Cheap Seats
The ink had barely dried on the city’s new downtown arena study by the time The Kansas City Star published three different columns lauding the idea. Metro scribe Mike Hendricks and sports writer Joe Posnanski both blasted arena naysayers before any naysayers could actually begin naysaying (in columns titled, no shitting, “Ignore the arena naysayers” and “Arena naysayers need to be quiet”). But it was business reporter Kevin Collison who truly caught our attention earlier in the week when he compared up-and-coming Omaha, Nebraska, with we-killed-our-jazz-heritage Kansas City (partly because his points sounded familiar [“Yes, Master,” September 5]).
But a cautionary tale is also unfolding in Omaha, where folks have been cranky ever since their leaders shrank plans for a new convention-center arena, citing the economic downturn. With an arena already too small for the Rolling Stones or a National Hockey League team (Omaha’s pipe dream for a professional sport), many citizens questioned the sense in spending $290 million only to cut corners in the end.
Not only has that left Omahans with a size complex; it’s also squandered a lot of public excitement — something Kansas City’s arena backers say can’t happen here.
“I don’t think there’s any question that, once we unveil what this is going to look like, there has to be a certain wow factor to it, similar to the performing arts center,” says Kevin Gray, president of the Kansas City Sports Commission.
To get worked up about an arena, though, especially one without a major sports tenant, Kansas Citians need to know that they won’t just be paying for Kemper East. Local leaders envision a downtown arena no bigger than the one in the West Bottoms that’s already lost the Big 12 men’s basketball tournament. With its estimated 18,000 seats, Kansas City’s new facility might draw a professional team someday. But with 20,000 seats the city could attract just about any indoor music or sporting event except the NCAA Final Four.
Why worry about such tiny details? “I wouldn’t get hung up on the size at this point,” Gray says. But we’re supposed to be aroused, so we’re hoping Kansas City’s new jock trap is extra large.
