American Royal leaders propose tearing down Kemper

[earthling]

I'm OK with tearing down Kemper if it can't keep up with enough events to at least break even. If it's losing money, get rid of it and let American Royal pay for building something smaller with lower maintenance. KC has a lot of venues and two arenas for one city is a bit much. The City should try selling it to a private owner first (with no future City involvement for maintenance) and if no one bites, get rid of it.

[im2kull]

I'm OK with tearing down Kemper if it can't keep up with enough events to at least break even. If it's losing money, get rid of it and let American Royal pay for building something smaller with lower maintenance. KC has a lot of venues and two arenas for one city is a bit much. The City should try selling it to a private owner first (with no future City involvement for maintenance) and if no one bites, get rid of it.

Kemper can keep up with enough events to break even, if not make money, were it managed by a company other than AEG (You know, the one also managing the Sprint Center). People keep believing the lies, and thinking the way you do..and that's a shame.

[chaglang]

Kemper can keep up with enough events to break even, if not make money

What are you basing that on? I haven't seen any hard numbers on operating expenses/income.

[aknowledgeableperson]

At one time the AR Rodeo was something like the last big event before the nationals. Therefore it drew many good cowboys trying to qualify for the nationals. Something changed over the years with regards to scheduling and in the meantime Las Vegas has a lock on the nationals.

[im2kull]

Kemper can keep up with enough events to break even, if not make money

What are you basing that on? I haven't seen any hard numbers on operating expenses/income.

The fact that it was making plenty of money before AEG took over management. AEG has no reason to do anything other than neglect Kemper.

[Highlander]

Kemper can keep up with enough events to break even, if not make money

What are you basing that on? I haven't seen any hard numbers on operating expenses/income.

The fact that it was making plenty of money before AEG took over management. AEG has no reason to do anything other than neglect Kemper.

I don't get the concern. If it was making money at all, wasn't it doing it at the expense of the Sprint Center? Can KC really afford to operate two arenas? Wouldn't the city want the business to go to Sprint Arena both to support the new arena and to prop up the P&L district (thus lessening the city's financial obligation)?

How many larger cities than KC have two major arenas? I don't think Houston does.

[TheBigChuckbowski]

I wonder if Kemper would get more events if Sprint Center had an NBA or NHL team.

[aknowledgeableperson]

The fact that it was making plenty of money before AEG took over management. AEG has no reason to do anything other than neglect Kemper.

Do you have the numbers? Thought the last year or so of the private management contract the numbers were negative.

AEG has no reason to do anything other than neglect Kemper.

AEG is no longer operating it, city is back in control.

Can KC really afford to operate two arenas? Wouldn't the city want the business to go to Sprint Arena both to support the new arena and to prop up the P&L district (thus lessening the city's financial obligation)?

Don't forget Muni Auditorium Arena and Starlight Theater. But two large arenas seating over 17,000 I doubt any comparable size city to KC operates two large arenas. The older one is usually torn down or repurposed, like into a large church.

[taxi]

That's it! Kemper would make a great megachurch. Praise Jesus, for it is saved!

[KCMax]

That's it! Kemper would make a great megachurch. Praise Jesus, for it is saved!

I don't know if you are kidding or not, but that is one of the proposals, but no churches in the area are interested. The city of Houston sold their old NBA arena to Joel Osteen, and he turned it into a mega-church.

[smh]

That's it! Kemper would make a great megachurch. Praise Jesus, for it is saved!

I don't know if you are kidding or not, but that is one of the proposals, but no churches in the area are interested. The city of Houston sold their old NBA arena to Joel Osteen, and he turned it into a mega-church.

Please, god, no.

[chaglang]

That's it! Kemper would make a great megachurch. Praise Jesus, for it is saved!

I don't know if you are kidding or not, but that is one of the proposals, but no churches in the area are interested. The city of Houston sold their old NBA arena to Joel Osteen, and he turned it into a mega-church.

Please, god, no.

Part of me really likes the imagery of thousands of well-dressed churchgoers stomping around in the old slaughterhouse district.

[longviewmo]

IHOP could turn it into a compound. &

[im2kull]

I don't get the concern. If it was making money at all, wasn't it doing it at the expense of the Sprint Center? Can KC really afford to operate two arenas? Wouldn't the city want the business to go to Sprint Arena both to support the new arena and to prop up the P&L district (thus lessening the city's financial obligation)?

Sprint Center is pretty much already 100% booked. This is because AEG realized after the first year of operating SC that it makes more money to host 100's of large events/concerts, than an NBA or NHL team. If it didn't then they wouldn't continue to take the ~$10 million annual fee that the city levies against them (To cover operating costs of SC) for not having an NHL or NBA team hosted at SC.

AEG had no reason to do anything but neglect Kemper for the last 6 years, and they have no reason to attract an NBA or NHL team to KC.

I wonder if Kemper would get more events if Sprint Center had an NBA or NHL team.

Exactly. We all know it would, but there's no incentive for AEG to lose money by attracting a sports team to the SC. The same reason you don't see BP, or Exxon bending over backwards to build any new refineries. Why would they invest money on something that's going to cut their profit margin down? AEG as operator of both SC and Kemper was a horrible idea!

[KCMax]

Sprint Center is pretty much already 100% booked. This is because AEG realized after the first year of operating SC that it makes more money to host 100's of large events/concerts, than an NBA or NHL team.

I don't know much about how arena bookings work, but I see several dark dates on the SC calendar. What is meant by 100% booked? Weekends? Even then, SC has some weekend (Fri-Sat) dates open - like the first event in January wasn't until Jan 12 (a Saturday), and 22 of the 31 days of January are open. December had 23 of 31 dates open, including five weekend dates.

[chaglang]

Everything I've read indicates that Kemper is a far inferior event venue that SC. I wonder if sticking an NHL/NBA team in SC would cause some high profile tours to skip KC entirely. I can't see the Jay-Z/Kanye West level of tour settling for a date at Kemper.

[aknowledgeableperson]

Everything I've read indicates that Kemper is a far inferior event venue that SC. I wonder if sticking an NHL/NBA team in SC would cause some high profile tours to skip KC entirely. I can't see the Jay-Z/Kanye West level of tour settling for a date at Kemper.

BINGO.

[KCMax]

Everything I've read indicates that Kemper is a far inferior event venue that SC. I wonder if sticking an NHL/NBA team in SC would cause some high profile tours to skip KC entirely. I can't see the Jay-Z/Kanye West level of tour settling for a date at Kemper.

I can't imagine SC would have that kind of booking problem. For acts that big, surely the date would be closed for the sports team. C'mon, there are several arenas in the country that host both an NBA team AND an NHL team AND land Kanye/JayZ

[phuqueue]

I for one am very concerned about scheduling conflicts between Jay-Z and our phantom hockey team

[chaglang]

I for one am very concerned about scheduling conflicts between Jay-Z and our phantom hockey team

Touche.