KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The “T” in Kansas City’s Western Auto sign is out, catching the attention of Chiefs fans across the kingdom Thursday night.

Western Auto Lofts Homeowners Association President Chad Burney heard about the comment Al Michaels made during the Amazon Prime Thursday night broadcast of the Kansas City Chiefs and Denver Broncos game.

“I wish the T was fully lit because on the right-hand side of the screen was Western Auto building and this great city scape image of nighttime, lights up and everything. On the left-hand side of the screen, Thursday Night Football kind of had a neon sign look to the image and juxtaposed to our real-life neon sign and the ‘T’ out in the middle. It definitely stuck out,” Burney said in an interview with FOX4 Friday afternoon.

Michaels comment during the game got the attention of Mayor Quinton Lucas.

“It was a lot of phone calls,” Burney said after the Mayor’s post came out. “‘Hey, did you know? Did you know?’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, we’ve known about it,’ and unfortunately we haven’t been able to address it yet, and certainly it’s unfortunate that it wasn’t fixed for prime-time TV, but there’s not a lot we can do on that front.”

Burney responded to the Mayor on X.

“@QuintonLucasKC I am happy to work with your team and @zackrbrown (HOA Treasurer) on the sign expenses as well as several unforecastable expenses that led to making the hard budgetary decision to not address the T right away.  Thank you for being open to a conversation!”

Later Friday afternoon, the Mayor responded that PIAC funding may be available. PIAC stands for the Public Improvements Advisory Committee. He also said neighborhood grants may be available through RebuildKC. 

Burney told FOX4 he does not know how much money it will cost to light back up the ‘T’ in ‘Western,’ but he did say over the past five years, they’ve likely spent more than $200,000 lighting the sign back up and maintaining it. Burney hopes the city may help maintain the sign for a number of years going forward.

“I just think that the sign is so important to the city that it makes sense that if it’s so important to the greater whole, then 161 units shouldn’t be the only ones contributing to maintaining it,” he continued Friday.

The Western Auto Lofts HOA also has a website where you can buy an old light bulb from the sign. Proceeds go to the ongoing restoration of the sign and the current maintenance.