The State of Kansas and St. Louis Saw The Writing On The Wall Not Too Long Ago

There was a reason The State of Kansas and the City of St. Louis petitioned the Governor's Office of Missouri a year or so ago, to share the Kansas City Chiefs team as a dual-state team, where the State of Kansas would recognize Arrowhead as it's co-official stadium with Missouri and St. Louis went so far as to suggest the Chiefs play half of their 8 home games in the Rams old stadium or a newly built one. That reason, they saw ahead of time that this guy was going to be able to generate revenue in insane amounts for which ever city and its residents hosted Chiefs games. Of course! Border Wars and St. Louis crime and riots be damned, they want in on the take! I guess in their view, The State of Kansas right of claim to the Chiefs is that they share the name of their state with Missouri and the Chiefs and the right of claim for St. Louis is that they share a state with the Kansas City Chiefs and both currently have no professional football teams. I've been out of Kansas City for a while but I'd like to hear your opinion about that proposal by both locales, should Kansas and St. Louis share in the Kansas City Mahomes economic boom or hell-to-the-naw-naw? Lol

Since Mahomes Meteoric Start, Kansas City's Economy Has Beaten The Recession And A Few National Averages

This man must be protected at all costs, whether it's the state troopers escorting him or the Missouri National Guard. Economics is my specialty and looking at Kansas City's economy and its metrics, there is definitely a "Mahomes' Effect." This is in anticipation of the NFL Draft being hosted at KC's now internationally famous Union Station. The economic impact of the NFL Draft and the net creation of revenue and wealth that will flow into a relative small market (compared to the drop in the bucket it would only create in its traditional locales, such as NYC), is going to be massive on the local economy. The NFL Draft is obvious in its impact, more so this focusing on the impact Mahomes has had and will have. Since 2018 the AFC Championship Game goes through Arrowhead along with the processional Divisional Game and its revenue impact. Conference Title games in cities are almost as impactful as a Super Bowl for that city's economy and the overall state. The massive flows of money from rival fans either being at Arrowhead or wanting to be in Kansas City to support their team, extraordinary flow of money into the Greater Kansas City Area since 2018 has been tremendous. The overflow of demand it creates for Kansas City will cause the economy and city itself to grow exponentially, with the middle class in KC being perhaps the biggest beneficiary. KC's unemployment beats the national average as well as the growth in employment mobility.

Local Economic Impact:

a.) Small and medium sized family hotels

b.) KC's Restaurants and its now internationally acclaimed BBQ scene (which usually tend to be restaurants that are locally owned and family run small businesses).

c.) Small retail shops with excess demand every January and February

d.) The Greater Kansas City AirBnB market being a massive massive winner.

For the past five years in playoff formatting, think of all the people from traveling from:

2018: Indianapolis, Boston

2019: Houston, Tennessee's Nashville/Memphis Titans' cohort

2020: Cleveland, Buffalo (they travel very well)

2021: Pittsburgh, Buffalo and Cincinnati

2022: Jacksonville and Cincinnati

The Economic Effects During The Regular Season and Post-Season

Using the Airbnb market for example this demand and the passive income it creates for the average middle class homeowner in Greater Kansas City is staggering. Of course the hotel chains will be booked and small to medium sized taking the next takers. With many who may not necessarily go to the Playoff Games In Arrowhead come January but want to show their home team some support by "being there" and also wanting some easy and quick access to downtown KC and its amenities. However, the excess demand for rival fans marking Arrowhead as a must travel game is not just during the post-season but the regular season now. Regular season games where AFC aspirants such as the Bills and Bengals make these regular season visits almost a pilgrimage. The Chiefs home games can consider its local economic almost as important as the playoffs (given how certain AFC Rivals treat beating us as almost a religious experience and winning the Super Bowl). The Airbnb economy where the demand a horde of Buffalonians (Bills Mafia) for example in the regular and post season will create massive surges in normal booking prices, where the average Greater KC homeowner come a Bills/Bengals/Raiders and now Jaguars matchup whether reg or post-season will net them as much as NYC's hotel market during the same time span. These away fans booking hotels and Airbnbs, coming to mark off beating Mahomes and the Chiefs as a "signifier of Super Bowl hope" and the money this spills over into Kansas City's food and retail scene is the new normal (well for however long Patrick plays).

