Why the Kansas City Chiefs squeezed Nebraska game into tight scheduling window

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. — Wanting to maximize Arrowhead Stadium, the Kansas City Chiefs seized an unexpected opportunity in the opening week of this college football season.

The inaugural Kansas City Classic, which Chiefs President Mark Donovan hopes is the first of many, will feature Nebraska against Cincinnati for a prime time 8 p.m. kickoff on Aug. 28 in front of a nationally televised audience on ESPN.

It was scheduled for Indianapolis’ Lucas Oil Stadium — and before that, the Bearcats’ Nippert Stadium — before being moved in December.

Donovan and the Chiefs aggressively worked to bring the marquee matchup to Arrowhead, home of four-time Super Bowl champions and one of 11 United States host sites for the 2026 World Cup.

For one reason in particular.

“Clearly,” Donovan said, “the Nebraska piece is a big piece.”

Nebraska Athletic Director Troy Dannen revealed Friday that around 66,000 tickets had been sold, with roughly 6,000 tracked to the Cincinnati area. Arrowhead will be painted Big Red, not Bearcat red.

That’s the support the Chiefs wanted to tap into.

NU has distant roots in Kansas City because of the proximity — a three-hour drive from Lincoln — from the Huskers’ time in the Big 12. They even played for a conference championship at Arrowhead in 2006.

Donovan echoed Monday at Chiefs training camp that Nebraska fans have shown “overwhelming” support, especially with a late-Thursday kickoff.

“As you would expect, really. (It’s) not surprising,” said Donovan, who’d know from 16 years in Kansas City and talking with friends in Omaha. “We were sort of counting on what we know about the loyalty of that fan base, and this opportunity to come to GEHA Field, to experience Arrowhead, and to do everything about it. The tailgating, pregame, the stadium, the experience.”

There’s risk and strategy, Donovan said, involved in the Chiefs making this kind of move.

Their business is broader than just Chiefs games, and Nebraska vs. Cincinnati was an opportunity to dig deeper into an evolving college landscape after previously hosting Big 12 championships, Division II rivalries and, last fall, four Kansas games.

But the Huskers and Bearcats could affect GEHA Field days after KC’s lone preseason home game and a little more than two weeks before the regular-season home opener — a Super Bowl rematch against the Philadelphia Eagles.

It isn’t a worthwhile risk in some stadiums.

It isn’t a concern at Arrowhead.

“One of the reasons we’re able to take opportunities like this and risks like this is our operations team, the people who do the work every day,” Donovan said. “They take a lot of pride in showcasing what makes this place special.”

That includes Matt Kenny, the Chiefs’ executive vice president of operations and events. He’s an Omaha native who grew up a Nebraska fan.

“We’ve done four-day flips after concerts in the past,” Kenny told The World-Herald. “This one’s a non-negotiable. Thankfully, we’ve got some of the business working for us.”

Because as much will go into treating the field postgame, there’s work to do pregame, too.

Arrowhead won’t have Chiefs markings on the field come Aug. 28, Kenny said. Despite being moved, the matchup is technically still as a Cincinnati home game, meaning the field will have Big 12 branding.

After years of trips to Memorial Stadium, Kenny can’t wait for Nebraska to come to Arrowhead. Neither can his friends and family.

“I was home a couple weeks ago, and one out of three people I talked to mentioned it,” said Kenny, an Omaha Creighton Prep graduate. “There’s a sense of pride with that, that our first entry into this new college platform happens to be the team I rooted for my whole life.

Kenny paused.

“However, a job’s a job,” he said, smiling, “and on game day, I’ll be in red.”

Nebraska fans can expect a great experience, Donovan said, when they take over Arrowhead. The Chiefs’ president knows it will be different from Memorial Stadium — “it’s own unique thing,” Donovan said — but different in a good way. The only way Kansas City knows how.

“We’re gonna do it like we do every time,” Donovan said. “It’s gonna be great.”