Kansas City Chiefs CEO Clark Hunt Talks ’The Kingdom’ and Taylor Swift

Millions of people have been talking about the Kansas City Chiefs lately. On the heels of Taylor Swift‘s New Heights podcast interview that broke the internet (with 20 million views and counting) and displayed just how well the superstar singer-songwriter knows the team, the Chiefs pulled back the curtain on the 2024 season and their bid for a third straight Super Bowl championship by way of ESPN’s The Kingdom. The six-episode docuseries, produced by Words + Pictures in association with Skydance Sports, NFL Films, 2PM Productions and the team’s Foolish Club Studios, may not have ended the way the team would have wanted with another Vince Lombardi Trophy, but the show itself is an example of what’s to come out of Kansas City. Chiefs CEO Clark Hunt tells The Hollywood Reporter that with the launch of Foolish Club Studios, the team is actively pursuing additional scripted and unscripted projects as they grow their entertainment aspirations and seek to expand the fanbase beyond Arrowhead Stadium. Below, Hunt opens up on why the team said yes to The Kingdom, how the recent moves align with his father Lamar Hunt’s legacy and the magic of having Swift in the building on game day.

What feedback have you fielded about The Kingdom since it debuted?

The feedback has been tremendous. I’ve had several people reach out and say that they had no idea about the history of the team and all the contributions that my father made to the game of pro football. That’s been fun to hear.

Why say yes to a project like this?

We had several groups reach out to us wanting to chronicle the team’s historic pursuit of a third straight Lombardi trophy. At first we were a little bit hesitant and worried about the distractions that might come with it. But we really got comfortable with the Words + Pictures team that they could do an outstanding job while at the same time not encroaching on the football team during the process. We’re big fans of the work they had done before, particularly with The Last Dance, which chronicled the Chicago Bulls sixth NBA championship. My family’s invested in the Bulls, and that was a very special time for our family. One of the things that most excited us about working with them is that not only does The Kingdom tell the story of last year, but it really tells the story of the Kansas City Chiefs across six decades.

What other reservations did you have?

Beyond the distraction, the only concern that you have when you allow a film crew to follow the team is that you may end up giving away some of your game plans. That was something we discussed with Words and Pictures, and as it turned out, it wasn’t an issue at all.

The first episode is titled “Family Business,” and obviously the name caught my eye for a number of reasons. This truly is a family business for you, and that extends to the launch of Foolish Club Studios, named as a tribute to your father. Can you talk about that and how it aligns with your father’s mission?

We’re very excited to now have Foolish Club Studios as part of the Chiefs business overall in that it gives us another way to connect with fans. My dad was really about the entertainment aspect of professional sports and specifically professional football. He was always looking for ways to make the fan experience better. It’s something we’ve done over the past decade with our in-house production team, 65 Toss Power Trap Productions, to help give our fanbase a behind-the-scenes look at what goes into making the Kansas City Chiefs what they are on the field. Now we have an opportunity with Foolish Club Studios to really expand on that to do both scripted and unscripted type ventures. We couldn’t be happier that The Kingdom is our first venture out there because it really does a tremendous job of letting our fans in to see what goes on, and it allows them to learn a lot about so many of the important players and coaches while also learning about the history of the organization and how that ties to the current day Chiefs and the success that we’re having on the field.

Your mention of scripted projects is really interesting. An obvious project when it comes to professional sports teams is a nonfiction or documentary project or series. What kinds of stories do you want to tell on the scripted front?

Yeah, so a good example of what we might do from a scripted standpoint is a production that actually preceded Foolish Cup Studios — the Hallmark movie [Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story]. That project really opened our eyes in terms of the brand power that the Chiefs have and the opportunities for the types of stories we can tell. The Chiefs history and the important role that my dad and the American Football League, the Dallas Texans and the early Chiefs teams played in making the NFL what it is today also provide opportunities from a scripted basis. We may also end up doing projects that are completely away from the Chiefs. We’ve had partners reach out to us to ask if we’d like to be involved in other things, mostly in the sports space, but that’s an avenue we may end up pursuing.

