- An $800 million renovation is planned for the Kansas City Chiefs’ Arrowhead Stadium.
- The renovations are dependent on a less than half-cent sales tax extension and are scheduled to begin after Kansas City hosts the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
- Chiefs chairman Clark Hunt said of the proposal and potential financial hurdles: “We are not willing to sign another 25-year lease unless we have the funds to properly renovate and rebuild the stadium.” he said.
The Kansas City Chiefs are planning an $800 million renovation of Arrowhead Stadium, the NFL’s third-oldest stadium, to begin after the 2026 World Cup and take about 40 minutes to complete. It is expected to take a year.
The project is contingent on an April 2 extension of the three-eighths cent tax by voters in Jackson County, Missouri. That money is being used to maintain Arrowhead’s Truman Sports Complex and adjacent Kauffman Stadium, home to the Royals. They intend to head to a new ballpark downtown before their current lease expires after the 2030 season.
Chiefs chairman Clark Hunt acknowledged that “we’re not going to sign another 25-year lease unless we have the money to properly renovate and rebuild the stadium,” adding that his family has $300 million to spend on the entire project. He plans to donate. “So the funding puzzle is very important to us to make sure we have enough funding to do everything we have outlined.”
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The scope of the renovation project, revealed Wednesday at a news conference at Arrowhead, will cover every aspect of the 52-year-old building, from seating bowls to upscale amenities to the tailgating scene.
A new parking deck will be constructed to provide better access points for players, VIPs, and other special guests. A new pedestrian bridge will help fans get from the parking lot to the stadium. New ribbon boards will be installed, the video boards at each end will be tripled and quadrupled in size, and existing suites around the stadium will be renovated.
Fans enter Arrowhead Stadium, home of the Kansas City Chiefs, on October 10, 2022 in Kansas City, Missouri. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File)
The two major changes to the stadium itself will be at the top and bottom of the stadium.
For the first time since the stadium was built in 1972, the Chiefs plan to build a 360-degree upper concourse that will allow fans to move more easily through the stadium. There will also be more food stations, restrooms and merchandise areas, which will reduce crowding elsewhere in the stadium.
In the end zone, the Chiefs will excavate beneath the existing structure to create a club space similar to the one at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, where the Raiders play and where the Chiefs recently won their third Super Bowl in the past five years. are planning to make one.
“You’re going to sit at field level at Allegiant Stadium and see what a great end zone suite they have and say, ‘Wow. Unfortunately, we can’t do that,'” Chiefs President Mark Donovan said. “We found a way to do that by not only providing the NFL’s newest and greatest building, but also placing it inside the iconic Arrowhead Stadium.”
Another big change will occur outside the stadium. The Chiefs envision building a tailgating plaza on the grounds of Kauffman Stadium. The covered area not only serves as a gathering space on game days, but can also be used for events throughout the year.
Original plans for the Truman Sports Complex called for a rotating roof that could cover Arrowhead Stadium and Kauffman Stadium, but that structure was never built. The Chiefs revisited the idea of putting a roof on Arrowhead about 20 years ago, the last time Arrowhead underwent a major renovation, but the public was skeptical of the project and the idea was scrapped. has been abolished.
A roof could help Kansas City host the Super Bowl, but Hunt said Wednesday that the roof was never seriously considered for this renovation. And in fact, the team prefers to play outdoors in the wind and rain.
“We certainly feel that it will be a competitive advantage for us,” he said.
The Chiefs also considered mixed-use development around Arrowhead, which has few restaurants, hotels or entertainment options. However, studies have found that such investments do not bring positive economic returns.
“It may sound harsh, but this is not a place that doesn’t deserve development,” Donovan said.
The scope of the project was then narrowed to Arrowhead itself. Hunt said the goal is to maintain its history and mystique while providing fans with amenities found in more modern stadiums across the NFL.
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“My dad’s favorite thing about this stadium was the connection he had with the team and the fan base,” Hunt said of his father, Lamar Hunt, who founded the Dallas team in 1959. “He loved what this building meant to the fans, and we continue to say that this stadium is one of the best in the National Football League and one of the best in the entire NFL. We believe this is a bucket list destination for our fans.”
