ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (AP) — The Kansas City Chiefs are lining up to host the Super Bowl and Final Four in their $3 billion domed replacement for aging Arrowhead Stadium, which has yet to break ground but is expected to be ready in time for the 2031 football season.
Chiefs president Mark Donovan said conversations with the NFL have been ongoing about hosting the Super Bowl in 2033, 2034 or 2035, while the organization is “aggressively pursuing” college basketball's
national championship game.
“If you know anything or follow anything about the NCAA,” Donovan said, “you know they're going out with a bid here, and the thing about it is if you're the NCAA, you're trying to sort of put stability in your future planning. So they're trying to lock in all these dates. We don't have a building yet, but we don't want to be knocked out of those because they're locked in so far out.”
SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, will host the Super Bowl for the coming season, while Atlanta and Mercedes-Benz Stadium will host the big game in 2028. Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas has been awarded the 2029 game while the Titans' new stadium in Nashville, Tennessee, will host the Super Bowl in February 2030.
The Final Four already has been awarded through April 2031.
Ford Field in Detroit will host the semifinals and championship game after the coming season, and Allegiant Stadium will host the Final Four in 2028. Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis will host the following year, AT&T Stadium in Dallas will host the 2030 edition and Mercedes-Benz Stadium will host the games in 2031.
“We were actually in discussions with the NCAA last week about: ‘Could we bid on these dates? Our stadium will be done by then, but it is not done right now.’ So they were appreciative of that," Donovan said. “We are probably going to be early bidders on most things, acknowledging that doesn’t really enhance our chances of winning the bid.”
Last week, the Chiefs unveiled the first renderings of their fully enclosed stadium, which is being built across the state line in Kansas City, Kansas. The team chose a fully translucent permanent roof, rather than a retractable design, and seating for about 70,000 people — more than most modern stadiums being built across the NFL.
The design itself takes obvious cues from Arrowhead Stadium, the longtime home of the Chiefs.
“The conceptual design phase is always fascinating, and we looked at lots of different design concepts,” Chiefs chairman Clark Hunt said this week. "I can’t really say that I had something in the back of my mind going into it. But we’re delighted with where we’ve ended up. We think it does a great job of recognizing the franchise’s past and Arrowhead while combining it with a stadium that is modern, innovative, bold and something that will last for decades.”
The Chiefs announced in late December that they were moving away from Arrowhead Stadium, a decision that has been somewhat divisive among fans. One of the reasons is that Kansas lawmakers voted to allow the state to issue more than $2.4 billion in bonds to cover about 60% of the cost of the stadium, a new training facility and retail and entertainment space.
The stadium will be built near Kansas Speedway and a retail district known as The Legends. The area is also home to Sporting Park, the home of MLS club Sporting Kansas City, and a minor league baseball stadium home to the Kansas City Monarchs.
The Chiefs' practice facility also will move across the state line to the Kansas City suburb of Olathe, Kansas.
The Chiefs anticipate a modern campus that goes beyond practice fields, and could include a stadium-like setup for use by flag football and high schools teams. The Chiefs also want the flexibility to welcome thousands of fans that regularly attend training camp, should they decide to stay home rather than train an hour away at Missouri Western State University.
“We have a multiyear agreement, and we expect to be here for a long time,” Donovan said of the Division II college. “I will say this, just because it’s the obvious follow-up question: With the training facility being built in Olathe, we as an organization have to look at everything we do with options. So, that training facility is going to be designed with the ability to host training camp. We have to have that option. Who knows where we are in five years?”
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I’ve been on the other side of that, and you really want stability, you want predictability, you want certainty. So, it would be a challenge because when we did this deal, we made the commitment that we’re going to be really aggressive, and we think that this facility is going to have the ability to host all kinds of events. And frankly, you think about the events that we are talking about bidding for right now, 95% of them, we wouldn’t be able to bid on now, because we don’t have an indoor stadium.”
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