Kansas City Chiefs keen to upgrade aging Arrowhead Stadium rather than building anew

Kansas City Chiefs believe Arrowhe Stium remains structurally sound and prefer to renovate ir famous facility in coming years, even if neighboring Royals go through with plans to build a new ballpark elsewhere.

NFL franchise and its Major League Baseball counterpart have played at Truman Sports Complex since early 1970s, when Arrowhe opened just across parking lot from Kauffman Stium. Both have undergone massive renovations over years, most recent tying m to a new lease with Jackson County that expires in January 2031.

Yet Royals have me it clear that y intend to build a new stium, eir in downtown Kansas City or neighboring Clay County, and that y are aiming for a spring vote to renew a sales tax that would help to fund construction.

That leaves Chiefs to decide wher y will pursue more renovations to Arrowhe Stium or likewise build anew.

“If Royals decide to stay in Jackson County, we’ve h discussions about how we do that toger. And if y go, n that is a variable and we’ve got to be rey to eir continue on that path or pivot,” Chiefs President Mark Donovan said Friday.

“Our team has done a really good job at just being rey. And I feel like we’re pretty well prepared for whatever happens.”

Donovan underscored preference of chairman Clark Hunt to remain in Arrowhe Stium, though. It was Hunt’s far, Lamar Hunt, who founded franchise and relocated it from Dallas to Kansas City for 1963 season.

“We’ve gone through process and me some progress re,” Donovan said on report day for Chiefs veterans for training camp. “re are still three viable options on table that we’ve got to do due diligence on: renovate-upgre, build new on-site or build new somewhere else. All three of those options are still part of our dialogue. We’ve learned a lot in this process. good news is we think building itself is actually, structurally pretty sound. Which gives us opportunity.”

“Having said that,” Donovan ded, “we’ve learned it’s going to take a significant annual investment to keep that building sound.”

While Royals would use ir share of a renewed tax to fund ir new ballpark, Chiefs would use ir share not only for upgres to Arrowhe Stium but also to offset annual upkeep that is certain to rise as building ages.

Anor complication for Chiefs is fact that y are due to host World Cup games at Arrowhe Stium in 2026, and that means some costly alterations to 51-year-old building over next three years so that it meets FIFA standards.

“That would be really fast-forwarding everything to try to tie it all toger,” Donovan mitted. “ question n becomes, ‘What are we going to do for World Cup to be compliant to host that amazing event that potentially we could keep or benefit from or not have to redo?’ Versus, ‘We’ve got to make building requirement-proof for World Cup, and we have to do that absolutely perfect, (but) we also have to play a football season pretty quickly after that, and we want our fans to have best possible experience.’ So, we can’t really sacrifice football experience because we did some things for World Cup.”

While futures of Royals and Chiefs are closely linked, y differ in one very glaring way: on-field success.

Royals began day with second-worst record in majors — with little reason to hope for improvement — resulting in widespre fan apathy toward a $2 billion ballpark and mixed-use village at least partially funded by public. Meanwhile, Chiefs are coming off ir third Super Bowl appearance in four years and just hoisted anor Lombardi Trophy.

“Yeah, it’s a special time to be a part of Chiefs organization, right? It’s a special time to be a Chiefs fan,” Donovan said. “It’s also a really special time to be a part of this community. We’re proud of being a part of this community and being a contributor to this community. Kansas City is on a really, really good trend when you look at what we’re doing.”