By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
Missouri Western State University will make a strong pitch to keep the Kansas City Chiefs training camp in St. Joseph.
Missouri Western President Matt Wilson describes the training camp as a public service for the university, drawing people to St. Joseph. He says everything is in place to keep the Super Bowl champions here.
“We’ve really valued our relationship with the Kansas City Chiefs,” Wilson tells host Barry Birr on the KFEQ Hotline. “They’ve been on our campus for 10 years and having moved from Wisconsin that was kind of the idea was that they would receive certain things from the state to come back to be here.”
Wilson says the facilities developed over the years on the Missouri Western campus next to Spratt Stadium as well as the indoor practice field are unrivaled.
Wilson acknowledges other cities will make a bid to take the training camp away from St. Joseph, though he is quick to add the Chiefs seem happy here.
He says another factor does work against Missouri Western, an emerging trend in the NFL.
“The trend in training camps has been for NFL teams to go back to their home stadiums and oftentimes, I think, it depends on the coach and what the coach wants to do,” Wilson says. “(Chiefs Coach) Andy Reid was coach (of the Eagles) when I was actually in Philadelphia and he loved to be away from home. So, they were at Lehigh University.”
Missouri Western signed a 10-year contract with the Chiefs, which expired this past year. The contract guaranteed the first five years, followed by a succession of one-year contracts.
“We had a 10-year contract. That contract has expired at this point in time. So, we don’t even have a year-to-year to fall back on,” Wilson says. “As the Chiefs turn their attention to training camp going forward, we’re hearing some pretty positive public statements, but we’ll see where things go.”