What effect will Patrick Mahomes have on the Chiefs’ business operations?
A billboard for The University of Kansas Health System along Interstate 29 approaching Missouri Western State features Chiefs players. Prominent in the ad is a player with one game of NFL experience.
That is the profile of quarterback Patrick Mahomes, who after a year of mostly resisting offers to accentuate his brand figures to take advantage of his celebrity. So does his team.
Training-camp draw, ticket seller and team front man ... all of those roles await Mahomes, along with outside offers.
“All those people want to be associated with Pat are talking to us,” said Chiefs president Mark Donovan, who oversees the team’s business operations.
From a team standpoint, Donovan said interest and activity at the corporate level has increased over the previous year, and the Chiefs expect to sell more tickets than in 2017, when they sold the most tickets in the history of the franchise.
It’s not all because of Mahomes. After all, the Chiefs ride the momentum of five straight winning seasons and four playoff appearances under coach Andy Reid and welcome plenty of new faces this year.
But a new quarterback with a rocket arm and obtained by trading two first-round draft choices is bound to attract attention.
The Chiefs are expecting big crowds for training camp on days that are open to the public. Fans will be looking for an up-close glimpse of Mahomes. This is the Chiefs’ ninth year in St. Joseph and the team and Missouri Western estimated that some 300,000 fans have attended a practice.
The first practice open to the public this summer is Thursday at 3:30 p.m.
“A very high percentage of Chiefs fans never get to Arrowhead Stadium,” Donovan said. “A very high percentage of Chiefs fans never get to see a player live without a helmet on. This is that opportunity.”
Mahomes could have begun cashing in last year but bought into the idea of holding back on the promotional front.
“Pat really stepped back last year when he could have stepped up,” Donovan said. “He could have done a lot more things that weren’t football-related and said, ‘I’ve got to figure this out first.’
“As you can imagine, we make a trade, he’s the guy and we got bombarded, he got bombarded, and his agents got bombarded. It’s like you’re the guy now and everybody wants to get him just when he started. He did a really good job. He got good advice and he took it.”
Mahomes’ agent, Leigh Steinberg, told USA Today in June that his advice was for Mahomes to keep a low public profile as Alex Smith led the Chiefs in what became his final season in Kansas City. Smith was traded to Washington after last season, and the offense was entrusted to Mahomes.
“Any time you make a change in the quarterback position, it’s going to have an impact,” Donovan said. “And clearly it has.”