Chiefs abandoning Arrowhead leaves only one stadium name that makes sense

Thursday should have been a day of exuberance in Kansas City. Not only did we witness the defending AFC champions, the New England Patriots, lay an egg in the NFL's season opener, a certifiable reopening of conference turf for its rightful kings (the Chiefs) to reclaim the throne, but we also got to tune in to the NFL's first game played in Australia. Forget the 15-hour time difference; what an excellent excuse to dust off our best (or worst) Australian accents and throw some shrimp on the barbie. Football is back, baby, and it was officially marked by local McDonald's restaurants, Hy-Vee stores, and retailers across the Greater Kansas City area selling this year's Red Thursday flags.

The flags are sharp, I must say. I myself picked up five of them. In a matter of 48 hours, I have gone from lamenting to my wife that I was having trouble getting inspired for this season due to some of the negative discourse surrounding the team, to ripping a "have some positive perspective" blog, to literally steaming my Red Thursday flag on the front porch to get the creases out and be the first in the subdivision to properly fly it.

As is often the case with the relationship between Chiefs football and my mental and emotional well-being between the months of September and February, those 48 hours of excitation building were quickly dismantled when this clip was shared in the Arrowhead Addict Slack channel.

Clark Hunt, from the rafters like nWo Sting, informed the Kingdom that the Chiefs' new stadium will likely not bear the name "Arrowhead." At a flag release event, nonetheless. Many joked when the initial stadium renderings were released, including myself, that the new stadium mockup appeared to very much be an "Arrowhead 2.0" prototype. And no one would have had a problem with that! In my opinion, it was almost an expectation that the name Arrowhead would in some way be tied to the new stadium. It is nearly as synonymous with Kansas City football as the name "Chiefs."

So that begs the question: What's the plan? It's not fair to say that Arrowhead being in the new stadium's moniker was a foregone conclusion, but calling it a widely held assumption would not be a stretch. The cynical side of me instantly felt the same pit in my stomach that I felt when the team announced the corporate sponsorship that gave us "GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium" for the past few seasons.

Will the Chiefs go full corporate sellout here? It would be an excellent way for the Chiefs organization (and the Hunt family, in particular) to essentially get all of this done free of charge. Think about the bidding war they could create for naming rights not only for the new field but for the stadium itself. If you live in the Kansas City metro, you're well aware of the companies (and law firms) that advertise ad nauseam. Let's try a few of these on for size as naming samples.

The first that came to mind was Jungle Law Field at Lockton Park. Perhaps we'll get Shamrock Stadium, brought to you by Mike DiPasquale, who's almost certainly got this. You could also lean more toward Kansas City's heritage when it comes to barbecue and just call it Joe's KC Football Stadium and nickname it "The Pit." There's also always the outside chance that Larry Ellison pivots his $80 billion AI investment toward another sporting venue and we get Oracle Stadium or The Artist Formerly Known as Cerner Stadium. The Cerner angle would certainly provide more familiarity to Kansas Citians, and the pivot would be multifaceted, as Ellison's companies would be creating jobs rather than eliminating them.

Whatever the name ends up being, let's hope that it can become as synonymous with hosting the AFC Championship Game as Arrowhead Stadium has been in recent years. The game itself has taken on more of an "Augusta National/The Masters" relationship than any of the other rotating-course majors in golf. As a matter of fact, with that logic in mind and thanks to the beautiful brain of one Mr. Patrick Allen, the perfect name actually does exist: Lamar Hunt Stadium. There is no better place to hoist future Lamar Hunt trophies.

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