Chiefs agreeing to home game in London is slap in the face to most loyal fans
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- One man's Grinch is another man's Santa Claus.
"Christmas," Tom Childs says, "has come early."
Childs is a Kansas City Chiefs die-hard who's not based in Kansas City. Or even America. He's in England, where he helped found Arrowheads Abroad, a group that calls itself the "largest Chiefs fan club outside of the U.S."
The chap adores Jamaal Charles and Justin Houston as much as he loves local soccer giants Arsenal, a devotee who'll follow the Andy Gang from across the pond at any hour, by any means necessary. Tom even purchased tickets to come over, SungWoo style, to catch the Chiefs-Raiders game at Arrowhead Stadium, in person, for the first time Dec. 14.
"Hopefully, the first of many," he says. "I read something about SungWoo, (it's) great how KC embraced him. The Chiefs have been very supportive of our group so far. They have said they will upgrade our tickets when we come, which is amazing."
Thursday, Childs' amazing became certifiably bonkers. The NFL announced that Kansas City would be one of six NFL teams to play a 2015 regular-season game in London (Nov. 1, versus Detroit), which raised a few eyebrows. And that the Chiefs would be one of three teams to give up a home game to play in London.
Which, um, raised a few fists.
OK. A lot of fists.
"I have always had the opinion that it would be great for the Chiefs to visit the home of soccer as the road team," says Childs, who formed the group in February. "I was sure (that) Kansas City would be behind the idea, too. But hosting a game, never in a million years.
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"Unsurprisingly, it hasn't gone down too well in Kansas City and I understand why. The Chiefs have a huge home-field advantage that will be impossible to re-create in Wembley Stadium. But that doesn't mean us Arrowhead Abroads won't try."
And, no offense to Childs and his mates, but there's the rub. You have a team that markets and proudly boasts about its home-game experience, touts the "Arrowhead Mystique" as part of its mythology, even pays for the Guinness Book of World Records (British, by the way) to come and detail the crowd noise as tops in the known universe.
When that franchise then turns around and decides to move the Church of Lamar to London for a week, what kind of message does that send to its most loyal, faithful parishioners?
"I completely understand that and appreciate that (anger)," Chiefs president Mark Donovan said. "We know that. They should be (angry). Fans are going to be upset about giving up the home game."
Ya think?
Look, there's no great way to spin this if you're the Chiefs. They tried. Donovan bravely faced reporters and a brisk wind out on the practice field Thursday. He said this had always been in the works, and that the team was "adamant" that it not be a conference or division game.
"This is a long-term prospect, and this is a long-term benefit for the league," Donovan continued. "But selfishly, it's a long-term benefit for the Kansas City Chiefs. Our brand, our region, the opportunity to be on this stage is invaluable."
Fair enough. Did you have to give up a home game to get there?
The Chiefs took one for the league here, willingly or otherwise. The NFL is in a marketing war with the NBA (and, to a lesser degree, Major League Baseball and the NHL) to try and get the strongest foothold on emerging international markets: Europe, China, India, you name it. The mission is to spread the gospel of the shield, not the gospel of Martyball.
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"We pride ourselves in leading by example," Donovan said.
Chiefs chairman and CEO Clark Hunt has served as chairman of the NFL's International Committee since 2011, so this day was coming. And for a while, too: The Chiefs were reportedly eager to play overseas as early as 2006; then-general manager Carl Peterson wanted to be one of those first teams out of the gate in London back in 2007, when the "NFL International" series was launched, when his franchise was struggling and Arrowhead Stadium was about to go under the knife for a $375 million renovation -- $250 million of which was fronted by local taxpayers.
But now ... now it chafes.
Arrowhead is the loudest outdoor stadium in the world. The Chiefs are drawing at 97.8 percent capacity. In a year-and-a-half under Reid, they've won 16 of 24 regular-season contests. The noise and the swagger are back, like a phoenix rising from the ashes of the Great 2012 Dumpster Fire.
"You know, the fans help so much," center Eric Kush says. "So much. It's so loud that it really makes it challenging for another team's offense. So we'll see how it goes. Just go play the game and go win it."
The Chiefs say they love their acolytes. So much so, in fact, that season-ticket holders next fall will pay for nine games instead of the usual 10. Merry Christmas!
"As a fan, you don't want to give up a game, period," Donovan said. "We get that. We understand it."
And we understand the global-outreach thing; the Chiefs have played preseason games in Germany, Mexico and Japan in the past, and every club is expected to serve their time on jury duty, so to speak. But the list of previous NFL teams to give up a home game before the Chiefs is littered with franchises that either haven't drawn (the Jaguars, Raiders, Rams, Buccaneers) or are in a stadium limbo of some kind (Vikings, Falcons).
To put it another way, the Edward Jones Dome is hardly intrinsic to the "Rams Experience," or else ownership wouldn't have been talking for years about getting the hell out of the place.
So the curious thing is not so much that the Chiefs landed a London game, but that the franchise didn't stomp and kick and scream harder to make sure they didn't lose a Kansas City game, a piece of themselves, in the process.
And we'd like to think there are kinder ulterior motives in play here: The owners reportedly voted last month that a team that wants to host a Super Bowl has to play a home game in London within five years of its bid process. There's been talk about kicking that door down before, although Donovan pooh-poohed it as any kind of big-game harbinger.
"I think the Super Bowl decision is more of a cold-weather issue than anything else," he said. "And the league is still going through that process after New York. So this isn't directly related."
So what's the point?
"As a member of this league, you're going to be called on to do things," Donovan said, "and we happily accept that."
They'll happily accept this, too: The Sun Sentinel reported that the Dolphins, another 2015 London host, are slated to receive $1 million "for sacrificing the home game." Miami, meanwhile, is drawing at 93.8 percent capacity, seven slots (24th) and four percentage points below the Chiefs.
In fact, of the 13 NFL teams to play a home game in London since 2008, only four had filled their stadiums at a higher percentage the season before their overseas trip than the Chiefs have: Tampa Bay in 2009 (98.3 percent in '08); San Francisco in '10 (99.3), Minnesota in '13 (99.7) and Atlanta in '14 (98.6).
That's not biting the hand that feeds you. That's running over it in a Mini.
The last seven NFL contests at Wembley Stadium have drawn an average of 82,710 fans. It's one of international soccer's most historic venues, a crown jewel of the sporting world.
But it ain't the smell of burnt ends in the parking lot. It ain't the roar. It ain't the Red Death.
It ain't Arrowhead.
"Support for the home team at the Wembley games is getting better with every passing game," Childs says. "NFL UK do a great job in trying to create a home atmosphere. Add their efforts to ours, plus a few thousand traveling across the pond from KC, then I am sure Andy Reid and company will 'almost' feel at home."
Almost. But not quite.
You can follow Sean Keeler on Twitter at @SeanKeeler or email him at seanmkeeler@gmail.com.
