It seems like every NFL stadium has an odd factoid. Municipal Stadium, the original home of the Kansas City Chiefs, is a bit of an exception to the rule. It has two very unusual aspects – things that were so unique to it that it is unlikely it will ever be duplicated again.

1)       All things considered, it may have been the least expensive stadium ever in the “modern” NFL era. Average cost per seat? $80.

2)     Of all the dual purpose stadiums ever used, this might have been the only one that was built without football in mind at all.

Granted, it had a short lifespan as a pro football facility (less than a decade) and it spawned one of the best pro football stadiums ever built (Arrowhead Stadium). Still, there is no denying that Municipal might have been the tightest NFL field ever.

Built in 1923 to serve as the home for minor league Kansas City Blues (it was known as Muehlebach Field at the time. The man, who built it, George Muehlebach, owned a brewery and a major hotel with the same name.), it remained mainly a baseball facility until the Chiefs came to town in 1963. (Kansas City did have a team in the NFL from 1924-26. Originally, it was a traveling team. They did play two home game sin 1926 but folded when the season ended.)

The arrival of the Chiefs brought some major changes to Municipal. 11,000 temporary stands were erected in left field each season. Oddly, these were excellent seats because the field ran from the right field fence to the third base foul line. This made for an odd look. It was very tight in the east (right field) end zone while it was very roomy the other way.

As was common in many stadiums built for two sports, the teams had to share the same sidelines for games. The Chiefs had started out in Dallas in 1960 but it soon clear the market could not handle two teams (the Cowboys started at the same time.) The promise to expand Municipal Stadium by 3,000 permanent seats (plus the temporary bleachers) lured Lamar Hunt to town.

The team was not an immediate hit. Football was new to the Kansas City market. There was no major college team of note nearby to help stir up interest. Just 5,721 attended the first preseason game in 1963. The team’s average attendance actually went down from its Dallas days in its first two seasons in town.

The team began to improve at about the same time the AFL and NFL announced a merger. Attendance improved so much the team was straining to find places to add seats. By the end of the decade, the team had appeared in two Super Bowls (winning one) and was averaging nearly 50,000 fans per home game.

By this time, the baseball A’s had decamped for Oakland. An expansion team, the Royals, had come to town. With the Royals came the realization that Municipal simply was in over its head as a major league facility.

The grass field at Municipal simply could not handle a massive rainfall that occurred in an October 1969 game against Houston. Poor footing was one of the reasons the teams combined for 14 fumbles, a pro record that stands to this day. By that time, construction had started on a dual baseball-football stadium complex.

It took three years to complete. As work was being done on Arrowhead Stadium, the team remained at Municipal. Before the 1971 season started, it was announced the team would move to Arrowhead the next season. The Chiefs drew their largest Municipal Stadium ever that year when 51,989 jammed in for a game against Washington. The club won the Western Division championship 10-3-1 during the regular season.  On Christmas Day, the Chiefs bade farewell in dramatic fashion in the first round of the AFC playoffs, losing in the longest game ever played, a 27-24 double overtime affair to Miami.

All in all, the Chiefs fared very well at the old stadium, posting a 44-16-3 won-loss-tie mark, a winning percentage of nearly .700. In 1976, it was demolished. A flower garden now sits where Len Dawson once threw spirals.

MUNICIPAL STADIUM, KANSAS CITY, MO