NFL
Exclusive : Chiefs Fans are out for “Blood” with Clark Hunts Family.
Clark Hunt’s family may have won three Super Bowls for Kansas City Chiefs fans, but yesterday’s friends have become today’s enemies. In response to a story about the team’s president not ruling out a move from Kansas City over a tax levy, fans have reached for their pitchforks online.Taking to Reddit to vent their rage, fans expressed their resentment at what could be at stake. Many pointed to the Los Angeles Rams, who moved from the mid-west less than a decade prior as a reason to not take the statements lightly.
Overall, the sentiment was an unfriendly one toward the Hunts and any other owner who threatened to leave without getting their team’s stadium funded with public money. The practice is not a secret one or in any way a new one.According to KSHB 41 via Front Office Sports, a representative for Clark Hunt and Chiefs President Mark Donovan said the team would “have to look at their options” if an upcoming tax extension through 2064 failed to secure funding to help renovate Arrowhead Stadium.
For quite some time, it has been public knowledge that owners of the mega-popular local sports franchises use public funds to build and maintain their team’s stadiums. Across many industries, large companies providing for local communities often threaten to leave if certain benefits are not given by the government.In addition to giving local fans a team to root for, the Chiefs and most businesses that pull these moves often cite their impact on the local economy. People travel from far and wide to watch Patrick Mahomes play, bringing fresh dollars to the local area. Otherwise, without massive crowd-drawing attractions, tourism dries up.In their place, corporations that had expanded to Kansas City funnel local funds away to faraway places where they get spent on those areas, which generates disproportionately more taxes for those governments and better services for those citizens instead.While Patrick Mahomes’ touchdown passes to Travis Kelce have generated buzz and excitement on the football field, it also has generated funding off of it.Teams with a greater number of fans enjoying a product are much more likely to generate much more support for it. Put another way, would Kansas City Chiefs fans be more willing to pay an additional tax for Matt Cassel’s Chiefs or Patrick Mahomes’ Super Bowl-winning unit?