The Kansas Metropolis Chiefs, winners of 4 Tremendous Bowls and one of many sporting world’s most distinguished franchises, will depart their longtime house in Missouri and play within the neighboring Sunflower State beginning in 2031, workforce officers stated on Monday.
The Chiefs’ announcement got here after lawmakers within the state of Kansas accredited funding for a brand new stadium in Kansas Metropolis, Kansas, about 23 miles west of the franchise’s house of greater than a half century, Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas Metropolis, Missouri.
Gov. Laura Kelly spiked the soccer and stated the transfer exhibits her that Kansas was able to play on the nation’s large stage.
“Right this moment we’re asserting an settlement to deliver our beloved Kansas Metropolis Chiefs proper right here to Kansas,” the Kansas Democrat instructed reporters. “For the remainder of the nation, I say take heed. Kansas is just not a flyover state. We’re a landing state.”
Chiefs proprietor Clark Hunt, son of workforce founder Lamar Hunt, likened this transfer to his dad’s daring strikes to enter the American Soccer League to deliver this franchise to the Midwest.
A brand new domed stadium for the Chiefs might be a part of a “mixed-use district in Wyandotte County, and a best-in-class coaching facility, workforce headquarters, and mixed-use district in Olathe, totaling a minimal of $4 billion of improvement within the State of Kansas,” based on Hunt.
“Dad constantly appeared to the longer term and propelled the sport ahead for practically half a century. Each step of the best way, he prioritized the followers. And each step of the best way, he thought concerning the subsequent era,” Hunt stated in an announcement.
“Right this moment we’re excited to take one other momentous step for the way forward for the franchise. We now have entered into an settlement with the State of Kansas to host Chiefs soccer starting with the 2031 NFL season.”
The franchise has soared in reputation in recent times, due in equal elements their success on the sector and up within the bleachers.
Kansas Metropolis has appeared in 5 of the previous six Tremendous Bowls, having gained three titles with dynamic quarterback Patrick Mahomes and star tight finish Travis Kelce.
That success has been amplified by Kelce’s relationship with all-time pop celebrity Taylor Swift, whose legions of followers have adopted the Chiefs as their favourite workforce.
“It is so humorous to be on stage and to see 1000’s of Kansas Metropolis Chiefs 87 jerseys,” Swift stated a not too long ago launched episode of the documentary sequence “The Finish of an Period.”
“When you would have proven me like, ‘That is what your crowd’s going to appear like in a 12 months’ earlier than I knew he was going come into my life, I’d simply be like, ‘Why are there so many, like, soccer jerseys on the market?’ It’s a discernible distinction in the best way the gang seems to be.”
The Chiefs and baseball’s Kansas Metropolis Royals play side-by-side on the Truman Sports activities Complicated that is simply south of Interstate 70 and east of I-435 in Missouri. Leases at each of these stadiums come up in January 2031.
The Royals have already began planning a post-Kauffman Stadium period with hopes of getting a brand new ballpark within the Crossroads District in downtown Kansas Metropolis, Missouri.
The announcement might mark an finish to one of many NFL’s most intimidating house fields.
The Chiefs have been founding members of the upstart American Soccer League, taking part in because the Dallas Texans for 3 seasons between 1960 and 1962.
Regardless of profitable the 1962 AFL title, workforce proprietor Lamar Hunt pulled up stakes to Kansas Metropolis, Missouri, for the 1963 season and his franchise has flourished ever since.
The Chiefs have gained 4 Tremendous Bowls, tied with blue bloods such because the New York Giants and Inexperienced Bay Packers.
Ok.C. solely trails the San Francisco 49ers and Dallas Cowboys, every with 5 titles, and the New England Patriots and Pittsburgh Steelers with six rings apiece.
The Chiefs have known as Arrowhead Stadium house because the 1972 season, and that constructing — with its rabid followers and legendary tailgating — having earned a fame as considered one of professional soccer’s loudest venues.
Although the Chiefs have been in talks with Missouri and Jackson County officers about probably protecting the workforce on the east aspect of the Kansas-Missouri state line, the state of Kansas seems to have gained the bidding conflict.
Jackson County voters, in April 2024, resoundingly voted in opposition to a gross sales tax measure that would have financed an Arrowhead Stadium renovation.
This may not be the primary time a professional soccer workforce has moved inside the similar TV market, however to a unique state.
The New York soccer Giants landed in East Rutherford, New Jersey, in 1976 and the New York Jets adopted them west in 1984.
Each franchises saved their “New York” monikers regardless of taking part in on the opposite aspect of the Hudson River.
The Washington Commanders have performed in Maryland, outdoors of Washington, D.C., since 1997. The membership had beforehand known as RKF and Griffith Stadiums house within the District of Columbia.
