NBA to Kansas City

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beautyfromashes
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Re: NBA to Kansas City

Post by beautyfromashes »

It sounds like these women's teams are doing it right! They realize that they have to draft off of the attraction of being downtown. It feels very 'first adopter' where a smaller startup company makes the move before everyone else and proves the concept. I think the men's teams will see the success of it and scramble to get downtown. I'd be a little worried about SKC since the Royals will likely jump them to a downtown location. I think this is why you're hearing whispers about a new stadium for the Chiefs. They're starting to realize the potential that a location closer to downtown might give them. And I also absolutely think a WNBA team would be popular and successful. It also would bring outside tourists like when Caitlin Clark plays and all of Iowa travels down for the game.
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Re: NBA to Kansas City

Post by dnweava »

I just checked the language of the MO sports betting bill we vote on next week, it specifically mentions the WNBA and needing a 11,500 capacity venue for on site betting. That alone means they need to play at T-Mobile center.

Interesting they chose that specific size as SLU and MSU's arenas and municipal just barely miss that cutoff, and they don't list minor major baseball as a professional sport as AA Cardinals stadium in Springfield also is just under 11k capacity of you include berm seating.
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Re: NBA to Kansas City

Post by langosta »

dnweava wrote: Thu Oct 31, 2024 9:26 am I just checked the language of the MO sports betting bill we vote on next week, it specifically mentions the WNBA and needing a 11,500 capacity venue for on site betting. That alone means they need to play at T-Mobile center.

Interesting they chose that specific size as SLU and MSU's arenas and municipal just barely miss that cutoff, and they don't list minor major baseball as a professional sport as AA Cardinals stadium in Springfield also is just under 11k capacity of you include berm seating.
STL is also bidding on WNBA. Chaiffetz and David Hoffman (both billionaires) backing with Jason Tatum playing the Mahomes role (local sports star) but capped at 4% ownership. SLU’s arena is mentioned as a potential venue. 10,600 seats with premium and suites. More akin to what KC needs if not just using T Mobile Center.

The primary investors have also been rumored as pursuing NBA for St. Louis
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Re: NBA to Kansas City

Post by DColeKC »

Link2 wrote: Thu Oct 31, 2024 8:50 am
TheUrbanRoo wrote: Wed Oct 30, 2024 6:21 pm If this is about building a new arena outside of the downtown core, then forget it. Go somewhere else. I can’t believe in the year 2024 someone would put a basketball team in the Kansas suburbs. This isn’t 2004 anymore.
The team would play at T-Mobile
This isn't a given even though it's most likely. ASM has a say and they're not exactly in love with the idea.
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Re: NBA to Kansas City

Post by Link2 »

DColeKC wrote: Thu Oct 31, 2024 10:19 am
Link2 wrote: Thu Oct 31, 2024 8:50 am
TheUrbanRoo wrote: Wed Oct 30, 2024 6:21 pm If this is about building a new arena outside of the downtown core, then forget it. Go somewhere else. I can’t believe in the year 2024 someone would put a basketball team in the Kansas suburbs. This isn’t 2004 anymore.
The team would play at T-Mobile
This isn't a given even though it's most likely. ASM has a say and they're not exactly in love with the idea.
It's been agreed to and is part of the proposal
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Re: NBA to Kansas City

Post by DColeKC »

Link2 wrote: Thu Oct 31, 2024 10:21 am
DColeKC wrote: Thu Oct 31, 2024 10:19 am
Link2 wrote: Thu Oct 31, 2024 8:50 am

The team would play at T-Mobile
This isn't a given even though it's most likely. ASM has a say and they're not exactly in love with the idea.
It's been agreed to and is part of the proposal
There is no official agreement at this point, only high level conversations. T-Mobile is being floated as the potential home of the team.
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Re: NBA to Kansas City

Post by dukuboy1 »

WNBA would be nice and a fun thing for KC, but I'm not sure of the sustainability. That could be a KC franchise or the league itself. Using the WNBA as a means to show the NBA that KC is a good choice for future expansion/relocation is smart but I'm not sure how much sway it would.

