The Kansas City Chiefs and Royals play their home games in stadiums that are among the oldest in their respective leagues.
Arrowhead Stadium, the Chiefs’ home, is the third-oldest venue in the National Football League. Kauffman Stadium, where the Royals play, is the fifth-oldest building in Major League Baseball.
But as the teams both weigh competing incentive packages offered by Missouri and Kansas to help fund new stadiums, they are not alone in pursuing upgraded homes.
The Chiefs, who are seeking a new stadium or renovations to Arrowhead, and the Royals, who want a new ballpark, are part of what experts say is an American professional sports "stadium boom" — the latest in multiple waves of construction over the last century-plus.
Stadium waves
In an academic paper published in 2023, economists John Charles Bradbury, Dennis Coates and Brad R. Humphreys described three distinct waves of stadium construction that have happened in the U.S. since 1900. The fourth, they said, may be underway already.
The 1990s were the busiest stretch of professional sports stadium construction on record, according to the paper. During the decade, 46 stadiums and arenas were built for teams in the four largest U.S. professional sports leagues. That was part of the third wave.
The construction in the 1990s came at a time of dramatic expansion across those leagues. MLB, the NBA, the NFL and the NHL combined to add 18 teams during the decade, accounting for some of the record stadium construction.
Bradbury, Coates and Humphreys said there is a 30-year replacement cycle for stadiums. They also noted 32 sports venues were on track to be at least 30 years old and 15 years removed from their latest renovations by 2030.
"This represents a large cohort of stadiums that are likely to be replaced or receive significant refurbishments by the end of the decade,” they wrote.
Victor A. Matheson, a sports economist at the College of the Holy Cross, offered a similar characterization of the current trend in stadium construction. He pointed to the boom years of the 1990s as a catalyst.
“The real watershed moment is 1992 with the opening of Camden Yards in Baltimore,” Matheson said of the Baltimore Orioles’ home stadium.
“First of all, it’s a very nice stadium,” he said, “and it was much better than the previous cookie-cutter stadiums where NFL teams and Major League Baseball teams shared facilities.”
The Orioles also sold Camden Yards as an economic driver.
“It was also one of the first stadiums that was really billed as a way to renovate and revitalize an otherwise depressed neighborhood,” Matheson said, noting that the stadium is an improvement over what was there before but has not triggered substantial development.
Aging infrastructure
Arrowhead Stadium made its debut in August 1972, with the Chiefs defeating the visiting St. Louis Cardinals 24-12 in a preseason matchup. Across the Truman Sports Complex parking lot eight months later, Kauffman Stadium — then called Royals Stadium — hosted its first game.
The two stadiums have since undergone nine-figure renovations — Kauffman’s completed in 2009, and Arrowhead’s in 2010.
Both venues are much older than the median age of a stadium in their leagues, which was 23 years in MLB and 22 years in the NFL as of 2023, according to the paper by Bradbury, Coates and Humphreys. But when renovations are factored in, Kauffman and Arrowhead are closer to the middle of the pack.
Since 2000, there have been 17 new stadiums built in both the NFL and MLB. All but one of those were new stadiums for existing teams.
There are two new stadiums under construction for NFL teams — the Buffalo Bills and the Tennessee Titans. Both have $2.1 billion price tags and are set to debut in 2026. Another franchise, the Jacksonville Jaguars, is renovating its home stadium. The $1.4 billion project is slated for completion in 2028.
Also, the Cleveland Browns have purchased a new site in the Cleveland area with hopes of building a new stadium there, and the Ohio Senate this month approved a budget that includes $600 million to help fund a new Browns stadium.
The Chicago Bears are looking for a new stadium deal. And in Washington, D.C., new Washington Commanders owner Josh Harris and the city have announced plans for a $3 billion stadium, with D.C. paying for less than a third of the construction costs.
In MLB, there is no ongoing construction. However, the Athletics — who are playing in the Sacramento, California, area before a planned move to Las Vegas — and the Tampa Bay Rays are in talks for construction of new stadiums.
The 30-year itch
Matheson, the Holy Cross sports economist, said terms of leases for stadiums built during the 1990s boom are a big factor in the current construction surge.
“We're starting to see another stadium boom now,” Matheson said, “because a lot of those stadiums built 30 years ago were built with a 30-year lease, and, once leases are up, then, all of a sudden, teams have a lot of leverage.”
The Chiefs and Royals have stadium leases that are expiring in 2030.
“Of course, the only reason that the Chiefs are talking about a new stadium and demanding a new stadium is because they have a lease deal that is up fairly soon,” Matheson said. “And as soon as that lease deal is up, it becomes less costly for the Chiefs to relocate within the KC metropolitan area or to another city.”
Both teams have signaled interest in multiple stadium possibilities in the Kansas City area.
“We've had really good conversations on both sides of the state line,” Chiefs owner Clark Hunt said in late April.
In May, the Royals issued a statement saying they have “negotiated with or made investments in multiple potential sites — both in Missouri and in Kansas.”
Negotiations by another team, though, offer a glimpse of stadium construction trends of the past — and, potentially, the future.
In Jacksonville, renovations to the Jaguars' stadium started earlier this year, 30 years after the venue's 1995 debut. As part of the renovation, the team and city agreed to keep the Jaguars in Jacksonville for another 30 years.
This story was originally published by Missouri Business Alert.
