Clark Hunt’s heart hopes Chiefs stay at Arrowhead, but practicality will dictate future
Clark Hunt was 7 years old when the $43 million wonder known as Arrowhead Stadium opened on Aug. 12, 1972, with a preseason game between the Chiefs and St. Louis Cardinals.
“I don’t know that I exactly understood what I was looking at,” the Chiefs chairman and CEO said Friday in Kansas City, “but I remember being there for that.”
With considerably more clarity, he recalled his fondest childhood memories were there, too: on the field kicking a football with Pro Football Hall of Fame kicker Jan Stenerud coaching him and father Lamar alongside in what happened to be one of his favorite places.
So much so, the son said, that the father once mentioned “if he could pick one vacation spot in the world, it would be Arrowhead.”
Indeed, the Hunt family still avails itself to a live-in suite within The House That Lamar Built — the iconic stadium that Clark Hunt to this day considers “state of the art” and figures draws fans from around the country toward “sort of making their pilgrimage” here.
So, businessman that he might be, Hunt said determining the future of the stadium — and considering potential alternatives — from a personal standpoint “will be very challenging for me and the family.”
Just the same, even nine years from the expiration of the current lease, the Chiefs view this complicated question with seismic implications as imperative to begin addressing now.
Trying to reconcile that future became all the more immediate, if not urgent, because of the reality of the Royals, their Truman Sports Complex counterparts, actively exploring a move downtown before the lease expires.
Never mind that it’s easy to walk around and through Arrowhead now and still marvel … and thus be skeptical of any imminent need. Especially considering the way it appears since the Chiefs spent nearly as much in renovations the last few years ($40 million) as they did to build it in the first place.
And you don’t have to be a cynic to wonder how much any such discussion is an early launch of negotiations, particularly since the Chiefs are intent on receiving public funding that at least matches any the Royals might secure.
Meanwhile, it’s still hard to envision the Chiefs truly contemplating the most radical of changes: to move to Kansas, which is on the verge of legalizing sports betting that could funnel much of the revenue (80%) toward efforts to compel the Chiefs in its direction.
But the reality is that short of a Mahomes Dome straddling State Line Road, it seems that virtually everything is in play since it’s so early in this timeline and so much is unknown.
And because even as traditionalists and those who think public money could and should be spent in other ways might balk, this is a decision that hinges less on the tradition amassed in the last 50 years than on the needs and ambitions of the next 50 years to stay vibrant and competitive.
Much as we’d prefer to see the Chiefs extend this part of their legacy, we also figure we don’t know what we don’t know right now and reckon due diligence is entirely appropriate.
That’s why the Chiefs commissioned a $500,000 financial study of best options ahead, believed to be focused primarily on the feasibility of: staying at Arrowhead as it is now; a sweeping renovation and expansion on the grounds of the Truman Sports Complex (if the Royals indeed move) or an entirely new stadium on that site or, gulp, elsewhere.
Asked how it would play out in an ideal world, Hunt said, “I don’t think there’s a simple answer to that. Certainly, my heart tells me that I hope it’s Arrowhead, right? Because Arrowhead is so special to our family.
“The important thing, though, is that we find the right solution for the Chiefs and the community and something that can last for hopefully another 50 years.”
What that looks like is hard to parse right now, especially with the Chiefs thus far indicating behind the scenes that they are inclined to stay at Arrowhead for the duration of the lease as they anticipate this study taking years.
“I can’t give you a definitive timeline (on the study results),” Hunt said. “Because we’ve started early, the good news is we’re going to have plenty of time to make that evaluation …”
So with so many variables at play and years to go, it’s going to take time for various scenarios to emerge or fade.
For instance, when Hunt last fall spoke in a more generalized way about the future home of the Chiefs, he alluded to the recently built “beautiful stadiums” in Los Angeles (for a $5 billion price tag) and Las Vegas ($1.8 billion).
“Obviously, things change, and the way fans want to consume the game and the kind of spaces that you need, those things change over time, and we’re paying attention to that,” he said then, noting those domed stadiums came with amenities he was “sure we’ll want to incorporate.”
As for how he views the notion of a public-private partnership in what’s ahead?
“Well, we’ve had a tremendous public-private partnership with the county, the city and the state since we’ve been in Arrowhead,” he said. “And I certainly would hope that going forward we would have an opportunity to continue that. But I think it’s a little premature at this point. We’ve got to figure out what the right solution is and then we can work on how we can get it done.”
Then there’s the matter of the practicality of a venture in developing around or within the stadium complex, which has spurred virtually nothing substantial around it through half a century.
“In the past, we’ve just felt that the location wasn’t perfect for additional development,” he said Friday. “But times change … Different areas of the city develop at different times. And I think that’s something that we’ll circle back around to as part of this evaluation.”
But that all comes after the most elemental part of the evaluation:
“I think one of the most important things that we’ll learn is whether structurally Arrowhead can go another 25 or 50 years,” he said.
Aesthetically appealing as it remains, he added, “It’s a cement stadium that’s been around for a while now. And we’ve got to make sure it can go beyond the end of the lease, and that’s something that will be an ongoing evaluation.
“So that will be the first thing that we really need to figure out before we can think about the next step.”
Add it all up, and this is about all we can know right now:
“It’s not a decision that we’re going to take lightly,” Hunt said, “and it’s something that will be very tough emotionally.”
And something that constituents all over will have emotions about, too.
Passions that also will figure in what is now an unpredictable outcome … no matter how much we hope the more things change the more this particular one will stay the same.
This story was originally published April 29, 2022 at 9:55 PM.