The Chiefs are "focused on further expanding" their brand in the region, and while the Rams’ move to L.A. "opened doors for the Chiefs to expand into St. Louis ... team officials plan to take it slowly there," according to James Dornbrook of the K.C. BUSINESS JOURNAL. Chiefs President Mark Donovan said the team's strong '15 season "created opportunities to have conversations with national brands about Kansas City and the Chiefs." Donovan: "We’re in those discussions now. It also creates the ability to expand within our region." He added, "We’ve had businesses in St. Louis reach out to us and say they have marketing dollars and are interested in activating with us. But we’re going to be really cautious about that, to make sure we do it in a very respectful way with the Rams fans there. The overall strategy is to kind of hold off. We feel the timing will work itself out. When it’s appropriate, we’ll be more aggressive.” Dornbrook notes buzz about the Chiefs also "could help the team land the one major sponsorship it’s been unable to attract: a naming rights deal" for the field at Arrowhead Stadium. Donovan said, "We are focused on selling field naming rights as opposed to stadium naming rights so we can maintain the Arrowhead name. We’ll continue to do that" (K.C. BUSINESS JOURNAL, 2/19 issue).
BIG GAME HUNT: In K.C., Terez Paylor noted Chiefs Chair & CEO Clark Hunt has maintained that there are "two major obstacles standing in the way" of the city hosting the Super Bowl. The first is the weather and the second issue is the "lack of high-quality four- and five-star hotels that can appropriately accommodate the large amount of starpower" that would descend upon K.C. during Super Bowl week. If both issues "can be satisfied somewhere down the road ... Hunt sees nothing standing in the way." Hunt is "quick to say that any Super Bowl talk is premature," but he remains "optimistic the league will again consider a cold-weather outdoor bid." He said, “I'm anticipating they will, at some point" (K.C. STAR, 2/21).
