KCRag Forum

Announced today for Sprint Center and whatever the Independence Event Center is now called

http://www.kshb.com/news/local-news/201 ... dependence

Just call it the Independence Event Center.
The real name is excessively corporate.

Silverstein Eye Centers. And most arena names aren't corporate?

The whole arena naming game has gotten weird lately

Newer Ones
Vivint Smart Home Arena - Home of Utah Jazz
Sleep Train Arena - Sac Kings
Talking Stick Resort Arena - Phx Suns

Smoothie King Center - New Orleans.

As far as the figure skating championships, this is actually a big get for KC. It should bring a out 100,000 visitors here and KC could see an economic impact up to $18 million.

If it was an Olympic year I could see 100,000 people but I dont think this will be a big event at all.

brewcrew1000 wrote:If it was an Olympic year I could see 100,000 people but I dont think this will be a big event at all.

Looks like it was held in Omaha in 2013 and drew 90k.

http://www.omaha.com/news/skating-champ ... 177e9.html

Kansas City has hosted this event a couple of times in the past. The best time to host it is the year before the Olympics.

When are tryouts? I wanna be in it. I've got the perfect outfit and have been waiting for just the right opportunity.

Does this involve fur?

grovester wrote:Does this involve fur?

Spandex

grovester wrote:Does this involve fur?

Yes, a bedazzled merkin.

longviewmo wrote:

brewcrew1000 wrote:If it was an Olympic year I could see 100,000 people but I dont think this will be a big event at all.

Looks like it was held in Omaha in 2013 and drew 90k.

http://www.omaha.com/news/skating-champ ... 177e9.html

Omaha could draw 90,000 to the National Scrabble Championship, its one of the few city that oddly supports events like this. Swimming and Gymnastic Championships have been held in Omaha and have always drawn well. Omaha and the city support around the College Baseball WS is one of the reasons it will never leave

brewcrew1000 wrote:

longviewmo wrote:

brewcrew1000 wrote:If it was an Olympic year I could see 100,000 people but I dont think this will be a big event at all.

Looks like it was held in Omaha in 2013 and drew 90k.

http://www.omaha.com/news/skating-champ ... 177e9.html

Omaha could draw 90,000 to the National Scrabble Championship, its one of the few city that oddly supports events like this. Swimming and Gymnastic Championships have been held in Omaha and have always drawn well. Omaha and the city support around the College Baseball WS is one of the reasons it will never leave

Don't forget Women's Volleyball. Omaha has sold out the Final Four this year - and NU has something like 250 consecutive sellouts in Lincoln @ Devaney Center (13,600 capacity).

Did anyone go to this? I've been busy and wasn't able to catch any of the broadcasts and wondering how attendance was. I know there were a lot of discounted tickets available and Hallmark (as a sponsor) gave out 2,000 free tickets to employees. I'd really like KC to start applying for more national championships, not just in skating, and hoping a lot of people supported this one.

kcjak wrote:Did anyone go to this? I've been busy and wasn't able to catch any of the broadcasts and wondering how attendance was. I know there were a lot of discounted tickets available and Hallmark (as a sponsor) gave out 2,000 free tickets to employees. I'd really like KC to start applying for more national championships, not just in skating, and hoping a lot of people supported this one.

I went on Friday since my fiancee's charity was accepting a donation from US Figure Skating at halftime. It was the men's short program. Very impressive, but not really my bag, and you had to sit through some very mediocre performances for a few hours before getting to the good skaters.

The crowd was pretty pathetic, and I spoke with a woman in front of me who lived an hour outside of KC. She claimed she was into the figure skating world and claimed to have spoken with other attendees who follow the circuit and have been to many different locations. Allegedly, the word was that KC's attendance was bad and that the general amenities inside the Sprint Center for the skaters, etc. were worse than anywhere they had been. A number of people ended up getting stuck at the Hotel Phillips and were not made aware (they claimed) that it was under construction still.

I can attest that the food and beverage on Friday night were just embarrassing. If you wanted an alcoholic drink on a Friday night at the Sprint Center, your options were Bud, Bud light, Sutter Home wine, or really shitty booze (they did not even have a whiskey in the booze stand or a Boulevard beer). They had shut down the big bar area, and most of the vending locations were also shut down. I was quoted a ten minute wait on a sandwich.

I noticed on Saturday night event was full and it was on national tv, the other events looked poorly attended. They only sold lower bowl tickets for these events so I doubt we had 100k attend, maybe 50k.

I think the Sport Comission needs to give up on ice events. They once hosted an NCAA hockey ice breaker back in like 2013 which is a beginning of season hockey tourney, I think they did it in hopes of landing an NCAA hockey regional and the attendence was just awful, there were maybe 2-3000 people at that event

There was also mention of poor ice quality?

Off years for this event are the years not associated with the Olympics. The best years are the year just before the Olympics and the year afterwards. The best year of course is the competition just before the Olympic qualifier.