Last Sunday I went to my second Chiefs game at Arrowhead Stadium. The first was during the 2005 season where the Chiefs finished 10-6 and just missed a Wildcard bid. We had nose-bleed seats, but we got to see Chiefs win the game against the Raiders with a touchdown on the final play after the clock had run out. The atmosphere was great and it was everything I expected a Chiefs game to be. Flash forward 4 years and going in to the Cowboys game last Sunday the Chiefs were 2-27 in their last 29 regular season games. Needless to say I was curious what the attendance levels would be as well as the game day atmosphere.
The pre-game atmosphere is exactly what you would expect at a Chiefs game. A haze of charcoal and wood smoke hovered over the parking lots. There were plenty of fans playing catch with footballs, washers games, and bean bag tosses going on to try to kill time while food was cooking. After the food was eaten more time was killed with the aforementioned games, and of course the alcohol flowed freely.
For the 2005 game the attendance was 79,033, the highest for that season. The game last Sunday had an attendance of 71,214 which is 7819 less than the 2005 game. This didn't seem that bad to me when you take in to consideration how the Chiefs are performing, and due to the economy NFL tickets are somewhat of a luxury item right now. Now, to be fair their was a very large Cowboy fan presence. It would be safe to say they made up a 1/4 to 1/3 of the people in attendance. I would like to think that most of these folks are season ticket holders who are Chiefs fans geographically and Cowboys fans by choice. Whatever the case may be the crowd noise was just as loud, if not louder than I have ever heard it and it definitely took its toll on the Cowboys with multiple false-start and off-sides calls against them.
Even though the Chiefs lost the game in overtime making them 0-5 this season and 2-28 in the last 30 games, I am still proud to be a Chiefs fan. I'll be the first to admit I have found it hard to watch them these last two seasons. That's not because I'm a fair weather fan. It has more to do with it breaking my heart to see what favorite team has become after being a force to be reckoned with in the '90's. Instead, I still faithfully listen to the games on the radio when I'm not at Arrowhead hoping like many of the 71,214 fans last Sunday that the Chiefs can get their first win of the season.