The Kansas City Chiefs are already planning beyond the opening of their proposed $3 billion stadium, with team leaders confirming they are pursuing bids to host both the Super Bowl and the NCAA Men’s Final Four once the venue is complete.
The fully enclosed stadium, planned for Kansas City, Kansas, is expected to open in time for the 2031 NFL season. Although construction has not yet begun, Chiefs president Mark Donovan said the organization has already begun conversations with both the NFL and NCAA about bringing some of the country’s biggest sporting events to the new facility.
Chiefs Aggressively Pursue Super Bowl and Final Four Bids
Speaking about the team’s long-term plans, Donovan said the Chiefs have been discussing the possibility of hosting the Super Bowl in 2033, 2034 or 2035 while also pursuing future Final Four events.
“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.”
The Super Bowl schedule is already set through February 2030, with SoFi Stadium hosting the upcoming game, followed by Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta in 2028, Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas in 2029 and the Tennessee Titans‘ new stadium in Nashville in 2030.
The NCAA has also awarded Final Four sites through April 2031, with Detroit, Las Vegas, Indianapolis, Dallas and Atlanta already selected.
Donovan said the Chiefs recently met with NCAA officials despite construction on the stadium not yet beginning.
“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.”
Chiefs Explain Design Decisions for New Domed Stadium
The organization recently unveiled the first renderings of the planned stadium, which will seat approximately 70,000 fans and feature a permanent translucent roof rather than a retractable roof.
Chiefs chairman Clark Hunt said the design intentionally honors the franchise’s history while creating a modern home for future generations.
“The conceptual design phase is always fascinating, and we looked at lots of different design concepts,” Hunt said. “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.”
While some fans questioned why the stadium will not feature a retractable roof, Hunt said the organization determined early in the design process that it was not the right choice.
“I’ve been in many retractable-roof stadiums, and the roof is never retracted,” Hunt said. “And if you ask the operators, they’ll tell you that they maybe retract the roof for one or two games during the season. And what I’ve noticed about those facilities is when they have the roof open, you’re not seeing much sky, right? The open part of the roof ends up being very small.”
Donovan added that the Chiefs consulted with all five NFL teams that play in retractable-roof stadiums before making their decision.
Transparent Roof Designed to Preserve Arrowhead Stadium Traditions
Instead of a retractable roof, the Chiefs selected a fixed glass roof that Donovan believes will continue to showcase one of the team’s signature game-day traditions.
“We just finished our design. Now we get into the details of it,” Donovan said. “The technology is changing so rapidly, and a fixed roof today versus a fixed roof five years ago is significantly different. A fixed roof five years from now is going to be significantly different.”
He continued, “We think the technology is going to continue to enhance that. That’s one of the things about our renderings, we really challenge the team and the technology people and the roof people on we wanted to be as transparent as it possibly could be, because flyovers are so important to our game-day experience.”
Donovan added, “That’s one of the reasons we cut the windows out of the ends, so you can see out there as well. So, I think that technology is going to change. If you look at roofs today, you can kind of see a flyover. We expect that with our roof you will be able to see much more of a flyover.”
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