Sunday afternoon’s divisional playoff game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Kansas City Chiefs has been moved to 8:20 p.m. EDT because of Winter Storm Jupiter, which is expected to coat the city in a layer of ice as it sets in over the Great Plains. The NFL made the announcement on Friday, citing “public safety concerns.”
“Moving the game from the original 1:05 p.m. ET start time will provide local authorities more time to clear roads in the area as the weather is expected to improve throughout Sunday,” the statement said.
The original afternoon kickoff time could have made it difficult for spectators to make it to the stadium. According to the Weather Channel, the storm, expected to hit the Kansas City metro area later Friday and continue through Sunday morning, is predicted to “to make any untreated roads, streets, sidewalks and parking lots [in the region] hazardous.”
Chiefs executives said this week that they’d already begun to prepare the stadium in an effort to prevent problems.
“We have a full plan in place that will keep the facility and the grounds around the facility as safe as possible,” Chiefs President Mark Donovan told the Kansas City Star on Thursday. “Having said that, Sunday comes, we’ve treated, it melts, all the sudden the temperature drops to 17 degrees, there is going to be ice, it’s going to be slick. People are going to have to be aware and careful.”
He added: “I’d ask as we always do, to get here early and be patient. I don’t mean while sitting in traffic, but one or two accidents can have a chain reaction that we don’t need.”
The Chiefs are expected to hold a news conference in the near future to address the decision to move the start time of Sunday’s game.
Regardless of the game time, the field at Arrowhead Stadium is expected to be playable. It was recently re-sodded, according to SB Nation, and it’s also heated, so any ice will easily melt off. Or so they hope . . .
The heaters ran into an issue last month when the temperature dipped and an “ice flash” formed on the field. This was precisely what that heating system, installed last April, was supposed to prevent.
Luckily, sunny weather and shovels appeared to save the field, which can feel like concrete when frozen, and the game against the Oakland Raiders went on as planned.
