Enthusiastic NFL fans have to wait.
Thunderstorms brought rain and lightning to Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City on Thursday night, an hour before kickoff of the NFL season-opening game between the Chiefs and the Baltimore Ravens, forcing a delay.
The storm came during pregame warmups as fans were just beginning to file into the stands. A message on the stadium’s video board announced that “all event/game activities are suspended” and asked fans to leave the stands and go into the stadium concourse.
The NFL later announced that kickoff, scheduled for 8:20 p.m., would be moved to 8:40 p.m.
The Chiefs’ social media, meanwhile, found some humor in the dark clouds, having previously promoted “the calm before the storm” on the Arrowhead Stadium account.
Weather forecasters said the storms would not last long, but it was still not an ideal start to the highly anticipated rematch of last season’s AFC Championship game.
By the time the NFL made the announcement, the weather had already calmed down. Fans returned to the stands and players resumed warmups around 8 p.m. ET.
When the game actually kicked off, it was already 8:45 a.m., but the 2024 NFL season had already begun.
The good news for fans at home is that they have had more time to work on their matchday programme, and what’s 25 minutes more when you’ve been waiting since February?
