The Chiefs are one of many teams that started as an AFL franchise, and were later part of the AFL-NFL merger. The original owner of the Chiefs, Lamar Hunt, was also the founder of the AFL and coined the term Super Bowl when the two leagues merged. The Chiefs officially joined the NFL in 1970 after dominating the AFL for 10 seasons; even though they were in the top half of the league in attendance figures averaging almost 50,000 Chiefs tickets sold per game, they decided the merge was the best option for the team. After two years in the NFL the Chiefs moved into their new stadium and current home, Arrowhead Stadium, where they continued to sell many Chiefs tickets thanks to the support of the Kansas City area. The same year they moved into Arrowhead Stadium was also one of the last postseason appearances for the Chiefs in the 1970’s. The early 1980’s marked the possible turning point for the Chiefs as they had new star running back Joe Delaney, but after the 1982 player strike Delaney died in the offseason while trying to save several children from drowning in a pond. As the NFL grew more popular they were able to sell more Chiefs tickets as the years went on even though the team’s success stayed minimal despite the talent present in the 1980's. The hiring of Marty Schottenheimer in 1988 was a big turning point in Chiefs history. Schottenheimer promptly drafted two future defensive starters that would help lead the Chiefs to successful regular seasons for over a decade, and added former MVP’s Joe Montana and Marcus Allen in an attempt to boost Chiefs tickets sales and postseason performance.
Arrowhead Stadium became the home of the Chiefs in 1972, also heralding the demise of the Chiefs success in the post season. In the 1990’s they were one of the most feared teams in the regular season and filled Arrowhead Stadium with fans purchasing Chiefs tickets, but once playoff time came the Chiefs were notorious for choking despite having home field advantage and the ability to sell more Chiefs tickets. While the Chiefs have done a good job of acquiring talented players during the lifetime of Arrowhead Stadium, they have only won one playoff game while calling Arrowhead Stadium their home. Some of the more talented players in recent history that have played at Arrowhead and helped sell Chiefs tickets are tight end Tony Gonzalez and running back Priest Holmes who broke the record for most TD’s in a season with 27, a record that stood for multiple years until LaDainian Tomlinson broke it in 2006 with the San Diego Chargers. Arrowhead Stadium gives the city of Kansas City a great opportunity to sell Chiefs tickets since it is the fourth largest NFL stadium, and the 27th largest stadium in North America. The seating capacity at Arrowhead is just over 76,000 and despite being built in 1972 and being one of the oldest stadiums, it was recently renovated in 2010 with $375 million to keep it as one of the nicest stadiums in the NFL. Even after the passing of original owner Lamar Hunt, the Hunt family has kept control of the team and with the help of the Kansas City faithful raised the money for the renovations and keep the stadium packed in recent years, averaging 72,000 Chiefs tickets sold per game to loyal fans.
12-4-12: The Chiefs are 2-10 and not much else can go wrong for this team. Clearly out of playoff contention they will play 3 of their final four games on the road two of which will be against playoff contending teams. Kansas city has lots of success running the ball but passing and playing defense remained to be too much of a challenge. RB Jamaal Charles already has over 1000 yards rushing but only 3 touchdowns.