Sprint loses another million customers

[GRID]

Not to mention, it would free up 5-6 million sq feet of office space in JoCo and the harm that would do to KCMO (and JoCo) for decades.

I think I will cancel my Verizon phones . (FYI, I was a loyal sprint customer for a decade).

Nobody wants sprint to go away, that would be horrible for JoCo and KC.  I'm just saying that it wouldn't be the end of the world.

I still have a hard time respecting Sprint though.  I really do.  I'm not sure I will ever forgive them for not doing more to be "KC's Corporation".  I truly believe that having our largest company in the burbs and that company totally ignoring the city like it isn't there has been detrimental to KCMO and the entire region and its ability to grow and compete with other major cities outside the world of having a "nice place to raise a family".

To this day, I think KC would be right there with Minneapolis or Charlotte or Denver had Sprint been more civic minded.  I may be wrong, but I just think Sprint blew it and really dropped the ball.

[staubio]

Not to mention, it would free up 5-6 million sq feet of office space in JoCo and the harm that would do to KCMO (and JoCo) for decades.

I think I will cancel my Verizon phones . (FYI, I was a loyal sprint customer for a decade).

Nobody wants sprint to go away, that would be horrible for JoCo and KC.  I'm just saying that it wouldn't be the end of the world.

I still have a hard time respecting Sprint though.  I really do.  I'm not sure I will ever forgive them for not doing more to be "KC's Corporation".  I truly believe that having our largest company in the burbs and that company totally ignoring the city like it isn't there has been detrimental to KCMO and the entire region and its ability to grow and compete with other major cities outside the world of having a "nice place to raise a family".

To this day, I think KC would be right there with Minneapolis or Charlotte or Denver had Sprint been more civic minded.  I may be wrong, but I just think Sprint blew it and really dropped the ball.

Sprint still does a lot for the city and the leadership that drove them to the suburbs isn't there anymore. Look at the program of any arts event or major community festival and Sprint is likely to be listed as a sponsor. Look at that big spaceship that landed downtown and whose logo is on it.

Forsee started to return the focus to making Sprint being a good citizen and reinvesting in the city. It isn't as if he could close the campus.

[LenexatoKCMO]

I still have a hard time respecting Sprint though.  I really do.  I'm not sure I will ever forgive them for not doing more to be "KC's Corporation".  I truly believe that having our largest company in the burbs and that company totally ignoring the city like it isn't there has been detrimental to KCMO and the entire region and its ability to grow and compete with other major cities outside the world of having a "nice place to raise a family".

To this day, I think KC would be right there with Minneapolis or Charlotte or Denver had Sprint been more civic minded.  I may be wrong, but I just think Sprint blew it and really dropped the ball.

Have you ever paid attention to who the corporate sponsors are at any of our cultural assets?  Union Station?  NLBM?  Fine Arts programs?  I think that little pin drop logo would pop up on a few more corporate sponsor lists than you are giving them credit for.  

If you want to start talking about corporate citizenship I would say you are better off barking up Garmin's tree than Sprint's. 

[GRID]

Sprint still does a lot for the city and the leadership that drove them to the suburbs isn't there anymore. Look at the program of any arts event or major community festival and Sprint is likely to be listed as a sponsor. Look at that big spaceship that landed downtown and whose logo is on it.

Forsee started to return the focus to making Sprint being a good citizen and reinvesting in the city. It isn't as if he could close the campus.

You bet,

Forsee was amazing and really started the change the mentality of the company.

Just a bit too late.  There is not much that can be done now.  Sponsoring festivals is one thing.

Putting a city on the map is another.  Sprint had a chance to put KC on the map and KC will probably never recover from the lack of corporate investment here compared to most major cities, especially downtown.

All you have to do is spend some time in Denver, Minneapolis, Charlotte, Atlanta etc and you can get an idea of what’s it’s like to have a city with an urban core that is full of corporations and not just government jobs.  It’s a totally different feel than you get in KC.

Like I said, it’s really too late now.  But I certainly don’t wish harm on Sprint or JoCo now that the damage is done.  That won’t help anybody.

[SingleMalt12]

We use AT&T.  It's the only one with rollover & the coverage is better than Verizon & Sprint.  We were with Verizon since it was Airtouch & when I called to cancel they did nothing to get us to stay with them.  So far AT&T has been reliable, even in areas we had little or no signal with Verizon.  I know KC is a Sprint town but in the rest of the country it just doesn't offer a reason to switch.

[NDTeve]

I still have a hard time respecting Sprint though.  I really do.  I'm not sure I will ever forgive them for not doing more to be "KC's Corporation".  I truly believe that having our largest company in the burbs and that company totally ignoring the city like it isn't there has been detrimental to KCMO and the entire region and its ability to grow and compete with other major cities outside the world of having a "nice place to raise a family".