Bottomline, we need serious investors with a ton of money that want a franchise, period. Owning sprots teams has financial benefits for sure for ownership, but they are also vanity projects for the uber wealthy. I just don't know if we have that kind of individual wealth in KC to make it happen. Plus we don't really have the large scale corporate backing in town either to help support the team. KC has been picked apart the last 25 yrs of it's once major corporate giants & Fortune 500 companies. Now we have none, and what we do have is trying to build up to be the next wave. But as we sit the money is not there. NBA would be awesome, WNBA, it would be nice too. But just hard to make it work currently. Regardless of the challenges I would love to see it happen. I think our fan base would be passionate enough for sure. But money usually trumps fan enthusiasm.
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Re: NBA to Kansas City

Post by Link2 »

DColeKC wrote: Thu Oct 31, 2024 10:29 am
Link2 wrote: Thu Oct 31, 2024 10:21 am
DColeKC wrote: Thu Oct 31, 2024 10:19 am

This isn't a given even though it's most likely. ASM has a say and they're not exactly in love with the idea.
It's been agreed to and is part of the proposal
There is no official agreement at this point, only high level conversations. T-Mobile is being floated as the potential home of the team.
"Floated" as in it's listed as the venue in the official proposal that's in the hands of the WNBA office. It will be the venue whether or not an agreement has yet to be signed.
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Re: NBA to Kansas City

Post by DColeKC »

Link2 wrote: Thu Oct 31, 2024 10:40 am
DColeKC wrote: Thu Oct 31, 2024 10:29 am
Link2 wrote: Thu Oct 31, 2024 10:21 am

It's been agreed to and is part of the proposal
There is no official agreement at this point, only high level conversations. T-Mobile is being floated as the potential home of the team.
"Floated" as in it's listed as the venue in the official proposal that's in the hands of the WNBA office. It will be the venue whether or not an agreement has yet to be signed.
Considering ASM's contract requires them to sign off on anything like this, I wouldn't just assume it's going to be the venue because the sports commission put it on a proposal meant to strike up more serious conversations with the league.

I look forward to more serious, detailed conversations with the sports commission, city and WNBA about the possibility.
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Re: NBA to Kansas City

Post by Link2 »

DColeKC wrote: Thu Oct 31, 2024 11:08 am
Link2 wrote: Thu Oct 31, 2024 10:40 am
DColeKC wrote: Thu Oct 31, 2024 10:29 am

There is no official agreement at this point, only high level conversations. T-Mobile is being floated as the potential home of the team.
"Floated" as in it's listed as the venue in the official proposal that's in the hands of the WNBA office. It will be the venue whether or not an agreement has yet to be signed.
Considering ASM's contract requires them to sign off on anything like this, I wouldn't just assume it's going to be the venue because the sports commission put it on a proposal meant to strike up more serious conversations with the league.

I look forward to more serious, detailed conversations with the sports commission, city and WNBA about the possibility.
This is not a Sports Commission proposal, it's directly from potential ownership. You have no insight into this, so you attempt to minimize.
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Re: NBA to Kansas City

Post by DColeKC »

Link2 wrote: Thu Oct 31, 2024 11:22 am
DColeKC wrote: Thu Oct 31, 2024 11:08 am
Link2 wrote: Thu Oct 31, 2024 10:40 am

"Floated" as in it's listed as the venue in the official proposal that's in the hands of the WNBA office. It will be the venue whether or not an agreement has yet to be signed.
Considering ASM's contract requires them to sign off on anything like this, I wouldn't just assume it's going to be the venue because the sports commission put it on a proposal meant to strike up more serious conversations with the league.

I look forward to more serious, detailed conversations with the sports commission, city and WNBA about the possibility.
This is not a Sports Commission proposal, it's directly from potential ownership. You have no insight into this, so you attempt to minimize.
The sports commission is the middle man here between the league and potential ownership group. I have insight to this because of my position within ASM.

What am I minimizing? Nothing has been agreed upon regarding the venue at point in time. Why are you making statements that are pure speculation as fact?

I'm in favor of a WNBA team coming to Kansas City, but this has all been rushed along over the last several weeks and there are many, more serious conversations to be had regarding several topics, the venue is one of them.
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Re: NBA to Kansas City

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dukuboy1 wrote: Thu Oct 31, 2024 10:36 am WNBA would be nice and a fun thing for KC, but I'm not sure of the sustainability. That could be a KC franchise or the league itself. Using the WNBA as a means to show the NBA that KC is a good choice for future expansion/relocation is smart but I'm not sure how much sway it would.

Bottomline, we need serious investors with a ton of money that want a franchise, period. Owning sprots teams has financial benefits for sure for ownership, but they are also vanity projects for the uber wealthy. I just don't know if we have that kind of individual wealth in KC to make it happen. Plus we don't really have the large scale corporate backing in town either to help support the team. KC has been picked apart the last 25 yrs of it's once major corporate giants & Fortune 500 companies. Now we have none, and what we do have is trying to build up to be the next wave. But as we sit the money is not there. NBA would be awesome, WNBA, it would be nice too. But just hard to make it work currently. Regardless of the challenges I would love to see it happen. I think our fan base would be passionate enough for sure. But money usually trumps fan enthusiasm.
Good post. Having so few corporations in KC is a killer for KC to sustain NHL or NBA. It hurts the Royals more than the location of the stadium does. And KC's very wealthy are generally not interested in owning sports teams.

