Will Sprint Arena (as seen in render.) be a KC icon?

[KCPowercat]

we didn't have an owner that would blow 500 million on an AA either..I hear complaints about dallas's arena as well (too sterile, far away from the action)

sorry you feel like the upper deck is unacceptable but its hardly an overwhelming opinion....I think the legroom is good even in the upper deck...and the sightlines are far superior to other arena upper decks I have sat in.....never going to please everybody about everything, are we?

[Maitre D]

And yes, I'm a conservative Republican.  Hope that's okay too.

Uh oh.  You're in for a world of hurt around here.....

[NDTeve]

Probably not good to use the comments section of the KCStar to support your argument either.

[mean]

i hope you don't have to fall in line with "board opinion" in order not to get "slighted" as some kind of "character" for daring to state an alternative opinion. 

Just don't criticize anything downtown, and never even think about questioning the justification for public investment and you'll be fine. 

[trailerkid]

Just don't criticize anything downtown, and never even think about questioning the justification for public investment and you'll be fine. 

Nice job patting yourself on the back, but you were dismissing the public financing of a convention hotel before any information has been made public. If you think something is a bad idea-- leave it at that. You're on a development board so it's peculiar to act offended when there is a high level of support for a potentially positive urban development.

Personally, I like to hear intelligent critiques of plans, development, architecture and aesthetics. It sounds like there were some corners cut at SC in terms of seating bowl. It'd still be interesting to see how it compares to AA Center, Xcel Center, and others. KC was backed into a corner when the Sprint Center was approved so I don't doubt there were some things that could've been better executed. It's still just an arena in a good location.

[Highlander]

KCP

You may like the sprint center and that’s fine, but everybody I have taken there has been uncomfortable in the seats, especially for concerts when you can’t get up and move around like at a sporting event.  The seating bowl is cramped, the space between the isles seems ridiculously narrow.  The upper deck is too steep and the lower deck isn’t steep enough.

Does it bother me enough to not attend events?  Of course not, but I have heard a ton of complaints from a ton of people and from eaves dropping at events.

I don’t know, maybe this is just the way the newest arenas are now.  But I find it uncomfortable.

The new baseball stadiums are the same way.  They are cramped.  The isles are 75% of what Kauffman is and the seats are inches narrower.  You can save tens of millions of dollars by taking just inches off every seat and they do.

I've not been to the Sprint Center but I just have to wonder if this (tight seating) is not something we are going to have to deal with.  I recently went to a Rockies game and sat in very expensive seats right behind 3rd base and, while Coors Field is a visual masterpiece, the seating was terrible.  At 6' 4" tall, I could barely shoehorn myself into the seat and had no legroom at all.  Had a foul ball came at me, I would have not been able to even react.  I sincerely doubt if new arenas being built around the country are much better.  Everyone is operating on tight budgets and find it more and more difficult to get the more frivolous public works funding past an increasingly skeptical public.   

[anniewarbucks]

I can not figure out why the seeting on the Northwest side of the bowl is set on what seams like temporary risers. You would have thought that they would have built it all on permanent concrete risers like the rest of the arena.

[aknowledgeableperson]

I can not figure out why the seeting on the Northwest side of the bowl is set on what seams like temporary risers. You would have thought that they would have built it all on permanent concrete risers like the rest of the arena.

Retracting the temporary risers when the events need to give more space on the floor for those events.

[trailerkid]

Jason Whitlock's NYT piece places him in front of the Sprint Center's skin which I'd argue IS as iconic as anything in KC. Interesting choice to put him there considering no sports reside in that building (AFL now?). I'm going to say the Sprint Center is a KC icon...not a particularly inspiring one, but it is an icon.



The story:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/20/sport ... =NYTimesAd

[moderne]

Which has a larger circumfrence-Whitlock or Sprint?  There is a resemblence.

[smh]

Which has a larger circumfrence-Whitlock or Sprint?  There is a resemblence.

Whitlock.

[shinatoo]

Which has a larger circumfrence-Whitlock or Sprint?  There is a resemblence.

C. His Ego.

[FangKC]

I still think we could have had a more iconic arena had Frank Gehry designed it.

[trailerkid]

I still think we could have had a more iconic arena had Frank Gehry designed it.

Agreed. However, I'd argue it's still a local icon as is.

[Midtownkid]

I still think we could have had a more iconic arena had Frank Gehry designed it.

Probably with a leaky roof and a terrible interior, but great looking for the air!

[supastudio]

Once the Kaufman Center for Performing Arts is complete, it will be the most photographed building in the KC Metro. It will be the building everyone will remember seeing when visiting KC.  Sprint Center will be another mediocre designed arena.

[trailerkid]

Once the Kaufman Center for Performing Arts is complete, it will be the most photographed building in the KC Metro. It will be the building everyone will remember seeing when visiting KC.  Sprint Center will be another mediocre designed arena.

i don't see the Sprint Center in competition with the Kauffman Center at all. Again, I don't think the Sprint Center will ever mean anything outside of KC, but I think it is extremely relevant locally in terms of exterior design. It is probably in the top 5 (if not #1) most recognizable pieces of architecture. I'm not sure you can say the same thing about arenas in Denver, Chicago or St Louis.

[KCPowercat]

Sprint to me is one of the most unique facilities of it's type I've seen anywhere....you might not like it but there is no doubt it's unique and broke the mold of "arenas"

[LenexatoKCMO]

If they had hired Gehry he would have probably blown 2/3 of the budget trying to glad the whole thing in a stainless steel blob and there wouldn't have been enough left to buy seats. 

[KCMax]

I think SC is definitely a KC icon, but we have so many minor icons - JC Nichols fountain, Nelson shuttlecocks, Liberty Memorial, Bartle pylons - it makes it difficult for one to be THE definitive KC icon. Like St. Louis' icon is easy - the Arch, no question about it. Seattle's is the Space Needle. I don't know, its not a big deal and maybe its better to have a lot of cool minor icons than one big icon.