Arrowhead Stadium will be host to a huge matchup on Thursday between the Kansas City Chiefs and Oakland Raiders, but they might want to thaw it first.
The first time that the Kansas City Chiefs faced the Oakland Raiders in the 2016 NFL season, they went on the road to the West Coast to compete in a physical, muddy affair in wet conditions. As the two AFC West teams prepare for their Week 14 rematch, though, there’s water on the field again at Arrowhead Stadium. Only this time, the water is in another state of matters (shoutout to science).
With temperatures dipping to what most would call frigid levels, they crew at Arrowhead put a tarp on the field on Wednesday night. However, a thin layer of ice formed beneath the tarp over night. Yep; Arrowhead Stadium, home to one of the biggest games of the 2016 season yet on Thursday Night Football, is covered in ice.
As of mid-day, the ice has not yet melted and the field is still coated and ostensibly frozen, per Courtney Fallon of NFL Network:
Just spoke to #Chiefs grounds crew. Heaters were installed underneath Arrowhead turf in April, but an ice layer froze under tarp overnight. pic.twitter.com/aXhnE8MlLa
— Courtney Fallon (@CourtneyFallon_) December 8, 2016
According to NFL.com, temperatures are supposed to be in the 20s all day long all the way up to the start of the game. However, the crew at Arrowhead doesn’t believe that the field will be frozen at the time of kickoff.
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Not only are there heaters beneath the turf on the field (per Fallon and the NFL.com report), but the crew is going to work tirelessly to “coax life” out of the turf so that conditions are good to go. With such high stakes on the line in this game, this could be interesting. We’ll see both how the field looks come kickoff and if it ultimately affects the game.