To this day, I think KC would be right there with Minneapolis or Charlotte or Denver had Sprint been more civic minded.  I may be wrong, but I just think Sprint blew it and really dropped the ball.

Maybe Sprint doesn't hate Kansas as much as you and still considers Johnson County part of Kansas City. Like most people.

[staubio]

We use AT&T.  It's the only one with rollover & the coverage is better than Verizon & Sprint.  We were with Verizon since it was Airtouch & when I called to cancel they did nothing to get us to stay with them.  So far AT&T has been reliable, even in areas we had little or no signal with Verizon.  I know KC is a Sprint town but in the rest of the country it just doesn't offer a reason to switch.

Unless one has wildly inconsistent usage month over month, I don't see the value of rollover minutes aside from them being a brilliant marketing tool. One should get the plan they need for their usage. You'll either use your minutes or you won't and I'd guess that people with rollover plans just have a huge glut over never-used minutes and are carrying plans with more minutes than they need, ultimately costing more.

Voice minutes are cheap and unlimited plans are getting more and more common.

[GRID]

Maybe Sprint doesn't hate Kansas as much as you and still considers Johnson County part of Kansas City. Like most people.

That’s a real constructive post.  Nice.

You guys can’t have it both ways you know.  JoCo would have been just fine with the other 75,000 jobs that have moved from KCMO to JoCo in the 80’s and I’m sure that a very similar amount of the employees would have chosen to live in Kansas.

That’s not the point.

The point is Sprint is (was) a huge, fast growing company with national recognition that could have single handedly turned our city around and started a full blown wave of indirect urban investment just like you see in other towns.

Instead, we got a campus that is tucked behind a walmart and a company that really did very little for the community.  Congrats, they threw a million bucks at the zoo imax.  That’s nice, but nothing like what they could have done.

I would have felt the same way had Sprint gone to Lee’s Summit and I have said for years they also dropped the ball by not going to KCK where they would have also single handedly rebuilt a city and last time I checked, KCK was in Kansas.

Like I said, can’t have it both ways.  You want a metro with 80% of your private industry corporate jobs in the burbs, not just burbs, but burbs in another state, then having a vibrant urban core is going to take a hit.

Take a drive to Omaha.  Check out what First National Bank and BNSF has done for that city.  Imagine that city today had those companies chose to ignore Omaha and build a campus west of the beltway or even worse, 25 miles deep into Iowa.

Any more immature comments?

[lock+load]

Unless one has wildly inconsistent usage month over month, I don't see the value of rollover minutes aside from them being a brilliant marketing tool. One should get the plan they need for their usage. You'll either use your minutes or you won't and I'd guess that people with rollover plans just have a huge glut over never-used minutes and are carrying plans with more minutes than they need, ultimately costing more.

Voice minutes are cheap and unlimited plans are getting more and more common.

Anymore you are almost forced to buy more minutes than you need.  For a family plan, 700 is the smallest bucket of minutes you can get. 

[SingleMalt12]

Unless one has wildly inconsistent usage month over month, I don't see the value of rollover minutes aside from them being a brilliant marketing tool. One should get the plan they need for their usage. You'll either use your minutes or you won't and I'd guess that people with rollover plans just have a huge glut over never-used minutes and are carrying plans with more minutes than they need, ultimately costing more.

Voice minutes are cheap and unlimited plans are getting more and more common.

I can only speak for myself.  The rollover plan works for us.  It IS the plan we need.  We did an analysis of the past 5 years & the rollover plan made the most sense. 

[SingleMalt12]

That’s a real constructive post.  Nice.

You guys can’t have it both ways you know.  JoCo would have been just fine with the other 75,000 jobs that have moved from KCMO to JoCo in the 80’s and I’m sure that a very similar amount of the employees would have chosen to live in Kansas.

That’s not the point.

The point is Sprint is (was) a huge, fast growing company with national recognition that could have single handedly turned our city around and started a full blown wave of indirect urban investment just like you see in other towns.

Instead, we got a campus that is tucked behind a walmart and a company that really did very little for the community.  Congrats, they threw a million bucks at the zoo imax.  That’s nice, but nothing like what they could have done.

I would have felt the same way had Sprint gone to Lee’s Summit and I have said for years they also dropped the ball by not going to KCK where they would have also single handedly rebuilt a city and last time I checked, KCK was in Kansas.

Like I said, can’t have it both ways.  You want a metro with 80% of your private industry corporate jobs in the burbs, not just burbs, but burbs in another state, then having a vibrant urban core is going to take a hit.

