An American Football Family...is also an American Futbol Family

The Kansas City Chiefs are on the verge of winning their 6th straight AFC West championship...and no AFC West team has ever done that before. The Kansas City Chiefs have played in the last two Super Bowls, winning Super Bowl LIV.

Kansas City Chiefs Chairman and CEO Clark Hunt oversees what is today a $3 billion sports empire - Hunt Sports Group. Hunt Sports Group, for which Clark Hunt serves both as Chairman and as CEO, includes the Hunt family’s NFL team - the Kansas City Chiefs. And while American football is no doubt what the Hunt family name is most commonly associated with - the Kansas City Chiefs being one of the original AFL teams, winning 3 AFL championships (one as the Dallas Texans) - the Hunt family name is also anchored in American futbol history as well. As such, today, Kansas City Chiefs Chairman and CEO Clark Hunt serves on Major League Soccer’s board of governors, MLS’s labor committee, and is also Chairman of MLS’s product strategy committee

Meeting my former goalkeeper coach this past week, Cosmos GK Hubert Birkenmeier, I came to revisit my affinity both for the American soccer team Birkenmeier played for - the Cosmos - and the league in which the Cosmos played - the North American Soccer League (the "NASL"). And the NASL is forever linked to the Hunt family, through KC Chiefs patriarch, Lamar Hunt.?

One of the most instrumental figures in the creation of professional soccer in North America was Lamar Hunt. Lamar Hunt was one of the original investors in the NASL. When America’s then-professional soccer league - the North American Soccer League - ran into financial challenges in the early ‘80’s - shrinking from 17 teams to only 5 teams - Kansas City Chiefs patriarch Lamar Hunt remained committed to the fortunes and to the future of the NASL, and to American soccer as well.

A then-NASL franchise owner himself, Lamar Hunt at that time owned the NASL’s Dallas Tornado…his ownership of the Tornado tracing back to the team’s origin - in 1967. Hunt’s ownership of the Dallas Tornado continued onward, until the team ultimately folded, in 1981. Lamar Hunt’s Dallas Tornado won the NASL championship in 1971…two years after Lamar Hunt’s Kansas City Chiefs won Super Bowl IV.

Looking back, Lamar Hunt’s Dallas Tornado started out in what was then the United Soccer Association. The formation of what became, at that time, the major professional soccer league in America - the NASL - evolved as the aforementioned United Soccer Association merged with the National Professional Soccer League...creating the NASL.

Ironically, while the Hunt family name is widely known, and attributed to the family's ownership of an NFL franchise - the Kansas City Chiefs - the NFL was not a fan of the Hunt family’s commitment to a sport other than football. The NFL was not a fan of Hunt’s commitment to futbol…to American soccer.

So, the NFL attempted to take steps to disallow NFL team owners - such as Lamar Hunt - from owning professional sports teams in more than one sport. This was a targeted effort designed to force the Hunt family to divest their interests, their backing, and their commitment to American futbol. That NFL-led effort, ultimately failed.

As American soccer evolved, together, current Chiefs Chairman Clark Hunt, with his father, the late Lamar Hunt, became owners of two MLS teams in 1996 - the Columbus Crew and the Kansas City Wizards (now Sporting KC). Three years later, in 1999, Lamar Hunt financed the construction of what was at that time the largest soccer-only Stadium in the United States - Columbus Crew Stadium. Lamar Hunt was inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame in 1982.

In 2003, Lamar Hunt purchased his third MLS team, the then-Dallas Burn (now FC Dallas). Hunt’s acquisition of the Dallas Burn was anchored through his commitment to finance a soccer-only stadium in Dallas...for the Burn. Lamar Hunt had always been a believer that sound economics for professional soccer teams in North America, needs to be founded in stadium ownership, by the professional soccer teams.

Today, the Dallas Burn are owned by the Chairman and the CEO of the Kansas City Chiefs - Clark Hunt - together with his brother, Dan Hunt. The Hunt family sold their Kansas City-based MLS team - the then-Kansas City Wiz - in 2006. The Kansas City Wiz went on to win the MLS Cup that same year, in 2006.

The Hunt family sold their Ohio-based MLS team - the Columbus Crew - in 2013. The only MLS team the Hunt family now owns is based in Dallas - FC Dallas. Clark Hunt is the CEO and the Chairman of FC Dallas.

Chiefs CEO Clark Hunt played his college soccer at?Southern Methodist University, for the Mustangs. Clark Hunt played soccer at SMU between the years 1984 and 1987. The SMU Mustangs reached NCAA soccer’s “sweet 16” each year Hunt played for them, ultimately reaching the NCAA Quarterfinals two times - in 1985 and 1986. Clark Hunt was a four-year letterman on SMU’s nationally ranked men’s soccer team. Clark Hunt was also a team captain, while graduating first in his class.

Like America's earlier professional soccer league - the NASL - the MLS ran into financial difficulties as well...just like the NASL.

In the early 2000’s, there were only three MLS team owners who remained committed to funding ongoing MLS operations. At that time, the MLS was hemorrhaging cash - losing $250 million since its inaugural season, in 1996. One of those three committed MLS owners was, Lamar Hunt.

Lamar Hunt was a vested MLS franchise owner - owning MLS professional soccer teams in both Columbus, Ohio, and Kansas City. Lamar Hunt’s business acumen - see prior reference to team ownership of soccer-only stadiums - contributed to the financial turnaround for American soccer, and for the MLS.

In the early 2000’s, MLS teams were in most cases leasing the fields they played soccer on from NFL teams. That was a losing proposition for the MLS teams. And that money-losing pattern changed when Lamar Hunt led the financing push to build the first soccer-only stadium in MLS history - the Columbus Crew’s Columbus Crew Stadium.

With Lamar Hunt’s MLS team now playing in its own soccer-only stadium in Columbus, Ohio, six additional MLS teams followed suit...building their own soccer-only stadiums for themselves. By 2008, the majority of MLS teams were playing soccer in their own stadiums…not on fields leased through NFL teams. This structural transformation, i.e.: playing soccer in soccer-only stadiums, created a necessary financial windfall for MLS teams. Thanks to the vision of the Chiefs' patriarch, Lamar Hunt.?

Further linking the Hunt family to the good fortunes of American futbol, U.S. soccer’s longest standing knockout competition - the U.S. Open Cup - was renamed the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup by the United States Soccer Federation in 1999…that renaming, having been undertaken by the United States Soccer Federation to honor Lamar Hunt’s contributions to American futbol. While also recognizing Lamar Hunt’s contributions to two American professional soccer leagues…first, the NASL, then later, the MLS.??

The Hunt family’s FC Dallas won the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup two times, in 1997, and again in 2016.?

Under the Hunt family’s leadership, Sporting KC also won the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup two times, in 2004, and again in 2012. Lamar Hunt’s Kansas City Wizards won the MLS Cup in 2000.