The Kansas City Chiefs’ 7-pound, sterling silver, Tiffany-crafted Super Bowl trophies — four of them — stand front-and-center in a wall-length lobby showcase at Clark Hunt’s offices in the Park Cities area.
A photo of his late, legendary father, Lamar Hunt, at his beloved Arrowhead Stadium keeps vigil over the case that includes major milestones of the family’s $7 billion football, soccer and basketball empire.
In addition to the Chiefs, the Hunt family owns FC Dallas and a minority stake in the Chicago Bulls.
Clark Hunt, the 59-year-old chairman and CEO of Hunt Sports Group LLC, designed the trophy case to accommodate many more triumphs.
One in particular.
Hunt hopes to add the team’s fifth (and third straight) Super Bowl trophy by besting the Philadelphia Eagles in New Orleans at Super Bowl LIX, aka 59, on Sunday.
Winning three consecutive championships would make football history and cement the moniker “dynasty” already widely attached to the Chiefs. For more than a year, fans and the media have clamored about a possible three-peat.
“I’d say we’ve embraced the challenge. Our head coach [Andy Reid] hasn’t let it become a distraction.” Hunt said before heading for New Orleans on Monday afternoon.
Hunt won’t use the D-word just yet.
“It’s best said after the fact,” Hunt said. “This certainly has been an amazing period that changed history — going to our fifth Super Bowl in the last six years. A lot of people will use the term dynasty to describe it, but I’m happy to let somebody else say that. Our focus is the task at hand.”
Making his NFL mark
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell is a huge Hunt fan.
“In less than two decades as chairman and CEO, Clark has built the Kansas City Chiefs into a powerhouse,” Goodell said Tuesday from New Orleans. “Ten division titles, three Super Bowls and a standard of excellence that is admired across the NFL.”
Goodell’s thoughts were echoed by Troy Aikman, Cowboys Hall of Fame quarterback and color commentator for Monday Night Football. “Clark clearly knows what it takes to build champions,” Aikman said Wednesday. “You can’t write a history of American Sports without mentioning the Hunts and their many contributions.
“Clark’s combination of entrepreneurial vision and strong values have earned tremendous respect across the industry. He’s honest, evenhanded and has created a winning culture.”
There’s another reason the NFL commissioner admires Hunt, who is about to turn 60. Like his father, he’s become an impact player in the league organization.
“Football is the ultimate team sport. Clark is the ultimate team player with his unwavering commitment to ensuring that league policies and initiatives are in the best interest of fans, players and the clubs,” Goodell said. “He commands the respect of his fellow club owners, and when he speaks, they listen.”
And when Goodell asks, Hunt delivers.
“I’ve always felt that my involvement at the NFL helps me manage the Chiefs because we’re plugged in with what’s going on at the league level,” Hunt said. “Even though it’s very time-consuming and a lot of work, I’ve always embraced participating on committees that the commish likes me to serve on. It’s something that I enjoy and is good for the Kansas City Chiefs.”
‘The World’s Team’
Hunt is a driving force behind extending the NFL’s international reach. And that’s a top priority of the league, Goodell said.
The Chiefs own the marketing rights to Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Mexico. The organization has spent a lot of time and energy developing its fanbases there, Hunt said.
“I saw firsthand the results of that when the Chiefs played in Frankfurt [in November 2023]. I was shocked by the number of fans. People, not only from Germany, but from all over Europe, came to that game.”
The Cowboys might be “America’s Team,” but people are beginning to call the Chiefs “The World’s Team” as the popularity skyrockets beyond U.S. borders.
Two probable reasons, Hunt says. “Certainly the success that we’ve had in the last five years has played into that. But the relationship between our star tight end [Travis Kelce] and his girlfriend [Taylor Swift] has played into it as well,” he said with a laugh.
Dallas bred, KC reared
The Kansas City Chiefs started out as the Dallas Texans, when Lamar, son of the legendary oil tycoon, H.L. Hunt, launched it in 1960.
The 26-year-old founding member of the American Football League famously paid $25,000 to start his franchise. For years it looked like he’d been taken. He moved his team to Kansas and changed its name in 1963.
Six years later, the Chiefs won the Super Bowl — the second AFL team to do so.
That trophy was inscribed “World Professional Football Championship.” Lamar was instrumental in getting the named changed to the Vince Lombardi Trophy, following the death of the revered Green Bay Packers coach in 1970.
The AFC Championship Trophy was renamed the Lamar Hunt Trophy in 1984. There are four of these in the showcase with the newest one on its way.
There are also six replica Larry O’Brien NBA Championship trophies won during Michael Jordan’s days, along with six authentic corresponding rings.