Like what?

I’m not going to go into specifics on what we might do there because we’re talking to several people about projects, but it may not be limited to the Kansas City Chiefs. We have the ability to do things away from the Chiefs and away from football.

Speaking of the team, the international piece has been important to you in terms of broadening the fanbase. What are the challenges of broadening the fanbase beyond the United States?

That’s an avenue that I also have to give my dad credit for because if you go back to the ‘80s and ’90s, he was one of the biggest proponents of the NFL expanding internationally. In fact, he served on the NFL International Committee, which helped launch NFL Europe, the NFL’s first effort to really take the game internationally. He volunteered the Chiefs to play in preseason games internationally whenever he could because he understood it was a great way for the team to build a fanbase that went beyond North America. Of course, the NFL’s efforts in that regard have grown significantly over the past couple of decades with the league now playing several regular season games a year internationally. That’s something the Chiefs have embraced, and we will open the season this year in São Paolo, Brazil against the Chargers.

It’s a new market for us. We’ll have a chance to become the only NFL team to win five regular season games in different countries if we win that game. That’ll be the goal as we open the season. But we really look at it just as a way to grow our fanbase. We have a very large fanbase now in the United States, and we’re focused on growing that fanbase internationally, both in terms of hosting games, which is really a great way to build a fanbase, but also doing grassroots things to help build a fanbase as well.

You’re in the fortunate position now of having really genuine superstars on the team. At the top of that list are Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce. How do you lean on those guys and the other stars at this moment to broaden the base, both in terms of the Chiefs but also the team’s entertainment aspirations?

It’s something that my dad taught me about the sports business is that fans love engaging with the team team, but they love engaging with the stars on a team even more. We’re very fortunate to have players like Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce, Chris Jones. Those players are not only outstanding on the field but outstanding in the community and they love connecting with our fanbase. One of the things about modern day professional sports is you want to give the players every opportunity that you can to connect with our fans. With a production like The Kingdom, we’re able to take the fans behind-the-scenes into the players’ family lives. You’ve already seen in the early episodes a lot of what Patrick Mahomes and his family go through both during the season and out of season to get ready for a championship pursuit. It’s one of the most compelling things about a series like The Kingdom.

Clark, I’ve noticed that you’ve been asked a lot about Taylor Swift’s impact on the Chiefs fandom in recent days. I apologize for adding to the churn, but we can’t ignore the effect their relationship is having on the team and pop culture. You and I are talking on the heels of the New Heights podcast interview that drew millions of listeners. What have these last couple of years been like as an owner? How do you embrace the unpredictability of how their relationship impacts your world?

The first thing to mention here is how happy we are for both Travis and Taylor in their relationship. That’s the most important thing. It certainly has opened up an opportunity for us to connect with a new demographic from a fan standpoint. I’m pretty sure that the Chiefs ranked No. 1 among NFL teams in the female demographic. From the time that Taylor started dating Travis, we’ve seen a big shift from approximately 50 percent male and female to now our fanbase in North America is 57 percent female, which is very unique among NFL teams. She clearly has had a big impact. I enjoyed seeing the New Heights podcast and hearing her talk about her passion for the team. She’s clearly not a casual fan. She’s gone all in, which is really great. Again, we couldn’t be more happy for their relationship and we’re happy to have Taylor as part of the Chiefs’ kingdom.

As someone who has grown up going to Chiefs games, how is the energy different when she’s inside Arrowhead Stadium?

Well, there’s usually a 100 percent focus on what is happening on the field. When Taylor attends a game, there’s always a little bit of a spectacle going on in a suite somewhere in the building, which the networks have done a great job of capturing. But I know our fans really enjoy it and love having her there knowing that she’s such a great Chiefs fan. It does create a different energy when she’s in attendance.