A WNBA team would be a nice little thing to draw a few more people downtown but I'm not sure it should come at a huge cost to the city. It just doesn't seem worth it. I'm also all for a new arena but only at UMKC (KC does not need another suburban arena). UMKC needs any investment it can get to help raise its profile to a higher level. Otherwise T-Mobile would be fine. That arena is barely used even though people think it's one of the busiest.
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Re: NBA to Kansas City

Post by DColeKC »

GRID wrote: Thu Oct 31, 2024 11:44 am
dukuboy1 wrote: Thu Oct 31, 2024 10:36 am WNBA would be nice and a fun thing for KC, but I'm not sure of the sustainability. That could be a KC franchise or the league itself. Using the WNBA as a means to show the NBA that KC is a good choice for future expansion/relocation is smart but I'm not sure how much sway it would.

Bottomline, we need serious investors with a ton of money that want a franchise, period. Owning sprots teams has financial benefits for sure for ownership, but they are also vanity projects for the uber wealthy. I just don't know if we have that kind of individual wealth in KC to make it happen. Plus we don't really have the large scale corporate backing in town either to help support the team. KC has been picked apart the last 25 yrs of it's once major corporate giants & Fortune 500 companies. Now we have none, and what we do have is trying to build up to be the next wave. But as we sit the money is not there. NBA would be awesome, WNBA, it would be nice too. But just hard to make it work currently. Regardless of the challenges I would love to see it happen. I think our fan base would be passionate enough for sure. But money usually trumps fan enthusiasm.
Good post. Having so few corporations in KC is a killer for KC to sustain NHL or NBA. It hurts the Royals more than the location of the stadium does. And KC's very wealthy are generally not interested in owning sports teams.

A WNBA team would be a nice little thing to draw a few more people downtown but I'm not sure it should come at a huge cost to the city. It just doesn't seem worth it. I'm also all for a new arena but only at UMKC (KC does not need another suburban arena). UMKC needs any investment it can get to help raise its profile to a higher level. Otherwise T-Mobile would be fine. That arena is barely used even though people think it's one of the busiest.
Many people and publications like to work off of total number of events as the measuring unit for “busiest”. MSG, Crypto and T-Mobile Arena are going to win that one every time. Using that metric T-Mobile center usually finds itself in or around the top 10.

Technically speaking, considering there are over 100 active arenas in this country, being near or in the top 10 solidifies T-Mobile Center as one of the busiest.

Can it get busier with a WNBA team? It can but it’s not exactly like suddenly you get 20 incremental dates to the calendar.

As I’ve said, more detailed and serious conversations need to happen but I understand we are not there in the process yet.
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Re: NBA to Kansas City

Post by beautyfromashes »

Link2 wrote: Thu Oct 31, 2024 10:40 am "Floated" as in it's listed as the venue in the official proposal that's in the hands of the WNBA office. It will be the venue whether or not an agreement has yet to be signed.
Sounds like we can stop talking about other locations. T-Mobile Center is the best location. Thanks for the incite. Hopefully, Mahomes and Co can close the deal.
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Re: NBA to Kansas City

Post by TheUrbanRoo »

Chris Stritzel wrote: Thu Oct 31, 2024 5:45 am
TheUrbanRoo wrote: Thu Oct 31, 2024 5:01 am
Riverite wrote: Thu Oct 31, 2024 3:03 am I like the idea of renovating Municipal for this as it gives a new anchor on the west side of the loop. Is the auditorium big enough though?
If a WNBA team is at Municipal, nobody will go and it will fail.

In my opinion, the KC Current are succeeding (and can reasonably sustain it) because they're adjacent to downtown and vast amount of density is being built up around it. It makes it easier for someone down there to say "hey, I'm bored, let's walk over or streetcar over to the Current game". That's gonna be their formula for sustaining some of this attendance in the long run.

