Kansas City, Mo. ? What’s been talked about for years is finally becoming a reality.

Kansas University and Missouri University will move the annual Border War football game to Arrowhead Stadium for the 2007 and 2008 seasons.

Kansas City Chiefs president/general manager Carl Peterson announced the deal at a news conference Monday, with athletic directors Lew Perkins and Mike Alden and football coaches Mark Mangino and Gary Pinkel seated beside him.

“There was a lot of people who said it would never get done,” Peterson said. “But I think perserverance is the right word here.”

Under the agreement, Kansas will be considered the home team in 2007 and Missouri the home team in 2008. KU has elected to include the game in its 2007 season-ticket package, though Missouri won’t include it in its 2008 plan.

The deal calls for both school to be guaranteed $1 million each year. Perkins said that’s about what Kansas makes for a home game, and getting the sum twice in two years essentially doubles the profits.

With the announcement, the Border War game will be played away from both schools’ campuses for the first time since 1945.

“I’m a firm believer,” Perkins said, “that sometimes you have to try new things.”

KU officials stressed that Memorial Stadium will play host to seven games each of the next two years. In 2007, that will be four nonconference and three conference games. In 2008, the plan is for three nonconference and four conference games.

The deal differs from perhaps the most well-known off campus rivalry – Oklahoma and Texas, played annually in Dallas. In that game, the stadium is split 50-50 in terms of ticket allocations.

Other off-campus games include Army-Navy in Philadelphia and Florida-Georgia in Jacksonville, Fla.

Both games are scheduled to be played Thanksgiving weekend. They are tentatively slated for Nov. 24, 2007 and Nov. 29, 2008.

For more on this story read Tuesday’s Journal-World.