The Chiefs’ future in Kansas now has a shape.
On Wednesday, the team released its first renderings for the planned $3 billion domed stadium in Wyandotte County, Kansas, a project set to open for the 2031 season. The images are being described by the organization as initial concepts, but they give the clearest look yet at what the move across the state line is expected to look like.
The new venue is projected to seat about 70,000 fans, which would be roughly 3,500 fewer than Arrowhead Stadium. Unlike Arrowhead, the Chiefs’ new home will be enclosed by a dome, using a translucent ETFE roof rather than traditional glass.
The team also announced that MANICA will serve as the stadium’s design firm. Populous had been one of the other finalists in the six-month design process.
In its release, the Chiefs said the lower bowl “is reminiscent of Arrowhead Stadium,” and the outside view in the renderings carries a similar overall shape, even though the stadium does not share Arrowhead’s name in the images.
Chiefs president Mark Donovan told The Star in the spring, “We want to celebrate and honor Arrowhead in the design.” He added, “Every single discussion we have is, ‘OK, how does this impact noise, and how does this impact tailgating?’”
Those two themes show up in the team’s presentation. The renderings include tailgating areas and surrounding parking lots, and the Chiefs say the site will have capacity for at least 20,000 parking spots.
The 400,000 squrare-foot translucent roof is also intended to keep another familiar game-day tradition alive: military flyovers before kickoff, according to the team.
Around the stadium, the Chiefs plan to include the Chiefs Hall of Honor, which they say will be doubled in size, along with a Lamar Hunt statue. Those features will be part of a mixed-used development area that the team has not yet fully detailed.
Clark Hunt, the Chiefs chairman and CEO, said the organization is “still finalizing many of the details” for the project.
The renderings arrive months after the team announced in December that it intended to leave Arrowhead Stadium, where it has played since 1972. The move would also shift the team’s practice facility and headquarters to Olathe, where the Chiefs plan a $300 million practice facility on 155 acres at the intersection of College Boulevard and Ridgeview Road.
The current practice facility and Arrowhead are both part of the Truman Sports Complex in Kansas City, Missouri.
Public money will cover 60% of the new stadium, with most of that coming through Kansas’ supercharged STAR bonds program and the rest through local municipalities. That financing plan has drawn criticism from residents and economists, who have argued for years that stadiums do not produce major economic growth. Seven months after the announcement, the state has still not released the STAR bonds district that will provide most of the funding, though it appears likely to stretch widely enough to capture sales tax from across the area.
The funding agreement came after years of negotiations between Kansas and Missouri lawmakers, part of a renewed border battle after Jackson County voters rejected an April 2024 ballot measure that would have paid for both a downtown Royals stadium that lacked key details and renovations at Arrowhead that drew a muted response.
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