Kansas City Chiefs’ new Arrowhead Stadium opens for first sporting event
The first big renovation of the Kansas City Chiefs’ Arrowhead Stadium in 40 years — a $375 million, three-year project — hosts its first event this weekend.
It’ll be a test run for the Chiefs, who are using the renovation as a springboard to improve customer service and the fan experience. The project — which includes an array of features evoking Chiefs history and highlights — added about 430,000 square feet to the stadium, for a total of more than 1.64 million square feet.
“This is the culmination of a five-year process designed to return Arrowhead to its status” as the finest stadium in the National Football League, Chiefs Chairman Clark Hunt said Friday as he gave a media tour of the recently completed facility.
Kelly Kerns, a principal with Kansas City-based Populous, the project architect, said the Arrowhead work kept about 100 of the firm’s local employees busy — and gave him a welcome period of work close to home for the past five years no fax payday loan.
But more than that, the project put Populous in a good position to take advantage of what Kerns said probably is going to be the next building trend.
The professional sports marketplace has experienced a big building boom during the past several years, but those projects in large part have been completed. Now, Kerns said he expects a flurry of projects to improve existing facilities. And Arrowhead provides a showpiece as to the possibilities and Populous’ capabilities.
It’s also a sustainable, green approach, Kerns said. By tackling the project using the existing structure, masses of concrete were kept out of landfills.