Why The New Chiefs Stadium May Not Host A Super Bowl

During the weekend the Kansas City Chiefs added seven draft picks to the roster.

The hope is that they will serve as building blocks well into the future when the Chiefs play in their new stadium in 2031.

That glitzy $3 billion dome will sit on the Kansas side of the city, and part of the excitement of the new facility was the ability to lure the NFL’s biggest event — the Super Bowl.

But that is far from a sure thing.

The NFL has rewarded Super Bowls to cities building new stadiums even if it’s a smaller, midwestern city like Minneapolis, which hosted the 2018 game at U.S. Bank Stadium.

But the Buffalo Bills, Tennessee Titans, Jacksonville Jaguars, Cleveland Browns, Washington Commanders and Denver Broncos are also building new stadiums of their own.

“The construction of the new stadium is going to coincide with the construction of several other new NFL buildings. So, we are going to have some competition,” Chiefs owner Clark Hunt said. “But I’ll make sure that the Chiefs and the city of Kansas City put their best foot forward in that process.”

Barring something unforeseen, the Bills will have their new stadium ready for the 2026 season, and the Titans’ new Nissan Stadium is slated to open the following year.

Construction for the Jaguars’ new stadium is scheduled to be completed in August 2028. Excavation and digging for the Browns’ new Huntington Bank Field at Brook Park already has begun.

The Commanders have targeted the site of the old RFK Stadium to host games in 2030. Like the Chiefs, the Broncos are also hoping to open their facility in 2031.

Other Impediments To A Kansas City Super Bowl

Even without the competition from other cities building new stadiums, Kansas City already has a couple of things going against it — cold February temperatures and the lack of hospitality infrastructure like frequent Super Bowl host cities New Orleans, Miami and new favorite Las Vegas, which was recently named the host for Super LXIII in 2029.

Las Vegas had 152,000 hotel rooms available for Super Bowl LVIII.

Kansas City has about 36,000 hotel rooms in the metropolitan area, only about 10,000 more than New Orleans, which has hosted the Super Bowl 11 times, has in just a two-mile, downtown triangle between the sports district (anchored by the Caesars Superdome), the business district (America’s sixth largest convention center) and leisure district (the French Quarter).

Kansas City could build more hotels around the new stadium complex once an exact location is determined, which should take place later this year.

The stadium is slated to have an enclosed dome not featuring a retractable roof, and a design competition between noted firms Manica and Populous is ongoing to determine the lead architect for the future stadium.

The Royals And The World Cup

The Chiefs’ current Truman Sports Complex neighbor — the Kansas City Royals — also have announced their plans for a new home.

They will stay in Kansas City, Mo., in a new site near Crown Center as part of a partnership with Hallmark, one of the city’s biggest companies.

“When the new Royals stadium opens at Crown Center, something proud will come full circle,” Hallmark executive chairman of the board of directors Don Hall Jr. said in a press release. “The iconic Royals crown that Hallmark created will return to the very neighborhood where it was conceived.”

Hunt expressed his happiness for the Royals and owner John Sherman that they have found a future home after a decade-long search to find a spot in downtown Kansas City.

The next big event for the city is this summer’s World Cup, which will feature matches at the Chiefs’ current home of GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium.

The field and seats at Arrowhead had to be modified to meet the specifications of FIFA play.

Even if the future Chiefs stadium doesn’t land a Super Bowl, it could land another World Cup or other tentpole sporting events.

“When the World Cup comes back in 25 or 30 years, the field will be designed so that we don’t have to do the work that we had to do on Arrowhead in order to host the World Cup,” Hunt said. “We’ll plan on bidding on Final Fours, College Football Playoff games, bowl games and, of course, a Super Bowl.”