Current:Home > StocksChiefs want to be ‘world’s team’ by going global with star power and Super Bowl success -ProgressCapital
Chiefs want to be ‘world’s team’ by going global with star power and Super Bowl success
View
Date:2025-04-12 18:43:24
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Patrick Mahomes circled the Frankfurt game on his calendar when the NFL schedule was announced.
“It’s really cool just to be on this stage, the world stage, in Germany,” the Kansas City Chiefs quarterback said Friday. “I’m excited to be able to play out here.”
The Chiefs are excited, too, because the game against the Miami Dolphins on Sunday at Deutsche Bank Park is a big step for an organization with global ambitions to become the “world’s team.”
The blueprint is simple enough. They have won two of the past four Super Bowls, they have dynamic stars in reigning MVP Mahomes and All-Pro tight end Travis Kelce, and the NFL has prioritized international growth. Taylor Swift just adds to their good timing.
“We feel like this is our era,” Chiefs president Mark Donovan said. “Based on the timing, the success and the stars, it’s a responsibility to take advantage of this. If we don’t aggressively take advantage of this, that’s a failure.”
The Chiefs have commercial rights in Germany under the league’s global markets program, meaning they can sign corporate sponsorship deals, hold events to attract fans and sell merchandise as they do in their home markets. That country list includes Austria and Switzerland, as well as Mexico.
The NFL added a 17th game to the schedule to facilitate playing more games abroad, and it is reviewing Spain and Brazil as future hosts, one of them possibly for the 2024 season.
“It can be looked at as maybe arrogant. I like to look at it as ambitious, but we want to be the world’s team,” Donovan said. “We think the opportunity exists today for us to set a foothold that we are the world’s team, that people look at the Chiefs as an international representation of the NFL.”
They say they have some numbers to back it up, too. The NFL told the Chiefs that they are No. 2 in “revenue generated from the international markets,” Donovan said. He declined to say which team is first, and the NFL didn’t comment.
The Chiefs have played two other regular-season international games, winning in Mexico City in 2019 and in London four years earlier.
This one is different, though. The global markets program only took effect in January 2022, the Chiefs have another Lombardi Trophy, and Mahomes is increasingly the face of the league following the retirement of Tom Brady.
“From our standpoint, we’re going to be aggressive in looking at additional markets, and we’re going to be aggressive in looking at additional games,” Donovan said. “We think games are the best way to have that foothold activation.”
With the league studying Spain and Brazil, those two countries are atop Kansas City’s list of potential next markets, Donovan said.
The Chiefs are “talking to the league” about ways to play more international games. As is, they are a big draw around the U.S., so other teams don’t want to give up the revenue that comes with a visit from Chiefs Kingdom. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers, for example, rejected the Chiefs as the “away” team for their game in Munich last season, Donovan said.
Kansas City is the designated “home” team in Frankfurt, as will be the New England Patriots next week against the Indianapolis Colts.
The Chiefs have spent about $1 million in preparation and fan events for Frankfurt — that includes docking a Chiefs-themed yacht in the Main River. Over the past nearly three years, the team has spent about $3 million on its international efforts, with the majority invested in Germany, Donovan said.
“It’s going to pay off over time,” he said.
The late Lamar Hunt was an early proponent of going international. The Chiefs have played preseason games in Japan, Mexico and Germany.
A memorable preseason game took place in August 1990 when the Chiefs played the Los Angeles Rams at Olympic Stadium in West Berlin after the Berlin Wall fell and just before reunification. Media reports said there were 55,000 fans.
Growing an international fan base these days “is much easier to do now because of social media, because of the digital delivery of games,” Chiefs Chairman and CEO Clark Hunt said this week.
As for becoming the world’s team, Donovan acknowledges it won’t be easy.
“It’s a big, audacious goal,” he said.
___
AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl
veryGood! (5)
Related
- Could Bill Belichick, Robert Kraft reunite? Maybe in Pro Football Hall of Fame's 2026 class
- Reggie Bush will get back 2005 Heisman Trophy that was forfeited by former USC star
- Oklahoma prosecutors charge fifth member of anti-government group in Kansas women’s killings
- Woman wins $1M in Oregon lottery raffle, credits $1.3B Powerball winner for reminder
- A Mississippi company is sentenced for mislabeling cheap seafood as premium local fish
- Stock market today: Asian benchmarks mostly slide as investors focus on earnings
- Bear cub pulled from tree for selfie 'doing very well,' no charges filed in case
- When does 'Bridgerton' Season 3 return? Premiere date, cast, trailer for Netflix romance
- Meet the volunteers risking their lives to deliver Christmas gifts to children in Haiti
- Tennessee would criminalize helping minors get abortions under bill heading to governor
Ranking
- Don't let hackers fool you with a 'scam
- Tupac Shakur's estate threatens to sue Drake over AI voice imitation: 'A blatant abuse'
- Columbia’s president, no stranger to complex challenges, walks tightrope on student protests
- 2024 NFL mock draft roundup: Where is Georgia TE Brock Bowers predicted to go?
- Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow owns a $3 million Batmobile Tumbler
- Firefighters fully contain southern New Jersey forest fire that burned hundreds of acres
- Ryan Reynolds, Rob McElhenney talk triumph, joy and loss in 'Welcome to Wrexham' Season 3
- Relatives of those who died waiting for livers at now halted Houston transplant program seek answers
Recommendation
Working Well: When holidays present rude customers, taking breaks and the high road preserve peace
Pickup truck hits and kills longtime Texas deputy helping at crash site
Florida man gets 4 years in prison for laundering romance scam proceeds
Man who shot ex-Saints star Will Smith faces sentencing for manslaughter
Trump's 'stop
Tyler Herro, Miami Heat shoot down Boston Celtics in Game 2 to tie series
Charles Barkley, Shaq weigh in on NBA refereeing controversy, 'dumb' two-minute report
Louisiana man sentenced to 50 years in prison, physical castration for raping teen