Chiefs owner confirms vision for $3bn relocation as Kansas and Missouri battle reignited

The Kansas City Chiefs still haven’t picked a lead architect to build a $3 billion stadium in Kansas.

Owner Clark Hunt updated fans on the project as he welcomed former linebacker Derrick Johnson into the team’s Hall of Fame.

Kansas City Chiefs

He confirmed that an ‘enclosed dome’ is the current vision and that Kansas City will be bidding to host the Super Bowl, Final Four and College Football Playoff games.

The Chiefs announced a relocation from Arrowhead Stadium across the Kansas-Missouri state line in December.

Kansas lawmakers approved over $2.4 billion in bonds to fund 60 percent of the construction cost to get a deal over the line for a site in a retail district called The Legends.

“We’re making progress,” Hunt said. “We have a design competition that’s ongoing between MANICA and Populous, and I would hope in the next several months that we’d be able to make a decision on the lead architect.”

Both firms are based in Kansas City but MANICA is on the Kansas side and Populous in Missouri.

“Our thought process at this time is that it would be an enclosed dome,” added hunt.

Chiefs founder Lamar Hunt always dreamed of hosting a Super Bowl but the Midwest winters got in the way.

“We plan on bidding for Final Fours, College Football Playoff Games, bowl games and, of course, the Super Bowl,” his son Clark explained. “It will coincide with the construction of several other NFL buildings, so we will have competition, but I will make sure that Kansas City and the Chiefs put their best foot forward in that process.”

The Chiefs hosted the NFL Draft at Union Station in 2023 and have plenty of Super Bowl experience with five trips to the big game under Andy Reid.

Six FIFA World Cup matches are also coming to Kansas City over the summer.

Kansas City Chiefs

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The 53-year-old Arrowhead Stadium needed renovations to make sure the field was the correct size.

Lamar was one of the founding investors of Major League Soccer and would have loved to see the house he built involved in the pinnacle of soccer.

“We’re really excited. It’s hard to believe the World Cup is a little over 45 days away,” Clark said. “It feels like we’ve been working on it for a decade, and in some regards that’s probably true.

“It’s going to be a tremendous opportunity for Kansas City to be seen and appreciated on a global stage.

“There will literally be billions of TV viewers watching games from Kansas City.”

The Chiefs’ main focus this week was the NFL Draft.

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Chiefs go big on defense

Reid let it be known that he was determined to beef up his offensive line to protect Patrick Mahomes after his season-ending injury in 2025.

But it was all a smoke screen, and Kansas City general manager Brett Veach loaded up on defense instead.

LSU cornerback Mansoor Delane was taken at No. 6 and Clemson defensive tackle Peter Woods arrived with the 29th pick.

“Give credit to our data analytics team,” Veach said. “Almost every model we ran, looking at the stack of players, we figured (David) Bailey and (Arvell) Reese would go.

“Mansoor Delane was somebody we identified. The predictive model said the Saints were going to be the biggest obstacle (to landing Delane)… If there’s one guy who is more aggressive than me, it’s Mickey (Loomis)… Mansoor Delane was a top-five guy on our board.

“I thought we did a good job, I think a lot of people thought we might go offensive line there. But this was our guy the whole time.”

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