That also *could* work for WNBA, but only if it's strictly in the urban core where, again, people can just hop over to it easily like the Current games. If it's anywhere else, it's doomed. For something like that to work it's gotta be put in front of many eyes, not shoved off to the side.
Why would it fail at Municipal? That’s as Downtown as it gets.
You’re right, sorry, in my head for some reason I was thinking of West Bottoms arena (Hyvee) not the convention center. Brain fart. Municipal would be fine. Although I read this morning it’s T-Mobile Center.
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Re: NBA to Kansas City

Post by langosta »

TheUrbanRoo wrote: Thu Oct 31, 2024 12:22 pm
Chris Stritzel wrote: Thu Oct 31, 2024 5:45 am
TheUrbanRoo wrote: Thu Oct 31, 2024 5:01 am

If a WNBA team is at Municipal, nobody will go and it will fail.

In my opinion, the KC Current are succeeding (and can reasonably sustain it) because they're adjacent to downtown and vast amount of density is being built up around it. It makes it easier for someone down there to say "hey, I'm bored, let's walk over or streetcar over to the Current game". That's gonna be their formula for sustaining some of this attendance in the long run.

That also *could* work for WNBA, but only if it's strictly in the urban core where, again, people can just hop over to it easily like the Current games. If it's anywhere else, it's doomed. For something like that to work it's gotta be put in front of many eyes, not shoved off to the side.
Why would it fail at Municipal? That’s as Downtown as it gets.
You’re right, sorry, in my head for some reason I was thinking of West Bottoms arena (Hyvee) not the convention center. Brain fart. Municipal would be fine. Although I read this morning it’s T-Mobile Center.
I think they will open at T Mobile. Extremely likely they will, I’d say 90%+ chance. But seeking their own home (ie UMKC arena or something else) will be a in the cards.
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Re: NBA to Kansas City

Post by TheUrbanRoo »

But why? Just bc the KC Current did? Is this all about just trying to make history again..? Would be an interesting pitch to the league office to differentiate from the crowd— “if you give us the team we will build it it’s own home like we did with soccer” ?
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Re: NBA to Kansas City

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DColeKC wrote: Thu Oct 31, 2024 12:03 pm
GRID wrote: Thu Oct 31, 2024 11:44 am
dukuboy1 wrote: Thu Oct 31, 2024 10:36 am WNBA would be nice and a fun thing for KC, but I'm not sure of the sustainability. That could be a KC franchise or the league itself. Using the WNBA as a means to show the NBA that KC is a good choice for future expansion/relocation is smart but I'm not sure how much sway it would.

Bottomline, we need serious investors with a ton of money that want a franchise, period. Owning sprots teams has financial benefits for sure for ownership, but they are also vanity projects for the uber wealthy. I just don't know if we have that kind of individual wealth in KC to make it happen. Plus we don't really have the large scale corporate backing in town either to help support the team. KC has been picked apart the last 25 yrs of it's once major corporate giants & Fortune 500 companies. Now we have none, and what we do have is trying to build up to be the next wave. But as we sit the money is not there. NBA would be awesome, WNBA, it would be nice too. But just hard to make it work currently. Regardless of the challenges I would love to see it happen. I think our fan base would be passionate enough for sure. But money usually trumps fan enthusiasm.
Good post. Having so few corporations in KC is a killer for KC to sustain NHL or NBA. It hurts the Royals more than the location of the stadium does. And KC's very wealthy are generally not interested in owning sports teams.

A WNBA team would be a nice little thing to draw a few more people downtown but I'm not sure it should come at a huge cost to the city. It just doesn't seem worth it. I'm also all for a new arena but only at UMKC (KC does not need another suburban arena). UMKC needs any investment it can get to help raise its profile to a higher level. Otherwise T-Mobile would be fine. That arena is barely used even though people think it's one of the busiest.
Many people and publications like to work off of total number of events as the measuring unit for “busiest”. MSG, Crypto and T-Mobile Arena are going to win that one every time. Using that metric T-Mobile center usually finds itself in or around the top 10.

Technically speaking, considering there are over 100 active arenas in this country, being near or in the top 10 solidifies T-Mobile Center as one of the busiest.

Can it get busier with a WNBA team? It can but it’s not exactly like suddenly you get 20 incremental dates to the calendar.

As I’ve said, more detailed and serious conversations need to happen but I understand we are not there in the process yet.
It was once one of the busier arenas for concerts alone (probably because it has a wide open calendar but also all the George Strait concerts etc), but I don't even think it's all that busy of a concert arena anymore, it may be, but I thought it dropped quite a bit in the last ranking I saw.

I just can't imagine it comparing well to any arena that has even one pro tenant that brings roughly 50 at or near capacity crowds. Let alone two pro teams which many arenas have. Arenas with pro teams may have a few less concerts, but I think they still get the bigger concerts too.

