When Lionel Messi and the Argentinian Men’s National Team kick off their quest for World Cup glory against Algeria in Kansas City on Tuesday, Arrowhead Stadium will look a bit different than Chiefs fans recall.
A total of 3,500 seats were removed to make space for a full-sized soccer pitch; the playing surface was resodded with a fresh Bermuda field and an air system installed beneath it to maintain quality; and hundreds of signs were covered to comply with FIFA’s “clean site” policy, like temporarily renaming the venue as Kansas City Stadium for the tournament.
Those changes aren’t cheap, and even though the Chiefs are worth $6.53 billion, according to Sportico’s NFL valuations, and FIFA is projected to generate $13 billion in revenue for its 2023 to 2026 cycle, neither organization is covering the tab.
Local taxpayers have been stuck with a hefty bill, for a stadium that will no longer play host to NFL games after 2030.
In 2024, the Missouri Office of Administration reached an agreement with the Jackson County Sports Complex Authority, which holds the leases for Arrowhead Stadium and the Kansas City Royals’ Kauffman Stadium, to allocate $50 million from the state’s General Revenue Fund for “stadium and ground modifications, transportation, marketing and additional event support” at the tournament, according to documents obtained by Sportico via open records request laws.
