The Kansas City Chiefs have named a joint venture of Clark Construction Group and AECOM to the construction team for their new $3 billion, 70,000-seat fixed-roof stadium in Wyandotte County, Kan. The club announced the pick on Nov. 11. The selection brings what the club called “two of the sports industry’s premier venue builders” onto the largest piece of the Chiefs’ planned move across the state line from Kansas City, Mo.
The stadium is set to open in 2031, and the team says sitework will start in 2027. In the meantime, Clark | AECOM’s job is to turn the design concept into what the Chiefs’ release calls “a buildable, permitted, budgeted, and constructible project.”
What the Clark | AECOM construction team will do
According to the club, the joint venture is joining a process that is already under way. Stadium designers MANICA and HNTB are refining the seating bowl, premium spaces, back-of-house operations and site infrastructure. The construction team’s role is to offer advice on constructability, functionality and operational flexibility, including material availability and procurement, installation and construction timelines.
Clark | AECOM will also plan and schedule the competitive bidding of the work. The release says that means gauging market interest and identifying qualified subcontractors and suppliers, then evaluating their experience, resources and availability.
Chiefs President Mark Donovan tied the hire to the project’s budget and schedule. “As we finish the overall design, Clark | AECOM will help us advance the project further by identifying more certainty around project scope, budget, and scheduling,” he said in the release.
The Chiefs did not say whether the joint venture will hold a construction-manager-at-risk contract or what fee it will earn. The release describes the firms as joining “the construction team” rather than giving a contract structure or value.
A $4.5 billion plan in Kansas
The stadium is the centerpiece of a larger package. In economic impact projections released June 30, the Chiefs put the total capital investment in Kansas at $4.5 billion:
- the $3 billion stadium in Wyandotte County
- a $300 million practice facility and headquarters in Olathe, Kan.
- $1.2 billion in private ancillary real estate development around both sites
A study the team commissioned from Philadelphia-based Econsult Solutions in April 2026 estimates that construction will generate $8.2 billion in total regional economic impact. It projects 36,500 full-time-equivalent job-years, $2.7 billion in employee compensation and $106.4 million in tax revenue for the State of Kansas during the construction period.
Once the stadium and practice facility open in 2031, the study projects $1.5 billion a year in regional economic impact from team operations, stadium operations and visitor spending. It estimates 8,500 full-time-equivalent jobs and $67.0 million a year in Kansas tax revenue. These are the team’s commissioned projections, not independent estimates.
The real estate around the stadium is a separate track. In August the Chiefs and Hunt Midwest formed Two-Point Development, a joint venture that will master-plan the mixed-use districts around the stadium and the Olathe facility.
Clark’s other NFL stadium job
Clark already has another NFL stadium in its pipeline. In August the Washington Commanders picked a Clark | Mortenson | SmootDC joint venture to build their $3.8 billion stadium at the former RFK Stadium site. AECOM’s sports arm works as AECOM Hunt.
“It is an incredible privilege to team with the Kansas City Chiefs and AECOM to begin the process of delivering this landmark project,” Clark Group CEO Lee DeLong said in the release.
Ken Johnson, executive vice president and sports market leader of AECOM Hunt, described AECOM as “the leading sports venue builder in the United States.” He added that “NFL stadium projects present some of the most complex challenges in our industry.”
The Kansas City region now has two stadium programs moving at the same time. Across the state line, the Royals picked Mortenson-McCownGordon and JE Dunn for a $3 billion ballpark district in Kansas City, Mo. Two multibillion-dollar sports projects running in parallel could draw on the same regional pool of subcontractors and suppliers. That is our inference, and it gives the bidding strategy the Clark | AECOM team is now building added weight.
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