Nebraska's 2025 opener with Cincinnati moved to Kansas City's Arrowhead Stadium
For the first time since the 2006 Big 12 Championship against Oklahoma, Nebraska will play a game in Kansas City’s Arrowhead Stadium.
NU will open the 2025 season against Cincinnati at GEHA Field in KC on Thursday, August 28. The Bearcats’ home game was initially set to be played at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. Nebraska was supposed to play host to Cincinnati in 2020, but that game was canceled due to COVID and the Big Ten’s scheduling policies that season. The teams will now meet in Lincoln on September 10, 2033.
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Meanwhile, moving the 2025 game to Kansas City ensures a much bigger gate for Cincinnati at the 76,416 Arrowhead Stadium, compared to the 70,000-seat Lucas Oil Stadium.
With Kansas City’s proximity to Omaha and Lincoln, the Huskers will now have a significant crowd advantage. Before, the Bearcats were just two hours from Indianapolis.
It also speaks to the changing landscape of college athletics and revenue sharing. Athletic departments everywhere must generate more revenue to pay athletes.
The game in Arrowhead Stadium will potentially allow Cincinnati to double its largest crowd (38,007) from the 2024 season.
The Huskers have played two games at Arrowhead Stadium in history: 1998 vs. Oklahoma State (79,555) and 2006 vs. Oklahoma (80,031).
The 2013 Southern Miss game was also going to be played at Arrowhead Stadium, but former AD Tom Osborne paid Southern Miss $2.125 million to move it to Lincoln for an eighth home game. That helped the Eagles pay the $2.1 million buyout of former head coach Ellis Johnson after they went 0-12 in 2012.
Thursday night makes sense
As for the August 28th date at Arrowhead, the Kansas City Royals play at Kauffman Stadium on Friday and Saturday that weekend, making the move all the more sensible.
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The kickoff time and television network will be determined during the Big 12’s television selection process in the spring.
The match-up is a Big 12 TV property. ESPN aired North Dakota State at Colorado this past season on Thursday night in Week 1. FOX is also a Big 12 TV partner but has featured Minnesota in its prime Thursday window the last two seasons against Nebraska and North Carolina.
In 2025, Minnesota plays host to Buffalo, which generally wouldn’t be a game FOX is going to put in a national window.
Bottom line, this is a huge win for Matt Rhule and the Huskers. In addition to the crowd advantage, the Huskers have really begun to prioritize recruiting in the Kansas City Metro area.
Tickets for the 2025 Nebraska-Cincinnati contest will go on sale this week. All tickets will be sold online at www.chiefs.com/tickets/ and www.ticketmaster.com. No tickets will be sold through the Nebraska Athletic Ticket Office.
Nebraska and Cincinnati season ticket holders will receive the first opportunity to purchase tickets, beginning on Tuesday, at 9 a.m. A public on-sale for tickets will begin on Wednesday at 10 a.m. More details on ticket information will be communicated to Nebraska season ticket holders today in advance of the Tuesday pre-sale.