That’s because the family also owns 11.11% of the Chicago Bulls bought by their patriarch, who died in 2006, and matriarch, who died in 2023. The couple (at the insistence of Norma) paid $111,111.11 as founding investors of the franchise in 1966. That stake is reportedly worth a half-billion dollars.
The most recent median estimate for the Chiefs’ market price was pegged in the $5 billion range. But that was before the club made it to this year’s Super Bowl. The Cowboys topped Forbes list for the 2024 season at $10.1 billion.
Hunt finds such valuations ludicrous, because he and his siblings — Lamar Jr., Sharron and Dan — own 100% of their family’s sports empire and have no intention of selling any of it.
Although Lamar Jr. lives in Kansas City, the trophies are assembled in Dallas so all of the siblings can drop by and enjoy them.
Man on the run
The Chiefs are headquartered on Arrowhead Drive in Kansas City, with 337 employees, coaches and training staff. That doesn’t include players.
FC Dallas, led by Dan Hunt as president, is based at World Cup Way in Frisco and has 170 employees.
Clark Hunt, who typically wears a Breitling watch given to him by his parents about 25 years ago, marshals his time by the minute, has offices here, Kansas City, Frisco and a makeshift one aboard his private jet. He spends a lot of time in air. He flew to the Big Easy on Monday, was back in town Tuesday night and then off to New Orleans again Thursday.
His office near Preston Center is two small rooms cramped with boxes and neatly stacked folders for quick access. He knows what each of them contains.
When asked about the Dallas Mavericks’ shocking trade of superstar point-guard Luka Dončić to the Los Angeles Lakers, Hunt took an owner-friendly stance, although he declined to make any comparison to the idea of him trading Patrick Mahomes.
“I’m a Mavs fan, and I know the ownership is trying to make changes to help win a championship, so I want to be supportive,” Hunt said. “But anytime you part ways with a superstar, particularly one who’s been the face of the franchise, it’s tough.”
Hunt’s soft-spoken, gentlemanly persona belies an intensely competitive soul.
“I won’t argue with that — or at least my friends won’t argue with that,” Hunt said, adding that he inherited this from his father. “He was such a nice human being and so soft spoken, a lot of people thought he was not competitive. But he was all about the competition. His love for the sport came first as a player in high school and college football.”
Hunt tries to decompress while giving his Peloton a heated workout, wearing old favorite T-shirts, a departure from his daily uniform of a blue sports jacket, gray slacks and bluish open-collar dress shirt another thing he adopted from his dad.
For dress-up game days, he has more KC-bold red ties and jackets than he can count to choose from. He’s planning to wear a red tie and red jacket Sunday.
Two NFL owners, two styles
Hunt is at peace with being known as the NFL’s “other” Dallas owner. He and Jerry Jones are longtime friends, and Hunt admires what Jones has done to elevate the league.
Even a casual football observer can see their team management styles are fields apart.
Hunt hired Andy Reid as head coach a dozen years ago, giving him autonomy to run the team. And he’s consistently allowed general managers and scouts to make roster decisions, such as trading up in the 2017 draft to land Texas Tech’s Patrick Mahomes.
He does have final veto power.
“I try to hire the very best people and give them the resources they need to be successful,” Hunt said in a 2020 interview after the Chiefs ended a 50-year Super Bowl drought. “I do hold them accountable, but I give them a lot of runway to do things the way they think they need to be done.”
Jerry Jones is unabashedly renowned for micro-managing. The Cowboys haven’t made it to the Super Bowl since 1995.
“Jerry Jones is now 30 years into trying to prove he can win a Lombardi Trophy without Jimmy Johnson’s fingerprints all over it,” SportsDay columnist Kevin Sherrington said. “He has put that ambition over the best interests of the franchise, which is what separates him from Lamar Hunt and his kin.
“Clark Hunt has maintained the family tradition of stoic service to what they consider a public trust. Hire the right people and let them do their jobs.
“No surplus press conferences necessary,” Sherrington said, referring to Jones’ impromptu gatherings outside the locker room after games.
Making his mark on the league
For the past five years, Hunt, who has a finance degree from Southern Methodist University, has chaired the league’s finance committee, tasked with making sure every proposed deal — all or just a smidgen — passes muster when it comes to the complicated policies of the NFL.
The league vets the potential owners, but the finance committee takes it from there. “We won’t push anything forward for an ownership vote unless it’s in compliance,” Hunt said.
The $4.65 billion sale of the Denver Broncos in 2022, the $6.5 billion sale of the Washington Commanders in 2023, and newly inducted Hall of Famer Tom Brady’s minority purchase of the Las Vegas Raiders in October came under his committee’s scrutiny.
Hunt was instrumental in getting NFL owners and the players labor union to reach a collective bargaining agreement in 2011, the commissioner said. This came after owners locked out players from their team facilities for nearly five months.
