Kemper Arena

[MightyKC]

Just adding that I heard that from someone with AEG on the radio, not just an assumption.  That's all.

[aknowledgeableperson]

Why would AEG want to offer two different venues.  One puts money in their pockets.  The other puts money in the city's pockets.

[Highlander]

Why would AEG want to offer two different venues.  One puts money in their pockets.  The other puts money in the city's pockets.

They certainly advertise two different venues on their homepage.

http://www.aegworldwide.com/01_venues/kemper_arena.html

[anniewarbucks]

How many other cities does AEG manage 2 or more facilities?

[aknowledgeableperson]

They certainly advertise two different venues on their homepage.

http://www.aegworldwide.com/01_venues/kemper_arena.html

Kemper Arena is part of the American Royal Complex so, in order to advertise the complex one also has to include Kemper.  Also, it has to show the availability of the Arena so if an event wishes to come to the city and at the same time there is an event in SC there is a viable alternate location for the event.  And I wouldn't be surprised to see a clause in the event contract for some SC events that would include the ability to relocate the event to Kemper if a better event wishes to use SC.

When a promoter calls AEG to book an event in KC I would think it would be a safe bet that Sc would be considered the first option to fill.  At the same time, from what I have heard about the rent fees for the SC AEG will put an event in either facility depending on the expected rent the promoter is willing to pay.

Basically, the goal of AEG is to book SC first.  It's kinda like making sure you have a date for the prom.  You ask Susie to go but you will dump her if you ask Angie and she says yes.

[AF]

Its possible that once we get an NHL or NBA team that there may be a few more events at Kemper. Then again SC has a ways to go before its completely booked. Staples Center has five teams and still has room for a few concerts.

[KCMax]

I didn't know they were putting up a LED screen for Kemper. What's the point? Who drives past Kemper to notice it?

What’s next for Kemper Arena?

City leaders say Kansas City can’t afford for Kemper to be a white elephant. More events are needed to help pay off debt on the complex and bolster the surrounding area.

As for the costs of operating and maintaining Kemper, the council took a step Thursday toward moving the arena into the black by doubling the user fee on tickets there....

“We went into this whole arrangement with a false pretext,” said Councilwoman Deb Hermann, chairwoman of the committee that recommended AEG over Global Spectrum to manage Kemper. “I’d like to look at that decision again.”

Although AEG’s contract promised only 26 events this year not including the Royal, council members said the verbal presentations by AEG and the city staff were so convincing that they expected the arena would do much better than that.

Some critics last year warned that the council was making a mistake in having AEG manage both Kemper and the Sprint Center, and now many council members think they should have paid more attention.

“It seems like Kemper has been abandoned,” Councilman John Sharp said. “I think we have to hold AEG’s feet to the fire to aggressively market Kemper and not leave it on the back burner. In fact, it may not even be on the back burner. It may have been taken off the stove.”

Isn't there a mega-church we could sell Kemper to? That's what Houston did with their old arena!

[GRID]

I didn't know they were putting up a LED screen for Kemper. What's the point? Who drives past Kemper to notice it?

That's what I was thinking.

Fill Kemper with dirt and leave it filled with dirt.  Turn the entire area into an equestrian/agri/american royal facility like they said they were going to do in the first place.

There is NO reason to hold major concerts or sporting events down there unless there is a scheduling conflict at Sprint.

So what if we still owe 15 million on Kemper.  That’s was the city’s fault for throwing money at Kemper when they should have been building a new arena in the first place.  We now have hundreds of millions of dollars at stake in the Sprint Center, Power & Light District and ultimately all of downtown that is far more import to the health of KCMO to protect than paying off the kemper parking garage.

Use the Sprint Center, but make the rodeos and truck pulls go to Kemper.  They don't like it, they don't have to come.  They will still come.

The Kemper/American Royal complex should become known as one of the greatest agribusiness and agri-entertainment venues in the nation.

Oh, and they should have put that LED sign along I-670.

[dangerboy]

Fill Kemper with dirt and leave it filled with dirt.  Turn the entire area into an equestrian/agri/american royal facility like they said they were going to do in the first place.

But AEG is already moving dirt events to Kemper.  It sounds like Deb Hermann and the rest of finance committee are realizing that they got swindled by AEG in the Kemper management bidding process.  But it's probably too late to do anything about it.

