SerpApi.Org
The Chiefs’ long-established plans to move across the state line now come with a visual.
The organization unveiled Wednesday its first glimpses of designs for the $3 billion stadium in Wyandotte County, Kansas, set to open for the 2031 season.
The renderings - which the team called its initial concepts - depict a venue that will hold an estimated 70,000 fans. That’s about 3,500 fewer than Arrowhead Stadium, which the team has called home since 1972.
Like most new NFL venues - though distinctly unlike Arrowhead Stadium - the Chiefs’ new stadium will be a dome, as they had previously announced. It will have a translucent ETFE roof, essentially a replacement for traditional glass.
Along with the renderings, the Chiefs selected MANICA as the stadium’s design firm. Populous was also a finalist in the six-month competitive design process.
In a news release Wednesday, the team claimed the lower-level seating bowl “is reminiscent of Arrowhead Stadium,” and the distant image of the venue on the outside also takes on a similar shape, though the stadium notably does not carry the same name in the renderings.
In an exclusive interview with The Star in the spring, Chiefs team president Mark Donovan said, “We want to celebrate and honor Arrowhead in the design.” He elaborated, “Every single discussion we have is, ‘OK, how does this impact noise, and how does this impact tailgating?’”
The team touted both in its press release. The accompanying photos illustrate tailgating and parking lots surrounding the stadium. They estimate capacity for at least 20,000 parking spots.
The 400,000 squrare-foot translucent roof will allow for the Chiefs to continue a tradition of military flyovers before the game, the team said.
The surrounding elements of the stadium will the Chiefs Hall of Honor, which the team plans to double in size, and a Lamar Hunt statue. Those will be part of a mixed-used development space that awaits announcement and details.
Clark Hunt, Chiefs chairman and CEO, said the organization is “still finalizing many of the details” for the project.
The Chiefs’ move to Kansas
The Chiefs announced in December their intentions to leave Arrowhead Stadium after calling the venue at Truman Sports Complex home for more than a half-century, a measure that sent reverberations throughout the Kansas City metro.
They also intend to move their practice facility and team headquarters to Olathe. The practice facility, estimated to be a $300 million project, will reside on 155 acres along the intersection of College Boulevard and Ridgeview Road in Olathe.
Arrowhead Stadium and the Chiefs’ practice facility currently sit inside the Truman Sports Complex in Kansas City, Missouri.
The public will fund 60% of the Chiefs’ new domed stadium, primarily through the state’s supercharged version of its STAR bonds program but also through local municipalities - a reality that has received criticism and pushback from residents and economists alike.
The latter point to years of study-backed evidence that demonstrate sports stadiums are not major drivers of economic activity. Seven months after announcement, the state is yet to release the STAR bonds district that will supply the bulk of the funding, but it appears likely they will cast a wide net that dips into sales tax across the area.
The public financing agreement followed years of back-and-forth discussions with Kansas and Missouri lawmakers, a border war reignited after Jackson County voters rejected an April 2024 ballot measure that would have funded both a downtown Royals stadium that lacked important details and renovation plans at Arrowhead Stadium that received a tepid public reaction.
