Kansas City Chiefs are ready to turn over revamped Arrowhead Stadium to FIFA for the cup

[AP Photo]

More than three decades ago, Lamar Hunt and his son Clark stood on the field inside Arrowhead Stadium, trying to pitch FIFA on the prospect that their NFL stadium could play host to World Cup games hosted by the U.S. in the summer of 1994.

Their pitch back in 1990 didn’t work. Or at the very least, the results took quite a while to come to fruition.

But now, after the Kansas City Chiefs poured millions of dollars into altering their 53-year-old stadium so that it could fit the field dimensions required by soccer’s global governing body, the dream of the Hunt family is about to become a reality. Their stadium will host six pool-play games beginning next month, along with a round of 32 match and a World Cup quarterfinal.

“Clark has been keen on really living that legacy, finding a way for Kansas City and Arrowhead Stadium specifically to host World Cup matches,” Matt Kenny, the Chiefs’ executive vice president of operations and events, said Monday during a stadium tour.

The first match at Arrowhead Stadium will feature defending champion Argentina against Algeria on June 16. Ecuador and Curacao will play the following week, while Tunisia will play the Netherlands and Algeria will face Austria later in pool play.

The two knockout games are scheduled for July 3 and July 11, after which Arrowhead Stadium will revert to a football stadium.

The Chiefs expect to play their first preseason game about a month later.

All of the games played in the U.S. will be played in the homes of NFL teams, from MetLife Stadium — the home of the New York Jets and Giants — to Levi’s Stadium outside San Francisco and SoFi Stadium outside Los Angeles. But what makes Arrowhead Stadium unique is that it was built in 1972, in a much different era for professional sports, and the notion of hosting soccer matches was never a thought.

To accommodate the larger field, several rows of permanent seats were removed from the north sideline, which is where the visiting team is on NFL game days, and replaced with modular seating for use during the football season. Those seats were then removed again when Arrowhead Stadium began to transition into a soccer venue.

For World Cup purposes, it will be known as Kansas City Stadium. MDT/AP