How did Arrowhead Stadium get its name? We answer a reader’s KC Q (2024)

Matt Campbell
mcampbell@kcstar.com

The excitement at Arrowhead Stadium during the divisional playoff game against the Indianapolis Colts got Tom Solon to wondering how the stadium got its name.

“I’ve always thought it was an awesome name for a stadium,” Solon writes to KCQ, a recurring feature in which The Kansas City Star, in partnership with the Kansas City Public Library, answers readers’ questions.

Photo credit: John Sleezer/The Kansas City Star, jsleezer@kcstar.com

That was it. No further explanation. Arrowhead would also be the name of the stadium club on the middle level.

Arrowhead obviously fits the team’s Native American motif. We can only be grateful Hunt didn’t come up with "Tomahawk" stadium.

But how did the name Chiefs originate? That requires a recap of the Hunt story. The man behind the American Football League and owner of the Texans began looking for a new home city when it became clear that Dallas was not big enough to support both the Texans and the NFL expansion team, the Cowboys.

Lamar Hunt, 1969

The name Chiefs can be traced to former Kansas City Mayor H. Roe Bartle, who secretly wooed Hunt to move his team to Kansas City. A condition set by Hunt was the guarantee of 35,000 season-ticket sales. That was the average attendance at the Texans’ Cotton Bowl stadium. In Kansas City, Bartle organized 20 business leaders to push ticket sales before the public knew any details about what they were buying. The goal was reached in eight weeks. (By 1970, 70,000 season tickets had been sold, leaving only 7,472 seats available per game for individual sale.)

The decision made, Hunt reportedly wanted to rename the team the Kansas City Texans. There was also, apparently, some consideration of the Mules.

But the Chiefs was one of the most popular entries in a name-the-team contest. Jack Steadman, Hunt’s general manager, told his boss, "There’s just no other name we can select." An article on mentalfloss.com suggested the name arose from Bartle’s nickname, "The Chief," which had come through his involvement with the Boy Scouts of America, for which he established the Native American-themed Tribe of Mic-O-Say. (The same article also said Hunt had pointed out that the name was locally important because Native Americans once lived in the area — as if that could not be said of any NFL city.)

Future Kansas City mayor H. Roe Bartle working for the Boy Scouts of America in Wyoming, 1923

The Chiefs’ first home field in Kansas City was the old Municipal Stadium, built in 1923 at 22nd Street and Brooklyn Avenue. The Chiefs shared it with the Kansas City Athletics baseball team. The Chiefs played at Municipal for nearly a decade.

In the mid 1960s, Kansas City was itching for a new stadium worthy of its professional status. But where to put it? Downtown? On the old Municipal site? In an industrial area referred to as the Leeds site?

Gov. Warren Hearnes signed a bill creating the Jackson County Sports Authority. After much wrangling, the Leeds site was chosen and it was decided to build two stadiums — one for football and one for baseball. But the latter would only be built if Kansas City could secure a baseball expansion franchise. (Charles “Charlie” O. Finley was taking his team, the Athletics, to Oakland.)

Design model for the Jackson County (later Harry S. Truman) Sports Complex, 1969

Jackson County voters in 1967 approved general obligation bonds to build the two stadiums, together estimated to cost $43 million. That number would rise considerably, but Arrowhead was ready for the 1972 season. Hunt declared the stadium “a reality” before the first game on Aug. 12. The Chiefs took the Governor’s Cup by beating the St. Louis Cardinals 24-14 before a crowd of 78,190.

Aerial image of Arrowhead during one of the first games played at the new stadium. Note that the circular walkway in the right hand corner is still under construction, 1972

Thirty-four years later, the stadiums needed renovations — and the Chiefs and the Royals were restless. Jackson County voters in 2006 approved a temporary 3/8th-cent sales tax for the improvements. The deal ensured that Kansas City would have pro football and major league baseball for another 25 years.

Arrowhead got wider concourses, more restrooms, new seat configurations, a greater variety of bars and concessions, an upgraded sound system and new video displays. The work was completed by the 2010 season.

With a frigid weather forecast for Sunday’s AFC championship game at Arrowhead against the New England Patriots, just think how cozy a roof over the stadium would be.

A rolling roof was envisioned when the sports complex was being planned, but construction cost overruns and project delays caused by a labor strike caused it to be put the idea on hold. The sports authority considered a fabric dome in 1984 but that was deemed impractical. A rolling roof was again floated during stadium renovation plans in 2006 — along with a league promise that Kansas City could be host to the 2015 Super Bowl — but Jackson County voters rejected a separate tax to pay for it.

Aerial veiw of a packed Arrowhead Staduim on gameday produced for the architectrual firm of Kivett & Meyers and architect Charles Deaton, designers of the Harry S. Truman Sports Complex, n.d.

The fans remained enthusiastic, however. In 2014, Arrowhead broke the Guinness Book record for loudest stadium.

There have been discussions in the past of selling the naming rights to Arrowhead. But Chiefs President Mark Donovan has said that "Arrowhead" would need to remain part of any new name, whatever new name is negotiated.

"As I’ve said publicly, we’ve been in discussions over the last six or seven years,” Donovan said at the Chiefs 2016 kickoff luncheon. "Some of those discussions have gotten to the point of actual negotiations, but the right deal hasn’t made sense for either side."

Donovan said at the NFL annual meeting that year: "It would be 'blank' field at Arrowhead. We go into that discussion with partners that way. We think Arrowhead is iconic, we think it’s part of the brand, so changing that name doesn’t work for us."

Postcard showing Arrowhead Stadium, n.d.