Going Forward: Modernized City Infrastructure and Public Transit, The 2023 NFL Draft and the International Demand For The Chiefs (Mahomes)

The new airport is almost a signifier that the project was taken up because of the surge of national flights coming into Kansas City (almost non-existent before Mahomes). Money on airports and their modernization are only ever taken up if that area is seen as or expected to receive large flows of economically impactful tourist and other commercial money. For instance, no one cares about modernizing the Boise, Idaho airport, why would they? Who are they trying to impress? ... Exactly. With that being said, the NFL Draft in Kansas City is going to be like its own local Super Bowl after the Chiefs won the actual Super Bowl (lol) in terms of the economic, media and national fanfare and thus dollars it will bring into the city, truly a seismic event for a non-coastal team. The NFL Draft in Kansas City shows how important Mahomes is to the NFL and Kansas City's Municipal Government in terms of economic growth and tax revenues.

The NFL Draft happening in a city not named NYC, Chicago or the like on the West Coast is rare to the point of it almost never happening. To put this in perspective, NYC, Philadelphia and Chicago have hosted the NFL Draft over 95% of the time. ONLY 10 CITIES have ever hosted an NFL Draft, with NYC hosting it 2/3rds of the time at 57x, Philly 13x and Chicago 9x with the other 7 cities being Pittsburgh (1948,1949 when Pittsburgh was seen as economic force multiplier aka US Steel... the only non coastal big city to ever host the draft more than once), Milwaukee (1940), Washington DC (1941), Los Angeles (1956... kinda shocked about LA only having one draft), Dallas (2018), Nashville (2019), Covid (No City-2020) and then Cleveland (2021 bucking the trend of small market midwestern city hosting it, I imagine the deal for Cleveland hosting the draft was put into effect due to Lebron's influence and impact upon his return to Cleveland several years before 2021) followed by Vegas (2022 - No surprise there, very monied city, new stadium taking upon a team) and now us. The outlier is Cleveland in the modern era, because Nashville's food scene, world famous music industry and its appeal to young artists and professionals is very notable but Cleveland is a bit of a shocker for me in 2021 given the abysmal state of the Browns and honestly the city itself.

Cleveland is an outlier and post-2020 Covid, not counting Cleveland as bucking the trend given the non-normalcy of the NFL at that time. That being said, NORMALLY, IT IS ALMOST UNHEARD OF... that a market like Kansas City gets the NFL Draft in the Modern Era! The last time it happened for "Flyover Country" was Milwaukee in 1940 before the Super Bowl Era!!! Green Bay never even got a shot at hosting the draft again in the Super Bowl Era despite the Packers having great organizational consistency and excellence. Not to mention, 3 Legendary Quarterbacks (Bart Starr, Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers) and a Head Coach for whom the Super Bowl Trophy is named after. This all points to the Patrick Mahomes Effect or the Mahomesification of the NFL.

Needless to say, traveling to Brazil earlier on in the year, the uptick in interest in American Football is only because of Mahomes, with many Brazilians expressing "how beautifully Patrick plays, they can't stop watching." Often getting comparisons, saying they remind him of the magic of Formula 1 speed messiah and legend Ayrton Senna with his tenacity, aggression and near impossible feats of daring in a Formula 1 car that changed forever how drivers raced; or Ronaldinho in their "football" because of his trickery. I don't know if anyone saw this during the playoffs, but in the AFCCG some fan had a sign saying "I came all the way from Germany to see this." There is a notable British and German contingent of Chiefs supporters whom you could say are enraptured by Mahomes. This is perhaps the moment Roger Goodell has been waiting for, a moment where 1 player and his playing style breaks the international scene and it appears Mahomes is on his way. The economic effects of this international popularity of the Kingdom will be tremendous, think of tourists to the US who would normally do the average big city tourist fanfare with Manhattan ads in tow, DC Capitol sightseeing and Los Angeles Hollywood Star Sightings ... possibly taking detours to buy Chiefs tickets, experience KC BBQ and all.

Mahomes is not only carrying the Chiefs on his back, but the NFL as well in terms of its new found international appeal and also the entire economic aspirations of Kansas City's rise to acclaim. This is beyond what anyone of us thought in 2017 in the NFL Draft when Mahomes was taken. An unbelievable ride to glory that amazingly is only getting started.

"The Kansas City Chiefs are the favorites to win the Super Bowl every year BECAUSE OF ONE GUY, regardless of who else is on the team" - Cris Collinsworth