Chiefs Kingdom has never been bigger. What it means to be a fan in the Super Bowl era

To be sure, the Chiefs’ training camp at Missouri Western State University isn’t as accessible or casual as Royals spring training.

In Surprise, Arizona and elsewhere around the Cactus League, fans can get closerthanthis to engage players, and I once saw Eric Hosmer changing into his uniform in a parking lot as if he were getting ready for a Little League game.

But for a league that postures itself as holding state secrets and a team coached by an otherwise personable man whose insights largely can be summed up as name, rank and serial number, the camp held in St. Joseph annually since 2010 (except 2020, because of the pandemic) is a special gathering place for fans.

The camp’s setting provides a remarkably intimate glimpse not just of individual players. You can hear superstar quarterback Patrick Mahomes call signals from virtually all views of the practice fields.

It is also where fans can get a look at the making of team culture as the Chiefs seek the unprecedented: to become the first franchise in the Super Bowl era to win three straight NFL championships.

While the Chiefs save the subterfuge and such for meetings and future implementation, what fans and media see being created before them is the mortar of a winning franchise.

That’s a dynamic to be relished for its increasing rarity (only eight NFL teams now go “away” to camp; just five are within an easy drive); a bargain rate ($5 parking and free admission all but three days when the school charges $5); and the chance to brush with greatness through seating close to the action and autograph sessions.

Small wonder the camp lures fans from just about everywhere to a site around an hour from GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium — roughly the same drive-time as it is from San Francisco to the 49ers’ Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California.

According to the Chiefs, who aspire not merely to be “America’s Team” but the “World’s Team,” training camp tickets have been scanned in from accounts across all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

That doesn’t necessarily mean fans from 50 states have been here, but it speaks to training camp’s scope and scale and meaning.

As does the steady churn of not only national NFL writers, but media from England, Germany and Mexico.

And fans holding signs proclaiming they were here from Brazil (albeit having arrived a few years ago) and Canada (“1100 MILES ACROSS FIVE STATES TO MEET COACH REID,” it said on one placard adorned with red maple leafs). And surely from other nations we didn’t spot.

People of the Kingdom

This season, The Star is turning particular attention to stories from Chiefs fans. Our journalists took a Red Kingdom Road Trip to meet fans on the way to the Super Bowl, and in our new season-long People of the Kingdom series, we will continue highlighting the legion of supporters who make GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium the loudest venue in the league.

Over the last few weeks, I spoke with nearly two-dozen fans, each with his or her own history with the Chiefs and reasons for being at camp in St. Joe.

Like those with an oversized papier-mache Mahomes head, complete with makeshift headband and hair, or the guy with the Kelce Super Bowl ring hat (with painted face, naturally). And the little boy walking along a fenceline who practically was overcome that Mahomes was in his sight and just yelled his name.

Like New Yorker Jeff Kiel, whose late wife converted him into a Chiefs fan some 30 years ago — “she had better taste” — and came here by way of Chicago as a form of payback to the Chiefs for having “rewarded me so much.”

Like the Lee’s Summit woman who was at camp with her grandchildren from Maryland trying to indoctrinate them, lest others unduly influence their football allegiances. And the woman on a sizzling hot day with her twin babies in a cart rigged up with fans on each. The “best seat in the house,” she proclaimed as she walked on.

Like season-ticket holder Lynn “Weirdwolf” Schmidt, who you’ve doubtless seen in full regalia screaming in Section 110, and his friend Bob Green, whose jaw-dropping man-cave includes an actual small-scale jumbotron.

Lest Schmidt be confused with the notorious ChiefsAholic, who pleaded guilty to a spree of robberies and attempted robberies of banks and credit unions, Green helpfully added, “He needs a T-shirt that says, ‘I’m not that guy.’”

These are just a few examples of the people who make Chiefs Kingdom special. And over the next several days — all season, in fact — you’ll be getting to know many more of them.

Vahe Gregorian

The Kansas City Star

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Vahe Gregorian has been a sports columnist for The Kansas City Star since 2013 after 25 years at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. He has covered a wide spectrum of sports, including 10 Olympics. Vahe was an English major at the University of Pennsylvania and earned his master’s degree at Mizzou.