“There were some creative concepts on the table,” Hunt said. “I think I was helpful in looking at both sides in terms of understanding how those concepts would play out.”
Goodell also pointed to Hunt’s leadership in 2020, when the 2011 agreement was extended for 10 years.
The extension allows both owners and players to make long-term plans because they know there will be labor peace through the 2030 season. That’s beneficial to both sides, because it helps drive revenue growth.
Tapping private equity
Then there was Hunt’s leadership in the 18-month special committee that devised the league’s policies regarding equity investments in NFL teams. Under the new rules, private equity investments must be minority stakes and held for six years before they can be sold.
The NFL lagged other major North American sports leagues by several years in lifting the ban.
“We intentionally waited to see how it played out,” Hunt said. “It was a new source of capital, and it definitely has some different dynamics.”
In December, the league approved deals that sold parcels of the Buffalo Bills and Miami Dolphins to private equity firms. Other deals are anticipated in relatively short order.
Hunt expects this type of money to be used primarily in two ways. Some owners might want to raise capital for projects like stadiums. Others could use it for estate tax planning.
“Some families have been involved with the league for a long time, and this could help them pass the franchise down to the younger generation,” Hunt said. “I don’t see us using it in the near term. We’re all still relatively young.”
Nor does the family need it to finance either the renovation of GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium or build a new one somewhere in the Kansas City metropolitan area.
“We’re exploring options for the stadium right now. We’re eager to move along as fast as possible,” Hunt said. “Again, I don’t really see our family availing ourselves to that type of capital source at this time.”
Taylor, TikTok and chick flicks
The Chiefs are a master of the NFL social media universe, ranking No. 1 on TikTok with more than 5 million followers, and YouTube with 1 million-plus subscribers.
Nearly 60% of its fans are women compared to the NFL’s national average of 46%, according to the latest available league data. The Chief’s fanbase grew by 30% in the 2023 season. And the team has more fans who live outside of the Kansas/Missouri region than in-market fans.
Are these Taylor Swift effects?
“That has had a big influence, particularly last year,” Hunt said. “I had so many dads from all over the country come up to me and thank me. And I was like, ‘Why?’”
The typical response was that it was the first time their daughters wanted to watch NFL games.
What’s his take on a TikTok ban? “That’s above my pay grade.”
Hunt watched part of the Grammys on Sunday night and saw Swift hand Beyoncé the award for best country album. “That was neat,” he said. More than Kelce’s girlfriend, she’s considered part of their extended family.
So will she be in New Orleans rooting for her high-pro beau?
“I don’t have any inside knowledge,” Hunt said, “but I would be shocked if she wasn’t.”
Hunt never thought the team would make a romance chick flick. But last year, the Chiefs partnered with Hallmark to release Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story, which was the No. 1 cable movie of 2024.
“That was a lot of fun,” Hunt said. “I give our marketing team a lot of credit for coming up with something that our families absolutely loved that’s a little bit off the beaten path.”
What happens win or lose?
Ironically, Sunday’s game will be full circle for Hunt, who was just 4 when his parents took him to New Orleans to see the Chiefs win their first Super Bowl and the second one by an AFL team by crushing the heavily favored Minnesota Vikings at Tulane Stadium.
Fifty-five years later, he’s praying for a similar outcome.
What happens if the Chiefs lose?
“Unfortunately, we’ve done that before in Super Bowl 55 in Tampa, and it’s incredibly disappointing. Nobody wants to feel that pain again. But I think we would all immediately focus on next year.
“That’s true of all professional sports,” he said. “Whether you win or lose, you’ve got to move on and start thinking about the next year. There are a lot of decisions that you have to make quickly. The calendar turns very fast.”
Should the Chiefs win, Hunt will face another dilemma — one he will relish.
“It’s hard to think how the ring could get any bigger because it’s already huge,” he said, putting on last year’s knuckle armament for show. “That’s the nature of the Super Bowl ring. Each one gets bigger.”
Meet Clark Knobel Hunt
Title: Chairman and CEO of Hunt Sports Group LLC, the Kansas City Chiefs and FC Dallas
Age: Turns 60 on Feb. 19
Born: Dallas
Resides: Highland Park
Education: St. Mark’s School of Texas, 1983; bachelor’s in finance, Southern Methodist University, 1987
Directorships: SMU Cox executive board, SMU board of trustees
Siblings: Lamar Jr., Sharron and Dan Hunt
Personal: Married to Tavia for 31 years. They have two daughters, Gracie, 25, and Ava, 18, and a 21-year-old son, Knobel.
Source: Clark Hunt
This post was originally published on this site be sure to check out more of their content.
