Major League Baseball (MLB) team Kansas City Royals in downtown Kansas City.

Options for a stadium for the Chiefs elsewhere in the Kansas City area include building on the Kansas side of the State line.

The Chiefs had committed to contribute $300 million to the Arrowhead Stadium renovations, which had an overall cost of $800 million. The plan to renovate the Arrowhead Stadium and build a new stadium for the Royals was rejected by almost 60 percent of the voters. It would have replaced a three-eighth-cent sales tax with a similar tax for the next 40 years.

Hunt indicated the Chiefs and the Royals would work on separate plans for funding their new stadiums – “At this point it makes sense for both of us to work independently. There’s certainly nothing to preclude us coming back and doing something together, but the [Royals Owner John Sherman] also feels that sense of urgency and I know he’s eager to try to find a long-term solution, which we are as well. The stadium development projects just take a long time and I don’t want to put a specific number on it, but with only six-and-a-half years left on the lease, we’re going to have to work very hard over the next year, year and a half to see if we can find an option.”

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