"Inside the Stacks: Exploring important documents in Chiefs history" is a series of columns based on never-before-seen documents and correspondence from the Lamar Hunt archives, including many from the founding and early days of the American Football League, the merger with the National Football League, and other historic moments up until the time of Hunt's death.
The beauty and energy of GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium was on full display on October 7 of this year before a raucous in-house crowd. It was another Monday Night Football broadcast on ESPN featuring the Chiefs with the whole nation watching.
Throughout the Chiefs' renaissance as a winning NFL franchise in the 1990s, the club routinely led the league in attendance, which was a remarkable achievement for a small market team.
Founder Lamar Hunt took immense pride in that fact, particularly since the stadium at that time was larger than it is today, with well over 79,400 seats. According to team records in 1995, more than half of the Chiefs' 21,407 ticket accounts (11,991) came on board in the early years of the 1990s as the season ticket base exploded to more than 70,000 seats.
Hunt was eager to know what states were represented among the continually growing Chiefs season ticket holder base. As it turned out, the state of Missouri represented 53.4% of the club's season ticket holders with 39,035 tickets, or 54.5% of the available seats, according to Hunt's records. Kansas trailed with 41.2%, or 40.1% of Arrowhead's seats.
To no surprise, as the team's success continued to grow, more fans throughout the greater Midwest began to travel to Kansas City to take in games on a regular basis. As the 1990s concluded, 41 states were represented as having people who held Chiefs season tickets. Trailing Missouri and Kansas were Iowa, Nebraska, Texas, Illinois, Oklahoma and Colorado.
Hunt remained passionate in his attempts to hold onto the title of NFL attendance leader. As the 1999 season rolled to its close, he sought what he called some "separation" from Washington and the New York Jets to preserve "our current lead and our position as the NFL's leader for the last five years," one that, he said, was "very precarious and we cannot take it for granted that we will be able to hold onto it."
To do that, he proposed to start selling "1,000-1,500 standing room tickets per game," to "passionately defend our #1 status." Also, by doing so, Kansas City would "legitimately get us over 80,000 [in attendance]."
Even after three disappointing seasons at the end of the '90s and the start of the 2000s, Kansas City's stadium counted its 100th consecutive sellout game in 2002 - a streak that began on September 1, 1991.
For Lamar Hunt, being number one in any category was something he cherished.
SOURCES: "Kansas City Chiefs 1999 Ticket File/Attendance," Cabinet 17, Drawer C, Kansas City Chiefs Season Ticket Holders Analysis by State 1999, Summary of Attendance Statistics, American Football Conference, National Football Conference, 1999, Lamar Hunt to Carl Peterson, Jack Steadman, Dale Young, October 18, 1999, "Chiefs, NFL Enjoy banner Year at the Gate," Net News, kcchiefs.com, January 8, 2003.
