Tribal Warfare
12-31-2010, 03:49 AM
Chiefs slowly restoring Arrowhead atmosphere (http://www.kansascity.com/2010/12/30/2551889/chiefs-slowly-restoring-arrowhead.html)
By KENT BABB
The Kansas City Star
Todd Haley didn’t just hear about how Arrowhead Stadium used to be. Heck, he experienced it. It was loud and cranky, and if you were wearing some other team’s colors, Sunday couldn’t end soon enough.
That was at the end of the 1990s, maybe the Chiefs’ best decade. Kansas City was hungry for a championship, and when it didn’t happen, that made Arrowhead an even more rowdy venue.
“A scary place to come to,” said Haley, who was an assistant for the New York Jets in the late ’90s, “and try to feel like you could win a game.”
Then, of course, things changed. Another decade set in, and at its close, the Chiefs’ chances of a Super Bowl turned sour. Arrowhead emptied. Fans stayed home. Once one of America’s fiercest atmospheres, Kansas City’s football stadium became little more than just another stop on opponents’ schedules.
This season, things turned again. Change can happen fast in the NFL, and a year after Kansas City went 1-7 in its home stadium, the Chiefs are 7-0 with a chance to be one of two teams — New England also is unbeaten at home — to win all of its regular-season home games.
At the team’s practice facility this week, players and coaches were reluctant to suggest that Arrowhead was back. Heading in the right direction, maybe, but still not what it once was.
“A taste of that,” linebacker Derrick Johnson said. “Hopefully there will be more.”
Chiefs games have been unusual this season. The team is 10-5 and has clinched the AFC West championship with a game to go. Running back Jamaal Charles is one of the league’s most spectacular players, and Romeo Crennel’s defense has kept Kansas City in most games. But it’s clear that, perhaps for many reasons, skepticism remains. The Arrowhead advantage might be back, but not all fans are. There have been thousands of empty seats at most home games, mostly in the team’s high-dollar club level. Last week’s contest against Tennessee was in danger of falling short of a sellout — which could’ve led to the team’s second television blackout in two decades.
The team said Thursday that this week’s regular-season finale against Oakland would be televised but that not all club seats had been sold.
Haley admitted that, when he took the job early last year, he knew it would take time to restore Arrowhead into that intimidating venue from years ago. He knew fans might not immediately come back after three years of disappointment. But Haley said he remains optimistic that, in time, fans will return.
“Something that we’ve talked about from day one: getting our fans back,” Haley said. “We knew that that’s going to take some work, and they had a reason to have gone away, because … the team being put out there wasn’t a lot of fun to watch a lot of times.”
The Chiefs started winning this season, and occasionally it felt like the old days again. That Monday night game to start the season was packed, and the people inside were loud and cranky. But even after the team’s best start in seven years, the enthusiasm was muffled after a few weeks.
But one thing didn’t change: the Chiefs’ comfort in their home stadium. Haley moved Friday practices to Arrowhead to further enhance that comfort — studying where you take the test, Haley has called it — and, sure enough, the Chiefs keep winning there.
It might not be perfect, but Kansas City again possesses a home-field advantage.
“It’s really critical,” Haley said, “if you want to be a good team, year in and year out, and a team that has a chance to play in big games.”
Fullback Tim Castille said this week that, if for no other reason, maintaining that feeling of invincibility at Arrowhead is enough to treat Sunday’s game with importance. He said a half-effort could carry into the following week, when the Chiefs will host their first playoff game since 2003.
“We can’t afford to come out and lay an egg,” Castille said.
Haley said the Chiefs aren’t lacking in motivation, and although some skepticism remains at Arrowhead, the coach said his team is doing its part to convince Kansas City that the home-field advantage is real — and that it’s coming back.
“I was really impressed with our fans from day one,” he said, “because even though the stadium was, at times, not fun, you said to yourself, ‘Boy, if we could get everybody in here, it would get really loud.’
