The Kansas City Chiefs’ back-to-back Super Bowls have distracted the public from how little club ownership has spent on their championship teams, one NFL agent told ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler.
“When you’re winning, going to a Super Bowl, nobody really picks you apart for those little details,” the agent told Fowler. “I think agents and people in the league see it, but the general public wouldn’t see that.
“They [the Chiefs] don’t get put in that Cincinnati and Arizona group of being cheap. But they are.”
The Chiefs’ budget was recently the subject of scrutiny after team owner Clark Hunt received an NFL-low F-minus rating in the annual NFLPA team report card for 2024.
Hunt received a 4.9/10 rating from Chiefs players regarding “his willingness to invest in the facilities,” the lowest ranking in the NFL, according to the NFLPA.
In contrast, Arizona Cardinals owner Michael Bidwell earned a 5.8/10 rating for his willingness to invest in facilities, while Cincinnati Bengals owner Mike Brown received a 7.7/10 rating in the category.
The Chiefs also scored poorly in several other NFLPA report card categories, including F rankings for nutritionist/dietician, locker room and training staff. Respondents to the NFLPA survey told the union that the nutritionist wasn’t present at the facility enough, that the locker room needed a renovation and that there was an “an overall lack of care by the team” regarding the training staff.
Hunt responded to the NFLPA report by telling The Athletic’s Nate Taylor and Kalyn Kahler in May that the Chiefs were “making some pretty significant investments in the training facility this year.”
The Chiefs owner most recently told reporters earlier this month that the franchise is still “working on creating some options” for either renovating or building new versions of both the team’s stadium and practice facilities.
Hunt added that he hoped to “know the direction that we’re heading in” by the spring.
The uncertainty over the future of team facilities hasn’t hurt the Chiefs’ success. Following Sunday’s win over the Las Vegas Raiders the Chiefs are 7-0 to start the season for the first time for the franchise since 2013, and the first time for a reigning champion since the New England Patriots in 2019.
NFL Agent Calls Chiefs ‘Cheap’ Like Bengals, Cardinals but ‘Public Wouldn’t See That’
