The Chiefs could open the '20 season on a field with a new corporate name, as sources said that current team sponsor Government Employees Health Association (GEHA) is close to finalizing field naming rights at Arrowhead Stadium. Chiefs President Mark Donovan insisted that “field naming rights have always been an option to explore as part of the partnership with GEHA, but not something either of us is focused on right now, especially with everything that’s going on in the world." He added, "To say that anything has ramped up or even slowed down on that (because of the pandemic) would be wrong.’’ That leads to the possibility that an option or even a right of first refusal on field naming rights was part of the Chiefs' sponsorship with GEHA signed last year. “We don’t talk about the details of our contracts," said Donovan. “From day one, we’ve talked about the ability to do a naming-rights deal with GEHA, and we’ve had discussions about how that would work, but nothing really has changed on that.’’ GEHA, which provides health insurance for more than 2 million government employees, completed sponsorships with both the team and QB Patrick Mahomes around a year ago. GEHA has around 1400 employees in the K.C. area, and its corporate HQ is around 14 miles from Arrowhead Stadium. At the time of last year’s deal, company officials said increasing brand recognition within the marketing-intensive insurance category was the driving force behind its Chiefs sponsorship. “A lot of the benefits we saw exceeded both of our expectations,” Donovan said.
RIGHTS HAVE LONG BEEN ON MARKET: Naming rights at the Chiefs home have been on the market for more than decade, with a number of sales agencies having been retained, including IMG, Premier Partnerships and Wasserman. Selling naming rights have been a focus of Donovan’s since he joined the Chiefs as COO in '09. Arrowhead Stadium, founded in '72, underwent $12M worth of renovations in '19 and was scheduled this year to see seats replaced in the lower bowl and parts of the upper deck, along with a new scoreboard, improvements to the home locker room and enclosures around four previously open-air field suites. However, the pandemic has put some aspects of that project on hold, the Chiefs said.
Staff writer Ben Fischer contributed to this story.
