How the Kansas City Chiefs Are Reving Up In-House Studio to Make Content That Engages Fans Off the Gridiron

The Kansas City Chiefs are the undisputed NFL team of choice for Swifties — but the team’s ultimate goal is total world fandom domination.

Following the success of the 2024 Hallmark Channel Christmas movie “Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story” — a rom-com loosely inspired by the real-life love story of Taylor Swift and Chiefs star Travis Kelce — the franchise decided to go all in on Hollywood with the launch of production arm Foolish Club Studios.

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With this venture, a first for an NFL team, the 2023 and 2024 Super Bowl champs are asserting confidence in their ability to transcend a sports-fan audience and obtain “the World’s Team” status through scripted and unscripted content that might only be sports-adjacent, per Kansas City Chiefs executive VP and chief media and marketing officer Lara Krug.

“For me, it really starts with the heart and humble nature of the Midwest,” Krug says. “The Chiefs brand feels unassuming and approachable, yet it’s paired with excellence on the field and a championship mindset. People everywhere are drawn to that combination: ambition without ego. It’s also genuinely fun. Our players look like they’re having as much fun with each other on the field as they do off of it, and that joy translates no matter where you live or whether you’re a football fan.”

Hallmark’s “Holiday Touchdown” was just the first step. Produced by Skydance Sports in partnership with the Chiefs and filmed at Arrowhead Stadium and other team facilities, the project — which spurred a follow-up NFL-themed film, “A Bills Love Story,” in November — showed the appetite for sports content that ultimately has little to do with sports.

The Chiefs are looking to capitalize on interest from fans who care more about the culture surrounding football than the game itself. The ones who watch the team’s social media accounts for behind-the-scenes clips of the players or tune in to the games for a look at the WAGs (wives and girlfriends, including one famous showgirl) cheering from the sidelines.

But that largely women-dominated demographic is far from the only one the Chiefs are after. They want international viewers, kids and families, hardcore sports fans and anyone with a passing interest in football culture willing to give the content a shot.

The push began in earnest in August with the debut of “The Kingdom,” a six-episode docuseries for Disney+ and ESPN that followed the Chiefs during their 2024 season. In October, the Chiefs announced plans for a documentary about a Kansas City soccer team of teen refugees who are on a journey to the USA Cup.

On Christmas Eve, the Chiefs pair up with the Elf on the Shelf brand for the Claymation short film “Merry Mischief” (get it?), which features animated versions of Patrick Mahomes, Trent McDuffie, Chris Jones, Travis Kelce and head coach Andy Reid, with narration by Kelce’s mother, Donna Kelce.

Moving forward, Krug says she is interested in developing a project about women’s football teams and is exploring opportunities to produce kids-focused sports content in the tradition of classics like “Little Giants,” “The Sandlot” and “The Mighty Ducks.”

The trickiest aspect the studio must navigate as it grows its slate is how much the Chiefs players (and their famous other halves) are actually featured in the content that’s produced. Krug notes that several of the projects in development “aren’t necessarily built around the players themselves.”

“Their journeys, their mindsets, their culture and their impact inspire ideas that we can bring to life in ways that don’t always require them to be physically present,” Krug says. “We can capture the essence of what they represent — the grit, the joy, the humanity — without asking for more of their time or intruding on their private lives.”