Super Bowl MVP Patrick Mahomes played a large role in making Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City a polling location on Election Day by splitting the cost with the Chiefs.
Chiefs president Mark Donovan on Tuesday told reporters that the idea of voting at Arrowhead came up in a meeting, “and that launched the whole campaign to try to make it a reality.”
“I thought it was very important not only just to get as many people out to vote as possible but also to use a place as Arrowhead where we have a lot of fun, show a lot of love and unity where people (are) coming together, and use that as a place where we can come together and vote and use our voice,” Mahomes told Jim Trotter and Steve Wyche on the “Huddle and Flow” podcast.
“I thought Arrowhead was the perfect place for it, and the Chiefs were all on board with it.”
Donovan said that they had several meetings that made the idea look good on paper, but the election board came back saying there were too many hurdles. One of them was the funds to purchase new voting machines.
“We finally had to go to them and say what’s it going to take,” Donovan said. “And that’s really what launched the idea of purchasing new machines. And so we, the Chiefs organization, the Hunt family (the team owners) and Patrick Mahomes and his 15 and the Mahomies Foundation came together and said, ‘If that’s what it’s going to take, we’re committed to this point. Let’s go.'”
They ended up splitting the significant cost to make it happen.
“A six-figure investment by us that not only will legitimately impact the community today but will impact this community for years and years to come — hopefully 10 years to come — where these machines will continue to be used,” Donovan continued.
He said he thinks voting at Arrowhead may become a regular thing in the future.
“We’ll work with the election board on exactly how we can expand and what makes the most sense in terms of how many elections. We actually were having that conversation earlier today in between voting activities. And like I said, if you actually come here and see what we’re doing and how we’re doing it, there’s a lot of interest in utilizing this a lot more,” he said.
CNN’s Jill Martin contributed to this report.
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