Eager NFL fans will have to wait.
Thunderstorms brought rain and lightning to Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City on Thursday night, an hour before the start of the NFL season opener between the Chiefs and Baltimore Ravens, forcing a delay.
The storm broke out during pre-match warm-ups, when fans had begun to make their way to the stands. A message on the stadium’s video screen announced that “all event/match activities will be halted” and asked fans to leave the stands and head to the stadium concourse.
The NFL later announced that the scheduled start time of 8:20 p.m. would be delayed until 8:40.
Meanwhile, the Chiefs’ social media found some humor in the dark clouds after promoting “the calm before the storm” earlier on the Arrowhead Stadium account.
Weather forecasters didn’t expect the storms to persist, but it wasn’t an ideal start to the long-awaited rematch of last season’s AFC championship game.
By the time the NFL made the announcement, the weather had already improved. Fans returned to the stands and players resumed warm-ups around 8 p.m. ET.
The good news for fans at home is that they’ve had more time to work on the match schedule. And what’s an extra 20 minutes when you’ve been waiting since February?