KANSAS CITY — Mitch Holthus senses things coming together as the Chiefs are now less than a week away from their first training camp in St. Joseph.

The Chiefs’ 17th-year radio play-by-play announcer heard the St. Joseph-area fans’ anticipation on visits up north. Excitement not only from their local team bunking at Missouri Western for three weeks but the fact that for the first time since the Priest Holmes era, the Chiefs possess some ingredients of a team on the rise.

And once the team leaves St. Joseph, it will arrive in a Midwestern cathedral of sorts after a three-year, $375 million renovation.

“I don’t want to say it’s a perfect storm, but the timing of it is almost impeccable in the fact that you get a team that’s on the move forward for the first time in at least five years. This isn’t an older team that you hope, ‘Hey, maybe we got a shot.’ Add that plus St. Joe, the energy at camp, the new Arrowhead and now you’ve got this equation put together, which kind of just leads to a real exciting feeling about 2010 and beyond,” Holthus said.

Kansas City unveiled an integral part of that equation on Friday by giving more than 150 media members a tour of the revitalized Arrowhead Stadium.

“Fans have asked me all throughout the kingdom, including in St. Joe, ‘What’s the new Arrowhead going to be like?’ I said, ‘You won’t know until you know, and when you see it you’re just going to be (saying), ‘Wow, am I in Kansas City or am I in New York City?’” Holthus said. “What they did was kept the ambiance of the old stadium as far as the inner bowl and what we all love about Arrowhead and brought it to the 21st century for the fans. They’re going to absolutely love it.”

Chiefs Chairman Clark Hunt now rates this stadium among the league’s elite.

“It’s one thing for the club level or a suite to be nice, but I think every area of the stadium is among the best in the NFL, and I’m not saying that just to say it,” Hunt said. “I have a chance each year to see 14 or 15 different buildings, and this is right up there with the best, including stadiums like the Dallas stadium and the stadium in New York.”

The size (1.6 million-plus square feet; a 39 percent increase) and flashier, modern design make up the biggest upgrades in the new Arrowhead. But perhaps the defining characteristic is the revamped stadium’s embrace of the team’s history.

A statue of franchise founder Lamar Hunt, eight fountains representing the original eight American Football League teams and a diagram of arguably the most famous play in Chiefs history — “65 Toss Power Trap” — greets incoming spectators. Eleven x’s and o’s — from quarterback Len Dawson to the pulling left guard — display how the Chiefs scored Super Bowl IV’s first touchdown.

Inside, dozens of murals from the 1960s to the 2000s blanket the walls, depicting former players as overlooked as running back Barry Word to memorable images like longtime linebacker Donnie Edwards waving the American flag in a 2001 game.

Missouri and Kansas high school football accomplishments are recognized as well, with team pictures of Class 2 Maryville and Class 3 Kearney joining the other state championship plaques near the east end zone.

Also on the lowest of the six levels (there were previously three) are five projector screens — three on the wall, two on the ceiling — which serve as part of the Hall of Honor, the centerpiece tribute to the legendary Chiefs. The 28,000-square-foot Hall of Honor is available for all fans.

“I did the voice work for that, and when I saw the video and how that was going to be put together, there were a couple of times I had to stop because I got emotional,” Holthus said. “There are some really moving pieces.”

As is the norm in modern stadium revamping, the luxury suite total increased significantly — 80 to 126 — but two of the largest suites, the Founder’s Club and the Foolish Club, are decorated with AFL imagery. The Founder’s Club sports a massive painting of Hunt while the eight AFL logos line the wooden walls in the Foolish Club, a name given to the original owners.

Clark Hunt said a fan-friendly renovation to Arrowhead was one of his father’s final requests before he died in 2006.

“It really was (his last wish),” Clark Hunt said. “When my father was very ill at the end of his life, Jack Steadman, who was still with the Chiefs at the time, and I were with him in the hospital and he told both of us make sure that we got new Arrowhead done right because it was so important to him and he knew it would be so important to the fans. I think if he could see it, he would say, ‘Well done.’”

The Chiefs took a cue from the Royals’ recent renovation by adding a 5,000-square-foot team store, which is more than eight times larger than its predecessor, and increasing the concourse width by 15 feet (to 40).

Lost in the shuffle of endless enhancements is a seat reduction of 2,500, however, as the capacity drops to 76,416 as a result of the space improvements.

New Arrowhead’s first test comes on Sunday when the Kansas City Wizards face Manchester United in an exhibition match. But Hunt will in all likelihood see 76,000-plus in attendance for Sept. 13’s season opener against the San Diego Chargers. It is the team’s first home Monday night game in six seasons and first Monday night opener ever.

He hopes the supercharged version of stadium will help contribute to an attendance surge after the team drew just 540,114 fans last season — the first time Kansas City dipped below 600,000 for a season since 1998.

“I know the announcers who have been here over the years know what an incredibly charged atmosphere a packed, full Arrowhead (brings),” Hunt said. “I’m so glad we have the opportunity to showcase the new stadium on the national stage right out of the gate. That was something that we pushed hard for, and the commissioner recognized that it was important to us and it’s the right thing to do.”