“That’s kind of what’s happened. I understood that task clearly. We had to do our part, and I feel like we’re doing some of that.”
By KENT BABB
The Kansas City Star
Todd Haley didn’t just hear about how Arrowhead Stadium used to be. Heck, he experienced it. It was loud and cranky, and if you were wearing some other team’s colors, Sunday couldn’t end soon enough.
That was at the end of the 1990s, maybe the Chiefs’ best decade. Kansas City was hungry for a championship, and when it didn’t happen, that made Arrowhead an even more rowdy venue.
“A scary place to come to,” said Haley, who was an assistant for the New York Jets in the late ’90s, “and try to feel like you could win a game.”
Then, of course, things changed. Another decade set in, and at its close, the Chiefs’ chances of a Super Bowl turned sour. Arrowhead emptied. Fans stayed home. Once one of America’s fiercest atmospheres, Kansas City’s football stadium became little more than just another stop on opponents’ schedules.
This season, things turned again. Change can happen fast in the NFL, and a year after Kansas City went 1-7 in its home stadium, the Chiefs are 7-0 with a chance to be one of two teams — New England also is unbeaten at home — to win all of its regular-season home games.
At the team’s practice facility this week, players and coaches were reluctant to suggest that Arrowhead was back. Heading in the right direction, maybe, but still not what it once was.
“A taste of that,” linebacker Derrick Johnson said. “Hopefully there will be more.”
Chiefs games have been unusual this season. The team is 10-5 and has clinched the AFC West championship with a game to go. Running back Jamaal Charles is one of the league’s most spectacular players, and Romeo Crennel’s defense has kept Kansas City in most games. But it’s clear that, perhaps for many reasons, skepticism remains. The Arrowhead advantage might be back, but not all fans are. There have been thousands of empty seats at most home games, mostly in the team’s high-dollar club level. Last week’s contest against Tennessee was in danger of falling short of a sellout — which could’ve led to the team’s second television blackout in two decades.
The team said Thursday that this week’s regular-season finale against Oakland would be televised but that not all club seats had been sold.
Haley admitted that, when he took the job early last year, he knew it would take time to restore Arrowhead into that intimidating venue from years ago. He knew fans might not immediately come back after three years of disappointment. But Haley said he remains optimistic that, in time, fans will return.
“Something that we’ve talked about from day one: getting our fans back,” Haley said. “We knew that that’s going to take some work, and they had a reason to have gone away, because … the team being put out there wasn’t a lot of fun to watch a lot of times.”
The Chiefs started winning this season, and occasionally it felt like the old days again. That Monday night game to start the season was packed, and the people inside were loud and cranky. But even after the team’s best start in seven years, the enthusiasm was muffled after a few weeks.
But one thing didn’t change: the Chiefs’ comfort in their home stadium. Haley moved Friday practices to Arrowhead to further enhance that comfort — studying where you take the test, Haley has called it — and, sure enough, the Chiefs keep winning there.
It might not be perfect, but Kansas City again possesses a home-field advantage.
“It’s really critical,” Haley said, “if you want to be a good team, year in and year out, and a team that has a chance to play in big games.”
Fullback Tim Castille said this week that, if for no other reason, maintaining that feeling of invincibility at Arrowhead is enough to treat Sunday’s game with importance. He said a half-effort could carry into the following week, when the Chiefs will host their first playoff game since 2003.
“We can’t afford to come out and lay an egg,” Castille said.
Haley said the Chiefs aren’t lacking in motivation, and although some skepticism remains at Arrowhead, the coach said his team is doing its part to convince Kansas City that the home-field advantage is real — and that it’s coming back.
“I was really impressed with our fans from day one,” he said, “because even though the stadium was, at times, not fun, you said to yourself, ‘Boy, if we could get everybody in here, it would get really loud.’
“That’s kind of what’s happened. I understood that task clearly. We had to do our part, and I feel like we’re doing some of that.”