Take a drive to Omaha.  Check out what First National Bank and BNSF has done for that city.  Imagine that city today had those companies chose to ignore Omaha and build a campus west of the beltway or even worse, 25 miles deep into Iowa.

Any more immature comments?

I don't think BNSF has done anything for Omaha.  Union Pacific has done a lot for Omaha. 

The biggest difference between Omaha and KC is that there are a lot of Buffet Millionaires and Billionaires that have given hundreds of millions of dollars to Omaha.  Take a look at the Zoo, Joslyn Art Museum, the Performing Arts Center (90 million single contribution), etc.  A large portion of those and others have been financed by Buffet stockholders.  (I really don't want to sound like JoeMoney and I hope I don't bring him out of retirement/lockdown)

I think the larger issue for KC is this: What would KC be without the Hall and Block families?

[LenexatoKCMO]

Cheap construction in greenfield is the norm for corporations these days - those that choose an urban tower are fewer an further between.  Most of Sprints competitors are hq'd in sprawly campuses in very suburban NY/NJ

[GRID]

I don't think BNSF has done anything for Omaha.  Union Pacific has done a lot for Omaha. 

The biggest difference between Omaha and KC is that there are a lot of Buffet Millionaires and Billionaires that have given hundreds of millions of dollars to Omaha.  Take a look at the Zoo, Joslyn Art Museum, the Performing Arts Center (90 million single contribution), etc.  A large portion of those and others have been financed by Buffet stockholders.  (I really don't want to sound like JoeMoney and I hope I don't bring him out of retirement/lockdown)

I think the larger issue for KC is this: What would KC be without the Hall and Block families?

I meant UP...

Exactly why I respect the likes of Hallmark and American Century far more than Sprint.  Those are much smaller companies, but they have done 100 times more for KC.

Cheap construction in greenfield is the norm for corporations these days - those that choose an urban tower are fewer an further between.  Most of Sprints competitors are hq'd in sprawly campuses in very suburban NY/NJ

OK, UM, this is not NYC, hell, it's not even Seattle.  Seattle can absorb having Microsoft away from the urban core since they have a few hundred thousand other jobs downtown and multiple major corporations.

KC needed sprint to step and I think both the city and the company missed a lot of opportunities to take themselves to the next level.

[SingleMalt12]

I meant UP...

Exactly why I respect the likes of Hallmark and American Century far more than Sprint.  Those are much smaller companies, but they have done 100 times more for KC.

OK, UM, this is not NYC, hell, it's not even Seattle.  Seattle can absorb having Microsoft away from the urban core since they have a few hundred thousand other jobs downtown and multiple major corporations.

KC needed sprint to step and I think both the city and the company missed a lot of opportunities to take themselves to the next level.

Another thing that comes to mind is spin off industry.  I'm ignorant when it comes to Sprint but it seems that Denver really took advantage of synergies when it came to telecom.  There seem to be a lot of telecom related companies in Denver.  Hell Level3 located there specifically because of the telecom labor force that appear to have spun off from Qwest and its predecessors.  That didn't appear to happen in KC.  In addition, have any ex sprint employees started any companies?  Those are the type of things that can propel a city. 

In Omaha, when Enron left for Houston, some Enron employees took the buyout and stayed in Omaha and started other companies.  Also, the University of Nebraska-Omaha took advantage of Union Pacific, Kiewit and others to draft employee talent to lecture.  And, when Enron did leave and take 2,500 employees with them, as well as when Level 3 chose Denver over Omaha for a headquarters, the city and UNO didn't cry too long.  They established the Kiewit Institute to grow high tech employees and companies.  Perhaps KC should see about a relationship with Sprint and UMKC or KU or MU? 

What I'm getting at is while it would have been nice to get Miller/Coors and the other relocating companies, its better to build on what we have here and grow a talent base locally.  THAT is what will make KC a powerhouse. 

[ignatius]

Didn't Garmin startup from ex-Sprint people?  Birch Telcom?  I'm thinking EuroNet too may be ex-Sprint people.  In the 90's there were hundreds of startup software companies, many ex-Sprint people.

KC is the 6th largest telcom industry in the country in terms of labor force (it was 4th about 10 years ago and may drop significantly with Embarq now purchased).  The local economic development groups seem to focused on drawing new industries rather than growing the one we already have.

[LenexatoKCMO]

ATT has always had a healthy presence here.  Loosing the Lucent facility was surely a big loss.  I don't think the remaining vestages of Birch have much corporate presence in KC anymore. 

[ignatius]

On Birch, they were sucked up by an Atlanta company.  Was just pointing out that they started up from ex-Sprinters.

[knucklehead]

Sprint stock closed at $1.37 today.