Here’s why some KC Chiefs fans willingly pay rising costs to attend home games

Jason Yunker recalls fondly his first home game at Arrowhead Stadium, known since early 2021 as GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium.

Yunker, then 13, was with his father. They watched the Chiefs defeat the New York Giants on Sept. 10, 1995. He said his father paid for the tickets, so he doesn’t know what they cost.

But Yunker, a Grain Valley native, was hooked.

“I wouldn’t miss it,” he says today. “I don’t miss a game.”

Yunker, now 40, remembers his first single-game purchase of tickets, and it was a good one. He was in attendance with his father and brother on Oct. 31, 2011, and together they watched then-San Diego Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers fumble a snap deep inside Chiefs territory in the waning seconds of regulation. The Chiefs recovered and would go on to win in overtime.

It was a prime-time game, Monday Night Football. They paid $86 each for the tickets in Section 111, Row 36, Seats 13-15, for $258 total. Not a bad sum for premium end-zone seats at a game that became an instant classic.

Marcus Mikkelsen, 37, has a similar experience of attending Chiefs home games with family members in premium seats. The Lee’s Summit native said he took in his first game in Section 121, Row 5, in the early 1990s ... and he has a good idea as to how much his father paid for the right to seat his family there.

“I remember looking at the tickets and they were in the $60s, like $68,” Mikkelsen said with a chuckle. “I was 8 or 9 years old, like 1993, 1994. I’m pretty sure they were $68, and to me as a kid, that always seemed like a lot.”

That was then, of course, and this is now.

According to seatgeek.com, prices for individual tickets will vary “depending on the seating section, opponent, day of week, and more.” But rest assured that $68 would be a bargain nowadays, especially to see a Chiefs team that won a Super Bowl a few years ago and is intent on winning more championships.

Taking those factors into consideration, fans hoping to watch the Chiefs play host to the defending Super Bowl-champion Los Angeles Rams on Nov. 27 should be prepared to spend.

A single-game ticket in the same section Yunker sat a decade ago costs between $280-$500, according to Ticketmaster. Seats in the upper decks for the Chiefs-Rams game typically start around $190 per.

The high-end price range coincides with a May 2022 report from the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Citing information obtained from ticketing platform Logitix, the newspaper reported that the average price for a Chiefs home game in 2022 will cost $354 on the secondary market, fifth-most in the league.

For some fans, sitting up higher in the stadium is the solution — to still getting the Arrowhead experience.

“I’ve been pretty much priced out of the 100-sections,” Mikkelsen said. “It’s a mental limitation — for two tickets, I’m not going to pay $1,000 to go to a game no matter what game it is.

“But I’ve really learned to love the 300s (section) and maybe it’s because I don’t want to pay the large amount for the 100s. I really love how much of the game you can see from the 300 Section. As the ticket prices have gone up, we’re going to more games in the last five years. I’m more than happy to spend $100 to $150 a ticket and sit higher up as long as we’re there.”

PARKING CONSIDERATION

Ticket prices aren’t the only game-day cost that’s seen escalation through the years. Parking is spendy, too.

Fans have multiple options for purchasing parking passes online, ahead of the game, to offset some of the current $60 fee at the tollgates. Going through the Chiefs’ official website costs $47 per pass. It’s $45 through Ticketmaster.

Bryan Schmuck, 46, said he’s attended Chiefs games since the early 1980s and was a season-ticket member (STM) from 1995 to 2018. He didn’t have parking included in his STM pass in 2005, electing instead to pay for parking once he got to the game. But he remembers what he paid for a parking pass 17 years ago.

“I think it was probably $20,” Schmuck said.

Yunker, a STM since 2013, pays his parking fees in advance as part of his membership. Paying for parking that way costs him $47 per game on top of his $1,100 per seat in Section 127. When he first became a STM nine years ago, Yunker said, he paid $30 for parking per game in addition to a then-$700 per-seat charge.

Mikkelsen, who also attends home games with his wife, said they try to go to games with other couples so they can split the overall cost. He said he has friends who are also STMs and he can sometimes get a parking pass from them.

He figures that paying the going rate for parking is just part of the overall game-day experience.

“Parking is what it is,” Mikkelsen said. “I always feel like I’m too far away and I paid too much for it.”

‘EMOTIONALLY INVESTED’

There’s no question the Chiefs are a hot ticket these days.

Under current head coach Andy Reid, the Chiefs have won the AFC West six straight times and appeared in two Super Bowls, winning Super Bowl LIV against the San Francisco 49ers in Miami. And Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes is one of the NFL’s elite signal-callers.

Those things help fill the stands, but hardcore Chiefs fans will continue to attend their games, regardless of circumstances or win/loss record.

No longer a season-ticket member, Schmuck continues to attend games at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium by paying the single-game-ticket price tag.

“I’m just a die-hard Chiefs fanatic, I’m just a die-hard fan,” Schmuck said. “I live and die by the Chiefs. I mean, I get fairly emotional when they lose. When we lost to Indy (in Week 3 this season), I was an emotional wreck. There’s no way we should’ve lost that game. … I’m very emotionally invested.”

That last part is a driving force in his willingness to continue to shell out for tickets, even at ever-increasing prices. And he is far from alone.

“I mean, if I was just a fair-weathered fan and take my family to one game a year, I don’t know if I would spend $300 a ticket or $400 a ticket,” Schmuck said. “There’s nothing like Arrowhead’s atmosphere.”

Yunker agreed.

“It’s worth it,” he said. “To me, Arrowhead is my heaven on earth. That’s my most favorite place to be. I get to be there with my family and my friends, and the environment is second to none.”

It’s clear that enjoying a winning team and spending time with family are factors for Chiefs fans who attend home games. Factor in camaraderie in the stands, and paying to watch the Chiefs in person overrides cost for many.

“I think you continue paying for the love of the game,” Mikkelsen said. “The atmosphere, I don’t think it gets any better than Arrowhead on a Sunday — it’s electric; it’s exciting.

“It’s like you’re with a large group of people you want to hang out with. You don’t normally know the person to your right or your left, but it’s like you become friends cheering together over the course of the day. It’s addicting and it’s nothing like being at home.”

This story was originally published October 30, 2022 at 5:00 AM.

Herbie Teope

The Kansas City Star

816-234-4689