Chiefs aim for 6 months to decide stadium plans

Last updated: 2024/07/19 at 11:34 PM

BigP Published July 19, 2024

Adam Teicher, ESPN Staff WriterJul 19, 2024, 02:59 PM ET
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- Covered Chiefs for 20 seasons for Kansas City Star
- Joined ESPN in 2013

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. — The Kansas City Chiefs went all-in and failed “pretty badly” as an April vote for a renovated Arrowhead Stadium fell flat, team president Mark Donovan said.

Now, the Chiefs are continuing discussions with officials from both Kansas and Missouri to figure out the team’s future location after their lease at Arrowhead expires following the 2030 season. Donovan said they’re looking at the failed vote as an opportunity to consider what makes the most sense for fans and the future of the franchise.

“This is a generational decision,” Donovan said. “This is going to impact the future of this franchise for generations. We’ve got to get it right and we are going to do the due diligence.”

The Chiefs and the Kansas City Royals went to voters in Jackson County, Missouri, in April hoping to extend an existing three-eighth-cent sales tax for two facilities: a renovated Arrowhead for the Chiefs and a new stadium for the Royals. The measure failed, with more than 58% of voters rejecting it.

That defeat led the Chiefs to broaden their search for a new plan. Donovan said the team staying in a renovated Arrowhead is “very much an option” and building a new stadium at the Arrowhead site is in play too.

“We have to look at a new building,” Donovan said. “We’re open to it. We’re open to a new building on the complex, we’re open to a new building somewhere else. We’re open to a dome or an outdoor [facility] as a new building. We’re also very open to renovating GEHA Field at Arrowhead because I think it’s iconic. It’s something that’s unique. We’d love to be able to do that.

“It’s just going to come down to what makes the most sense and I want to reiterate the factors that go into that decision are what’s best for our fans, what’s best for the franchise for the next few decades.”

Donovan said the Chiefs have no firm deadline for a decision and will remain at Arrowhead, which opened in 1972 and was renovated almost 15 years ago, until 2030. But he acknowledged the team doesn’t have long if it wants to be in a new facility or a renovated Arrowhead by 2031.

“Six months from today, we’re going to have to have a really good idea of where we are,” Donovan said. “It may not be done done, but we need to have good idea.”