Truman Sports Complex
Encyclopedia
Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...
, U.S.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. It is home to two major sports venues- Arrowhead Stadium
Arrowhead Stadium
Arrowhead Stadium is a stadium located in Kansas City, Missouri and home to the NFL's Kansas City Chiefs....
, home of the National Football League
National Football League
The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...
's Kansas City Chiefs
Kansas City Chiefs
The Kansas City Chiefs are a professional American football team based in Kansas City, Missouri. They are a member of the Western Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League . Originally named the Dallas Texans, the club was founded by Lamar Hunt in 1960 as a...
, and Kauffman Stadium
Kauffman Stadium
Ewing M. Kauffman Stadium is a Major League Baseball stadium located in Kansas City, Missouri, and home to the Kansas City Royals of the American League. Together with Arrowhead Stadium, home of the National Football League's Kansas City Chiefs, it is a part of the Truman Sports Complex...
, home of Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...
's Kansas City Royals
Kansas City Royals
The Kansas City Royals are a Major League Baseball team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Royals are a member of the Central Division of Major League Baseball's American League. From 1973 to the present, the Royals have played in Kauffman Stadium...
. The complex also hosts various other events during the year, such as the annual Border Showdown football game.
Description
The Truman Sports Complex was built and owned by the government of Jackson CountyJackson County, Missouri
Jackson County is a county located in the U.S. state of Missouri. With a population of 674,158 in the 2010 census, Jackson County is the second most populous of Missouri's counties, after St. Louis County. Kansas City, the state's most populous city and focus city of the Kansas City Metropolitan...
and managed by the Jackson County Sports Complex Authority which is a state of Missouri agency. The current complex design was arrived after other plans were discarded and called for separate side-by-side stadiums with a mutual rolling roof. However, the roof was never built due to cost. The complex was revolutionary in an age when stadiums were built as big multiuse venues. The design established the reputation of architect Kivett and Myers
Kivett and Myers
Kivett & Myers was a Kansas City, Missouri architecture firm that pioneered the design of modern professional sports stadiums.Clarence Kivett graduated from the University of Kansas in 1928 and his first big design project was the art deco design of Katz Drug at Main Street and Westport in 1934...
.
In 1975 the firm merged with Kansas City architect firm HNTB
HNTB
HNTB Corporation is an architecture and engineering consulting firm headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri that has designed many bridges, roadways, airports and professional sports stadiums across the United States and around the world.The firm started in 1914 as Harrington, Howard & Ash...
and went on to design stadiums including Giants Stadium
Giants Stadium
Giants Stadium was a multi-purpose stadium, located in East Rutherford, New Jersey, USA, in the Meadowlands Sports Complex. Maximum seating capacity was 80,242. The building itself was 230.5 m long, 180.5 m wide and 44 m high from service level to the top of the seating bowl and 54 m high to...
, RCA Dome
RCA Dome
RCA Dome was a domed stadium, located in Indianapolis, Indiana, and the home of the Indianapolis Colts NFL franchise for 24 seasons ....
, INVESCO Field at Mile High
INVESCO Field at Mile High
Sports Authority Field at Mile High, previously known as Invesco Field at Mile High, and commonly known as Mile High, is a multi-purpose stadium, in Denver, Colorado. It replaced the identically sized, but commercially obsolete Mile High Stadium in 2001...
, and Ralph Wilson Stadium
Ralph Wilson Stadium
Ralph Wilson Stadium is a football stadium, located in the town of Orchard Park, a suburb of Buffalo, New York. It is the home for the Buffalo Bills, of the NFL...
. In 1983, several HNTB architects were hired by St. Louis
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
-based architectural firm Hellmuth, Obata and Kassabaum
Hellmuth, Obata and Kassabaum
HOK is a global architecture, interiors, engineering, planning and consulting firm. HOK is the largest U.S.-based architecture-engineering firm and the "No. 1 role model for sustainable and high-performance design." HOK also is the second-largest interior design firm...
, forming what would later become Populous and opening their primary office in Kansas City.
Kansas City began a project to renovate both Arrowhead and Kauffman Stadiums in 2007 following the passage of a 3/8-cent sales tax increase in a referendum in 2006. Improvements to Kauffman Stadium were finished in time for MLB Opening Day 2009, and Arrowhead Stadium will be completed in time for NFL Opening Day 2010. A separate tax referendum to raise funds to finally build the rolling roof failed. Both stadiums are being renovated by Populous.
With renovations both the Royals and Chiefs have leases on the stadiums through January 31, 2031. Their previous lease which was renegotiated in 1990 had been set to expire January 31, 2015.
Arrowhead Stadium
Arrowhead Stadium
Arrowhead Stadium is a stadium located in Kansas City, Missouri and home to the NFL's Kansas City Chiefs....
, home of the National Football League
National Football League
The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...
's Kansas City Chiefs
Kansas City Chiefs
The Kansas City Chiefs are a professional American football team based in Kansas City, Missouri. They are a member of the Western Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League . Originally named the Dallas Texans, the club was founded by Lamar Hunt in 1960 as a...
, opened in the fall of 1972. George Halas
George Halas
George Stanley Halas, Sr. , nicknamed "Papa Bear" and "Mr. Everything", was a player, coach, owner and pioneer in professional American football. He was the iconic longtime leader of the NFL's Chicago Bears...
called Arrowhead "the most revolutionary, futuristic sports complex I have ever seen." Fans occasionally refer to the stadium as The Sea of Red or simply Arrowhead. The stadium is commonly referred to as the "Home of the CHIEFS" at the beginning of every home game. Arrowhead has long held a reputation for being one of, if not the, loudest outdoor stadium in the NFL due to the exuberance of the Chiefs' fans.
Kauffman Stadium
Kauffman StadiumKauffman Stadium
Ewing M. Kauffman Stadium is a Major League Baseball stadium located in Kansas City, Missouri, and home to the Kansas City Royals of the American League. Together with Arrowhead Stadium, home of the National Football League's Kansas City Chiefs, it is a part of the Truman Sports Complex...
, home of Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...
's Kansas City Royals
Kansas City Royals
The Kansas City Royals are a Major League Baseball team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Royals are a member of the Central Division of Major League Baseball's American League. From 1973 to the present, the Royals have played in Kauffman Stadium...
, opened in spring 1973 as Royals Stadium and is located adjacent to Arrowhead. The stadium's name was changed in 1993 to honor Royals founder Ewing Kauffman
Ewing Kauffman
Ewing Marion Kauffman was an American pharmaceutical magnate, philanthropist, and Major League Baseball owner....
just months before his death. Although the stadium is only 36 years old, it is the sixth-oldest stadium in major league baseball, as a result of the construction of a number of new stadiums in the 1990s. (See List of Major League Baseball stadiums.)