The Kansas City Chiefs, who have played in five Super Bowls and won three of them since 2020, announced Monday they will leave their longtime home at Arrowhead Stadium for a new, domed stadium that will be built across the Kansas-Missouri state line and be ready for the start of the 2031 season.
The announcement came shortly after a council of top Kansas lawmakers voted unanimously inside a packed room at the state Capitol to allow the state to issue a little more than $2.4 billion in bonds to cover about 60% of the cost of the new stadium, a new training facility and retail and entertainment space.
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The bonds will be paid off with state sales and liquor tax revenues generated in a defined area around it.
“The location of Chiefs games will change,” Chiefs owner Clark Hunt said after the meeting, “but some things won’t change. Our fans will still be the loudest in the NFL, our games will still be the best place in the world to tailgate, and our players and coaches will be ready to compete for championships, because on the field or off the field, we are big dreamers, and we’re ready for the next chapter.”
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Arrowhead Stadium will no longer be the home of the Kansas City Chiefs if all goes as planned in the franchise’s move to Kansas. Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
The Chiefs intend their $3 billion stadium project to be built in Kansas City, Kansas, near the Kansas Speedway and a retail district known as The Legends. The area includes Children’s Mercy Park, the home of MLS club Sporting Kansas City, and Legends Field, the home of the Kansas City Monarchs minor league baseball team.
The Chiefs also plan to build their $300 million practice facility in the Kansas City-metro suburb of Olathe, Kansas. They’ve committed to at least $700 million in other development.
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“Today’s announcement is truly historic. Actually, it’s a little surreal,” Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly said. “Today’s announcement will touch the lives of Kansans for generations to come. Today’s announcement is a total game-changer for our state.
“We have always been Chiefs fans,” Kelly said. “Now we are Chiefs family.”
State officials also predict that more than 20,000 new construction jobs will be created.
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While the final location for the stadium has not been decided, Chiefs president Mark Donovan said it would seat about 65,000, roughly 10,000 fewer fans than Arrowhead Stadium. That follows a trend across professional sports of building stadiums and arenas that have fewer overall seats but more amenities, luxury seating and premium spaces.
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“We have a lot of work to do. We’re still early in the process,” Hunt said. “In the months ahead, we will hire an architect and contractor and get to work on the five-plus-year timeline to build a new stadium.”
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The move by the Chiefs is a massive blow to Missouri lawmakers and Gov. Mike Kehoe, who had been working on their own funding package to prevent a third NFL franchise and the second in a decade from leaving their borders; the Rams left St. Louis for Los Angeles in part due to their inability to secure funding to help replace The Dome at America’s Center.
Kehoe had backed a special legislative session in June to authorize bonds covering up to 50% of the cost of new or renovated stadiums, plus up to $50 million of tax credits for each stadium and unspecified aid from local governments.
“They thought new and shiny was better than old and reliable,” Kehoe said after the Chiefs’ announcement, adding that the club was in discussions with Missouri officials about staying at a renovated or rebuilt Arrowhead Stadium as late as last week.
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“We won’t give up. We’ll look for cracks in the armor and find out if there’s a Missouri Show-Me solution through our sports act.”
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