In the 1988 movie “Cocktail,” Tom Cruise’s character Brian Flanagan had the enduring quote that, “Everything ends badly, otherwise it wouldn’t end.”
Well, Kansas City Chiefs fans who are actually in Missouri… that line appears to hold true today as it did all those years ago.
At the tail end of what’s been a brutal year (the team lost superstar quarterback Patrick Mahomes to a torn ACL, and star tight end Travis Kelce officially appears to be losing the battle with Father Time) where the Chiefs will finish with a losing record, the team gave its local fans one last dose of bad news.
As ESPN reported, the Chiefs announced Monday that the team would be leaving Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri, and will head across the state line to relocate to Kansas City, Kansas, ahead of the 2031 NFL season.
The locals are not taking the news especially well, including Gov. Mike Kehoe — who had been working tirelessly to secure a funding package to renovate Arrowhead Stadium so that the Chiefs would stay put in the state they’ve called home since 1963.
(The Chiefs were originally based in Dallas and were known as the “Texans” when the team debuted in 1960, before moving to Kansas City, per CBS Sports.)
“They thought new and shiny was better than old and reliable,” Kehoe said.
Quinton Lucas, the Kansas City, Missouri, mayor, said that, “While the Chiefs aren’t going far away and aren’t gone yet, today is a setback as a Kansas Citian, a former Chiefs season ticketholder and lifelong Chiefs fan.”
For the Missouri locals, this is an especially stinging NFL blow, as the state had also lost the then-St. Louis Rams to Los Angeles in 2016 over similar stadium funding issues. This would be two high-profile NFL teams leaving in the span of as many decades over eerily similar matters.
Kansas officials and Chiefs personnel, meanwhile, seem ecstatic with the idea of moving into what will be a $3 billion domed stadium in Kansas City, Kansas, and a $300 million new practice facility in Olathe, Kansas.
The work is just beginning, but we’re excited to bring our vision to life with the State of Kansas in 2031. pic.twitter.com/Ca2QmA9H8n
— Kansas City Chiefs (@Chiefs) December 22, 2025
“The location of Chiefs games will change,” Chiefs owner Clark Hunt said, “but some things won’t change. Our fans will still be the loudest in the NFL, our games will still be the best place in the world to tailgate, and our players and coaches will be ready to compete for championships, because on the field or off the field, we are big dreamers, and we’re ready for the next chapter.”
Hunt added, “We have a lot of work to do. We’re still early in the process. In the months ahead, we will hire an architect and contractor and get to work on the five-plus-year timeline to build a new stadium.”
For Missouri-based Chiefs fans, this will likely sting far more than the Rams leaving nine years ago.
While the Rams had won Super Bowls in 2000, by 2016, the franchise was sputtering and going nowhere.
The Chiefs? They’re arguably the current NFL dynasty, following the likes of the New England Patriots in the 2000s and 2010s, the Dallas Cowboys of the ’90s, and the Pittsburgh Steelers of the ’70s. Since Mahomes and future Hall of Fame coach Andy Reid hooked up in Missouri, the team has won three Super Bowls (in 2020, 2023, and 2024) while competing in another two (2021 and 2025).
They’ve been a fixture in the NFL’s biggest game of the season for nearly the entire 2020s so far — and Missouri fans are apparently going to lose out on that in 2031, despite the close proximity of the move.
Advertise with The Western Journal and reach millions of highly engaged readers, while supporting our work. Advertise Today.
