The Kansas City Chiefs have offered the first glimpse of how they intend to replace Arrowhead Stadium without entirely leaving it behind.

Initial renderings for the franchise’s new $3bn home in Kansas City, Kansas, show a fully enclosed, 70,000-seat venue whose roofline and seating bowl deliberately borrow from the stadium the team has occupied since 1972. The Chiefs expect their new ground to open for the 2031 NFL season, completing a move across the Kansas-Missouri border announced last December.

That relocation will end an association with Arrowhead stretching back almost six decades, but the design brief unveiled this week appears intended to reassure supporters that the move need not mean surrendering everything that defined the old ground.

The distinctive scalloping of Arrowhead’s upper deck has been retained, along with a three-tier bowl, prominent Ring of Honour and dedicated Drum Deck for pre-game and in-game ceremonies. Audio engineers have also been involved in shaping the bowl and roof to contain and amplify sound, an acknowledgement that replicating Arrowhead’s atmosphere — which rivalled Seattle for the loudest in the league — may be every bit as important as reproducing its appearance.

“We are excited to show Chiefs Kingdom a first look at our new home,” chairman and CEO Clark Hunt said in the team’s official announcement. “From the beginning, our goal has been to build something that improved the gameday experience for every single fan. This new stadium will do just that. It’s spectacular. It honours the rich legacy of this franchise while setting a bold course for the future of Chiefs Kingdom.

“While we’re still finalizing many of the details, there are a few things we know for sure: it will hold 70,000 fans, it will still be the best place in the world to tailgate, and the whole building will be built for noise.”

The planned capacity is approximately 3,000 below Arrowhead’s current figure, but more than 20,000 parking spaces will be provided as part of infrastructure designed specifically around the team’s tailgating culture. Some familiar features will nevertheless disappear: Axios reported that the exterior spiral ramps which became gathering points for supporters at Arrowhead are absent from the new concept.

Its most conspicuous departure is overhead. More than 400,000 square feet of translucent ETFE panels will sit above the field, allowing natural light into an enclosed venue while preserving visibility for military flyovers. The roof removes the weather variable which has traditionally accompanied late-season football at Arrowhead, but also opens the building to year-round events that its predecessor could not accommodate.

Hunt has previously identified Super Bowls, NCAA Final Fours and College Football Playoff games among the events Kansas City intends to pursue. The roof is therefore more than a comfort measure, central to the commercial case for abandoning a renovated Arrowhead in favour of an entirely new venue.

Kansas City-based MANICA has been selected as lead design architect following a six-month competition, with HNTB — another local firm — appointed architect of record. CAA ICON will serve as the Chiefs’ representative on the project.

“We’re proud to name MANICA as our lead design architect and HNTB as the architect of record for this transformational stadium undertaking which will come to life over the next five years,” Chiefs president Mark Donovan said. “We are incredibly fortunate that Kansas City is home to world-class sports and entertainment design talent, and that has been on full display throughout this process. David [Manica] and the MANICA team stood out throughout a rigorous months-long process, honouring and embracing our history while presenting a bold and dynamic vision for the future. We look forward to working alongside both firms to refine these plans and deliver the premier sports and entertainment venue not only in the Midwest, but in the world.”

The designs remain conceptual and the stadium’s name has not been settled. The renderings use the temporary title ‘Chiefs Stadium’, while the franchise stressed that separate MANICA images circulated in 2024 did not form part of its design competition.

“It is the honour of a lifetime to be entrusted with designing the next home of the Kansas City Chiefs in our hometown,” MANICA president and owner David Manica said. “My entire team is committed to creating a stadium that honours the legacy, tradition, and unmatched energy, of Arrowhead while boldly reimagining its future. This stadium is being designed not just for today’s fans, but for the generations of Chiefs Kingdom to come, [as] a place that reflects the passion, pride, and enduring strength of one of the greatest fan bases in all of sports.”

Beyond the bowl, the plans include a modern plaza containing the Lamar Hunt statue, a Chiefs Hall of Honour more than twice the size of the existing facility and a team store approximately four times larger. The stadium will anchor one of two privately developed mixed-use districts, while a separate headquarters and training complex will be constructed in Olathe.

“The opportunity to help shape the next home of the Kansas City Chiefs is deeply meaningful to HNTB,” HNTB president and project executive Tom O’Grady said. “This project brings together our deep roots in Kansas City and our experience delivering transformative sports and entertainment venues that elevate the fan experience and strengthen community connections. Together with MANICA, we look forward to creating a destination that reflects the legacy of the Chiefs and becomes an enduring landmark for generations of fans.”

The renderings inevitably focus attention on what supporters will eventually receive, but do not resolve the continuing debate over what Kansas is paying to secure it.

The wider development, including the stadium, Olathe facilities and surrounding commercial districts, has been valued at approximately $4bn. Kansas officials previously said around 60 per cent would be publicly financed through sales tax and revenue bonds and the Attracting Professional Sports to Kansas Fund, which uses sports betting revenue. The Associated Press reported that the state was authorised to issue slightly more than $2.4bn in bonds towards the combined project.

Those mechanisms create no new state tax, but that does not make the public contribution cost-free. Investors purchase the bonds and are subsequently repaid, with interest, from sales tax revenue generated within designated districts. Critics argue that money would otherwise flow into state and local budgets, while supporters contend that much of the activity would not exist without the development.

That dispute has crossed conventional party lines. KCUR reported that opponents have questioned whether the additional economic activity will be sufficient to repay the bonds without diverting revenue from other priorities. Chiefs attorney Korb Maxwell told lawmakers that internal projections anticipate repayment within 15 to 20 years.

The team now projects 36,500 full-time-equivalent job-years and an $8.2bn regional impact during construction. Once the stadium, training facility and associated developments are operational, it forecasts support for 8,500 full-time-equivalent jobs and $1.5bn in annual economic activity. Those figures originate with the Chiefs and will remain central to scrutiny of the deal as plans move from polished images to construction.

Arrowhead’s replacement is therefore being asked to do two things at once: recreate an atmosphere built over generations and generate the new revenue streams that justified leaving it. The first renderings show how the Chiefs intend to address the former. Whether the finished development fulfils the latter will take considerably longer to establish.