Just to compare to an arena with a single pro team, you would have to have like 70 plus concerts a year that average 18k. Maybe I'm wrong, but the numbers of people gong to T-Mobile seem very low and that's mainly because of a lack of a team.

Now I know having a team may not be better for the city or owners of the arena since the team takes most of the revenue and many prime dates. But it sure seems like T-mobile is barely used. A pro team would likely activate the P&L district a whole more days than what is happening now.

All I'm saying is T-Mobile should have plenty of capacity.
Last edited by GRID on Thu Oct 31, 2024 1:05 pm, edited 4 times in total.
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Re: NBA to Kansas City

Post by dnweava »

DColeKC wrote: Thu Oct 31, 2024 12:03 pm
GRID wrote: Thu Oct 31, 2024 11:44 am
dukuboy1 wrote: Thu Oct 31, 2024 10:36 am WNBA would be nice and a fun thing for KC, but I'm not sure of the sustainability. That could be a KC franchise or the league itself. Using the WNBA as a means to show the NBA that KC is a good choice for future expansion/relocation is smart but I'm not sure how much sway it would.

Bottomline, we need serious investors with a ton of money that want a franchise, period. Owning sprots teams has financial benefits for sure for ownership, but they are also vanity projects for the uber wealthy. I just don't know if we have that kind of individual wealth in KC to make it happen. Plus we don't really have the large scale corporate backing in town either to help support the team. KC has been picked apart the last 25 yrs of it's once major corporate giants & Fortune 500 companies. Now we have none, and what we do have is trying to build up to be the next wave. But as we sit the money is not there. NBA would be awesome, WNBA, it would be nice too. But just hard to make it work currently. Regardless of the challenges I would love to see it happen. I think our fan base would be passionate enough for sure. But money usually trumps fan enthusiasm.
Good post. Having so few corporations in KC is a killer for KC to sustain NHL or NBA. It hurts the Royals more than the location of the stadium does. And KC's very wealthy are generally not interested in owning sports teams.

A WNBA team would be a nice little thing to draw a few more people downtown but I'm not sure it should come at a huge cost to the city. It just doesn't seem worth it. I'm also all for a new arena but only at UMKC (KC does not need another suburban arena). UMKC needs any investment it can get to help raise its profile to a higher level. Otherwise T-Mobile would be fine. That arena is barely used even though people think it's one of the busiest.
Many people and publications like to work off of total number of events as the measuring unit for “busiest”. MSG, Crypto and T-Mobile Arena are going to win that one every time. Using that metric T-Mobile center usually finds itself in or around the top 10.

Technically speaking, considering there are over 100 active arenas in this country, being near or in the top 10 solidifies T-Mobile Center as one of the busiest.

Can it get busier with a WNBA team? It can but it’s not exactly like suddenly you get 20 incremental dates to the calendar.

As I’ve said, more detailed and serious conversations need to happen but I understand we are not there in the process yet.
You can stop spreading this lie any year now.

Just take a quick look and we aren't even top 10 in the Midwest for dates booked.

Did a quick look at the calendar for Des Moines, Omaha, St Louis, Chicago, etc for between now and March 1 all have 40-50% of their dates booked, Chicago over 60%, while KC is at ... 15% of dates booked. And these cities are getting the same concerts,comedian, monster truck, etc tours that we are getting and often more like I saw several were getting Disney on Ice. Heck, even independence is at 39% dates booked.

It's such a BS excuse that we have to leave t Mobile team free to book concerts that Omaha, Des Moines, and STL are also booking despite having teams in their arenas
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Re: NBA to Kansas City

Post by Link2 »

DColeKC wrote: Thu Oct 31, 2024 11:33 am
Link2 wrote: Thu Oct 31, 2024 11:22 am
DColeKC wrote: Thu Oct 31, 2024 11:08 am

Considering ASM's contract requires them to sign off on anything like this, I wouldn't just assume it's going to be the venue because the sports commission put it on a proposal meant to strike up more serious conversations with the league.

I look forward to more serious, detailed conversations with the sports commission, city and WNBA about the possibility.
This is not a Sports Commission proposal, it's directly from potential ownership. You have no insight into this, so you attempt to minimize.
The sports commission is the middle man here between the league and potential ownership group. I have insight to this because of my position within ASM.

What am I minimizing? Nothing has been agreed upon regarding the venue at point in time. Why are you making statements that are pure speculation as fact?

I'm in favor of a WNBA team coming to Kansas City, but this has all been rushed along over the last several weeks and there are many, more serious conversations to be had regarding several topics, the venue is one of them.
I am sorry you don't have the insight you think you do.
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