AEG will never be as interested in Kemper as they are in the Sprint Center, because they don't a financial investment in Kemper.

[NDTeve]

That's what I was thinking.

Fill Kemper with dirt and leave it filled with dirt.  Turn the entire area into an equestrian/agri/american royal facility like they said they were going to do in the first place.

There is NO reason to hold major concerts or sporting events down there unless there is a scheduling conflict at Sprint.

So what if we still owe 15 million on Kemper.  That’s was the city’s fault for throwing money at Kemper when they should have been building a new arena in the first place.  We now have hundreds of millions of dollars at stake in the Sprint Center, Power & Light District and ultimately all of downtown that is far more import to the health of KCMO to protect than paying off the kemper parking garage.

Use the Sprint Center, but make the rodeos and truck pulls go to Kemper.  They don't like it, they don't have to come.  They will still come.

The Kemper/American Royal complex should become known as one of the greatest agribusiness and agri-entertainment venues in the nation.

Oh, and they should have put that LED sign along I-670.

Totally agree Grid. Lets make that area Aggieville.

[FangKC]

They ought to do something in the summer similar to Frontier Days in Cheyenne Wyoming and have a big rodeo event, country music stars, and something akin to a Jackson County Fair with amusements and such.

http://cfdrodeo.com/index.aspx

Perhaps a few monkeys riding dogs would bring the people in. 

http://www.whiplashrides.com/

[aknowledgeableperson]

So what if we still owe 15 million on Kemper.  That’s was the city’s fault for throwing money at Kemper when they should have been building a new arena in the first place.  We now have hundreds of millions of dollars at stake in the Sprint Center, Power & Light District and ultimately all of downtown that is far more import to the health of KCMO to protect than paying off the kemper parking garage.

Not disagreeing that much with what you said.  However, the $15M has nothing to do with the garage, that is a separate project with its own set of problems.  And saying "so what" does not solve the problem that was created when the SC was built.  Yes, there were some dreams to convert Kemper but no decision was made nor were funds identified to do the project.  When SC was announced Kay and company should have worked on plans to solve this "Kemper problem" before it got to this point.  Instead they choose to ignore it, hoping it would go away or would be an issue for the next council to tackle.

Well, now is the time to tackle it and saying "so what" doesn't create a solution.

[OPIchabod]

Y'all's city Council and mayor are completely disfunctional.

They claim they got hoodwinked by AEG during AEG's presentation to manage Kemper. Is the council that stupid not to realize the dynamics of that relationship? Now they want to revisit that decision.

I think KCMO voters should want to revisit their decisions on elected officials too.

[DaveKCMO]

no other municipality in the metro is under the same level of scrutiny. when's the last time someone investigated global spectrum's management contract for the OP convention center? um, probably never. just because your trash isn't blowing in the wind doesn't mean you don't have any.

[OPIchabod]

That's because there's no media in JoCo that does that kind of thing, and the Star won't do it because it doesn't want to alienate its subscriber base there.

Maybe get the Pitch to look into it? (assuming they back off of Riley sometime soon)

[Maitre D]

But AEG is already moving dirt events to Kemper.  It sounds like Deb Hermann and the rest of finance committee are realizing that they got swindled by AEG in the Kemper management bidding process.  But it's probably too late to do anything about it.

AEG will never be as interested in Kemper as they are in the Sprint Center, because they don't a financial investment in Kemper.

Shocking, I tell ya - shocking!

[LenexatoKCMO]

AEG did present what I thought was a pretty good defense - they have only been managing Kemper for a couple months, any fall off in bookings right at the moment would have happened under the previous lame duck management's watch.  These events get planned way, way in advance.  Judge them based on what happens after they take over, not on the schedule put together by their predecessor. 

[DaveKCMO]

i would rather have a temporary dip in events at kemper than a perception that SC isn't busy enough.

[aknowledgeableperson]

no other municipality in the metro is under the same level of scrutiny. when's the last time someone investigated global spectrum's management contract for the OP convention center? um, probably never. just because your trash isn't blowing in the wind doesn't mean you don't have any.

There were some Star articles concerning the OPCC for the first two years after it opened.  Had to do with lack of dates and the impact on the hotel next to it and the financial support of the rest of the OP hotels on this project.

[KCMax]

Pitch: A KC Councilman wants $30 million for Kemper Arena. What does reality have to do with it?