Inside ‘Arrowhead West,’ an Arizona Chiefs bar drawing hundreds for Super Bowl

Editor’s Note: This is a dispatch from our Red Kingdom Road Trip. We’re connecting with Chiefs fans across the country ahead of the Super Bowl — share your story with us using this form. Read more from our journey to Las Vegas for the Super Bowl here on KansasCity.com, in our newsletters, or on The Star’s Instagram.

When the Kansas City Chiefs played the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl 57 in Glendale, Arizona, last year, more than a thousand KC fans packed into the parking lot of a strip mall in nearby Scottsdale.

The surging sea of red-and-gold was there for one reason: to watch the Chiefs win the big game inside the buzzing environment of Pub Rock Live, a Chiefs-themed bar that former players have called one of the best in the nation.

“A lot of Kansas City people have called us Arrowhead West,” said Nancy Stevens, the 58-year-old owner of Pub Rock Live.

Originally from a small town in Montana, Stevens grew up a Chiefs fan, following in her dad’s footsteps. When she later moved to Arizona, she ran into a Chiefs-sized problem: “You couldn’t go to any bar here and see the game.”

She eventually bought what’s now Pub Rock Live in 2013, with plans to turn into a rock-and-roll bar and venue. At the urging of a few friends in the Kingdom — all of whom are still involved with running the place today — Stevens decided she’d start streaming Chiefs games.

“We finally had a place to come and be around other Chiefs fans and not feel like we’re shoved into a corner while we watch the pitiful Chiefs,” said Hotchy Kiene, a Brookside native who later moved to Arizona and is now the bar’s DJ.

Business started slow, Stevens said. Then, in 2017, the Chiefs’ video team featured Stevens and her bar in a docuseries. After that, it “just exploded,” she said.

‘Like a rock concert’

Now, Pub Rock Live is decked out with Chiefs collectibles. Framed jerseys of Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce, Alex Smith, Tony Gonzalez, even a signed one of Len Dawson, line nearly every wall. You can’t turn your head without seeing the signature arrowhead logo — splashed on the front door, in flags on the ceiling, and in the bar’s own logo, too. You’ll even spot a few framed editions of The Kansas City Star’s Super Bowl front pages.

“Most of this stuff is from Chiefs fans,” Stevens said when we stopped by the bar on our Red Kingdom Road Trip to Las Vegas.

The bar is now standing-room only on Sundays, she said. Lines to get inside for a game usually start a couple hours before kickoff and wrap around the building.

And during the game?

“It’s like a rock concert. It’s like going to a Chiefs game at Arrowhead,” Stevens said. “I mean, the music’s cranking, we’re all cheering, and it’s nonstop the whole game.”

At the center of it all is Kiene, directing chants and blasting songs from the DJ booth.

“I was just sitting up near the booth, I got excited and I grabbed a mic and yelled ‘Touchdown! Kan-sas City,’ full-on Mitch Holthus,” he laughed, explaining how it all started. “So, I started doing the announcements, like they do at Arrowhead with some of my own stuff, too.”

As Pub Rock Live continues to get bigger, Kiene said he wants the bar to be a safe haven for Chiefs fans — regardless of where they’re from.

“So many people here now are from Kansas City, but don’t have the chance to go back,” he said. “Some of them haven’t been home in 15, 20 years. I wanted to give them a place to feel just a little at home.”

This year, Pub Rock Live has big plans for Sunday’s big game. They’re not expecting quite as many people as last year, but still plan to pack the bar (which has a capacity of 300) and its parking lot outside with close to 1,000 fans.

“Never in my wildest dreams 10, 20 years ago did I think I would see this many people in Chiefs colors,” Kiene said.

“It’s the community that has made this the best place it can be.”

The New ‘America’s Team’ Takes Las Vegas

Five full days on the road and nine stops later, our Red Kingdom Road Trip crew finally arrived in Las Vegas.

Everywhere we stopped on the road, we found Chiefs Kingdom. From cars honking their horns at our flags on the road to visiting die-hard, lifelong fans in small towns along the way, it was clear people across the nation are rooting for the Chiefs.

When we asked one New Mexico fan, Lawrence Bussey — a season ticket holder who even made it to this season’s game in Germany — if the Chiefs were the new America’s team, he didn’t hesitate.

“Absolutely. Everywhere I travel, there’s Chiefs fans,” Bussey. “It might even extend further than that — we’re global.”