Stadium renovations complete, focus now on rebuilding Chiefs

KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Reuters) - Renovations to the New Arrowhead Stadium have been completed and work on restoring the Kansas City Chiefs seems to be on schedule as well.

Back in the Monday Night Football (MNF) spotlight for the first time since 2004, Chiefs' fans hope their team might again look as good as their remodeled stadium after they christened it with a shock 21-14 win over the San Diego Chargers.

The Chiefs used the MNF stage and a prime time television audience to officially unveil the $375 million facelift and opening night featured plenty of fireworks.

But it was the Chiefs themselves, who provided the thrills with a string of explosive big plays, highlighted by an electrifying club record 94-yard punt return from rookie Dexter McCluster.

While Arrowhead's distinctive design remains intact, the stadium's reputation as one of the NFL's most hostile and intimidating venues has suffered along with the Chiefs' recent results.

In 2005, Sports Illustrated named Arrowhead as the "toughest place to play" but with just six wins at home in the last two seasons, a visit to Kansas City no longer struck the same fear into opponents.

"Our vision for the New Arrowhead was, 'new body, same soul'," said Chiefs chairman Clark Hunt. "We wanted to give our fans all the amenities of a brand-new, first class venue while preserving the iconic elements of the stadium."

All 71,000 seats were occupied for the season opener and supporters in raucous form despite a driving rain storm that dampened the party mood.

"The fans tonight, what great energy out there," Chiefs head coach Todd Haley said.

"This is how I visualized Arrowhead and it's because of those people who were out there in some pretty difficult conditions and it didn't look like too many were shying away from it."

The planning and construction of the venue took six years, though fans are hopeful that it will not take that long to turn the team into playoff contenders.

The team is rebuilding, bringing in Haley and general manager Scott Pioli last year. Romeo Crennel and Charlie Weis, who helped turn the New England Patriots into a dynasty, are back together assuming their old jobs of defensive and offensive co-ordinators.

The team has also been using its poor results the last few seasons to harvest a crop of promising draft picks including McCluster and free safety Eric Berry, who both contributed to Monday's upset result.

(Editing by Greg Stutchbury)