An official from Wyandotte County attending the Chiefs-to-Kansas announcement recalled how excited the county was to land the Kansas City T-Bones, an independent league baseball team, some 20 years ago.
Now this. Kansas is poised to enter the big four of professional sports leagues. The Chiefs will call Kansas City, Kansas, home starting with the 2031 season.
Unless there is some wild swing in population trends, Kansas will be the smallest state with a major pro team. It also held that distinction with Sporting Kansas City of Major League Soccer, based in KCK, counting with the major leagues.
“Today is a total game-changer for our state,” Gov. Laura Kelly said.
According to the Chiefs, a new domed stadium that will cost $3.3 billion also opens possibilities that could never have happened in the Sunflower State.
“It will give Kansas City the opportunity to bid on events we can’t host right now,” Chiefs chairman and CEO Clark Hunt said. “Like Super Bowls, College Football Playoffs, NCAA Final Fours.”
None of that is possible at the Chiefs’ current open-air home, GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium. The Chiefs and Kansas City had an opportunity to get in that game in 2006, but Jackson County voters turned down a rolling roof over Arrowhead and Kauffman stadiums.
Hunt said Kansas wanted the roof.
“It was important to the state of Kansas that we build a dome,” Hunt said. “And as we look to the future, that makes the most sense. ... One of the first things we’ll do when we get going on the project is to talk to the NFL about a Super Bowl.”
Kansas is not only getting the stadium, but the team’s headquarters and training facility are moving to Olathe. The costs for those projects: $300 million.
Hunt said another $700 million will be invested in Olathe and Wyandotte County for mixed-use districts. “And it could go up from that,” Hunt added.
Chiefs president Mark Donovan said the new stadium will be smaller than Arrowhead, which lists capacity at 73,426. The new stadium will be “65,000-plus,” Donovan said.
“If you look at the new stadiums that are out there, specifically the domed stadiums, they’re between 62,000 and 68,000,” Donovan said.
One of the newest NFL buildings, Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas that opened in 2020, seats 65,000. The Buffalo Bills’ new stadium, set to open next season, will have a 67,000 capacity including standing room.
Hunt wouldn’t say if the new stadium will include personal-seat licenses, which entitle a ticket holder the right to buy certain seats. Arrowhead doesn’t have PCLs.
“We haven’t made a decision on that,” Hunt said. “We’ll be looking at the overall financing in the coming months in terms of how we put that together.
“Every new stadium in the NFL that’s been built in the last 10 or 20 years have included personal seat licenses.”
The major sports calendar in Kansas has included a variety of activities: Sporting KC, two NASCAR races at Kansas Speedway — likely near the site of the new Chiefs stadium — minor-league baseball, minor-league hockey, indoor soccer and indoor football.
The NHL almost came to Kansas. In 1971, the league awarded franchise rights to Johnson County contingent on the construction of an 18,000-seat arena. That arena was built — in Kansas City — and the expansion Scouts played at Kemper Arena for two years.
Johnson County also voted down a new home for the MLS Kansas City Wizards in 2006. They eventually landed in Wyandotte County.
The Chiefs have played games in Kansas. In 1963, the team’s first year in Kansas City, the Chiefs played their third preseason game in Wichita. Bleacher seats went for $3. Another preseason game was played there in 1965.
If you want to think ahead, future NFL schedules would have the Chiefs playing, besides the AFC West opponents, the Chicago Bears, Detroit Lions, Houston Texans and Indianapolis Colts at home in 2031 based on the league’s schedule matrix.
