WSJ: Q&A With Kansas City Chiefs' Clark Hunt

[DaKCMan AP]

Q&A With Kansas City Chiefs' Clark Hunt

CEO Talks About This Week's Cold-Weather Super Bowl and Rising NFL Franchise Market Values

No matter what happens in Sunday's Super Bowl between the Seattle Seahawks and Denver Broncos, the surprise story of this NFL season will be the Kansas City Chiefs, who shocked the football world by winning 11 games and making the playoffs after a two-win season in 2012.

The turnaround was in many ways the result of canny management decisions. Rather than embarking on a yearslong rebuilding effort, Clark Hunt, the team's chairman and chief executive, chose a faster path. He hired a new general manager and coach who arrived with a working relationship from time both spent with the Green Bay Packers in the 1990s. He also instructed the coach and GM, among others, to report directly to him, ensuring he had daily tabs on game plans and player moves.

Mr. Hunt, a former Goldman Sachs analyst, is a member of a longtime National Football League family. He took over the Chiefs in 2005 from his father, Lamar, a founder of the American Football League and the man who coined the term "Super Bowl."

The 48-year-old Mr. Hunt, whose family also owns the FC Dallas soccer team, spoke recently about this week's cold-weather Super Bowl, whether soccer will ever deliver on its potential and rising NFL franchise market values after his team was estimated by Forbes to be worth approximately $1 billion this year. Edited excerpts:


WSJ: After the Chiefs' dismal 2012 season, what management changes did you make?

Mr. Hunt: The head coach had always reported to the general manager. I felt that it was important to change that [and] have the head coach report to me, as well as the general manager report directly to me. During the course of the year, that afforded me the opportunity to speak with Andy [Reid, the Chiefs' coach] on a regular basis.

You get a little bit of a different perspective in talking with the two guys, and that was one thing I wanted. Certainly, I don't expect them to see every player or situation the same. The head coach is focused on the upcoming game where the general manager is thinking long-term. That's the way you want it.


WSJ: You hired Mr. Reid, the former Philadelphia Eagles coach, rather than an up-and-coming deputy from another team. Why did you favor experience over youth?

Mr. Hunt: We had such a difficult year both on and off the field. I felt that if there was an experienced coach out there, it would make the most sense to go get an experienced coach. We had a pretty talented roster; we had six guys go to the Pro Bowl. For a team with two wins, that's very unusual. We had anticipated that Andy might be available but it wasn't a certainty...A few hours after we parted ways with Romeo Crennel, our coach before Andy, Andy was let go. I called Andy right away.

Within 20 minutes of the [beginning of the] interview, it was totally clear he had the energy. He also told us that in the days before the interview, he had watched every single play of ours from the 2012 season. What was supposed to be a four-hour interview turned into eight hours; he was supposed to get on the plane and fly to the West Coast for another interview, but ours went so long he missed his flight.


WSJ: There has been a lot of talk this year about attendance—Green Bay, one of the best markets in football, struggled to sell out a playoff game. Is the league getting complacent?

Mr. Hunt: We've had this dynamic develop the last 10 or 15 years where the in-home product has become so good that some people are making the decision to stay at home [to watch the game] and save the money, time and effort it takes to go to the stadium. Clearly long-term that's bad for the business.

From the Chiefs standpoint, in addition to a $400 million stadium renovation, we've done a lot of things from a technology standpoint. We have Wi-Fi, we have an app that gives fans real-time information and views on the game they can't get [outside the stadium]. They can get the Red Zone [channel], which most people were staying home to watch their fantasy teams.


WSJ: Your father discouraged using the word "owner" because he said the fans own the team. What's your relationship with fans?

Mr. Hunt: In 2012, not surprisingly, I had a few fans reach out to me to share their thoughts on what was going on. I always tried to write back to them but we went a step further and brought a number of those fans in to have lunch with me because when they get a letter back, they say 'well, that's great but he's not answering my problem, he doesn't have the passion.' Really, I wanted them to realize I was hurting as much as they were.


WSJ: NFL franchises are generally valued at a minimum of $1 billion. Are they overvalued?

Mr. Hunt: I don't know that they are becoming overvalued because they are a unique asset. The value to some degree has to tie with the economics of the business and it's increasingly expensive to run a professional sports franchise.

One of the things I learned at Goldman Sachs is that an asset is worth what someone will pay for it. That was one of the first questions they asked at our training. I got it wrong.

We don't focus on the franchise value because it's a passion and frankly it's something we want to keep in our family for a long time…The value is only important if you plan on selling it.


WSJ: Your family has long believed in American soccer. Can it go mainstream?

Mr. Hunt: Ten, 11 years ago, [Major League Soccer] was struggling, contracting franchises, selling franchises for $5 million and there were very few takers, even at that price. Today, [the MLS and its owners have] 21 franchises and the sport has really accelerated. I think, long-term, soccer will be part of the top two, top three [more popular sports in America]. That's where it is headed. I think that will happen in my lifetime.


WSJ: Is football primed for a "Moneyball" moment, when data analytics overtakes traditional scouting?

Mr. Hunt: I don't know that it will ever get to the level of baseball because the nature of the sport is different. There's much more of an art than a science [to football]. Having said that, there's always been a science aspect to football. We know how fast a guy runs a 40-yard dash, how high he can jump and, as technology improves and people find new ways to measure, I think the science part will grow. But there will always be a spot for guys who just have an innate talent to find what a good football player looks like.


WSJ: From the team owner perspective, what does New York have to do to get another Super Bowl?

Mr. Hunt: The thing that will influence owners making a decision about a future Super Bowl for New York or another open air, cold-weather market, will be "does the weather behave?" If it does, it's likely a game will go back to New York and perhaps elsewhere as well.

Write to Kevin Clark at kevin.clark@wsj.com

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