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Kansas City's empty arena
There's a modern ghost town in Kansas City. Efforts to attract a major league basketball or hockey team came up empty, and the Sprint Center stands empty. Then NBA and NHL have been looking to smaller cities for expansion opportunities, according to an article in The Atlantic, because they won't have to compete with local baseball or football teams for fan dollars. Since Kansas City has both, filling the Sprint Center has become quite a chore.
Since it doesn't have the 200 events a year that were expected, the Kansas City Sprint Center is just hanging around and operating at a loss. One hopes this does not splash over to the surrounding businesses – such as restaurants – that were opened in anticipation of 18,500 asses in seats for hockey games, concerts and whatever else they can drag into town.
The arena is an architectural marvel but, for now, a commercial disaster. How else would you describe an attraction that there's no reason to visit?
The Sprint Center is even empty on Twitter, where it has only 102 followers.
Filed under: Arts and Culture, North America, United States
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Corey O Apr 20th 2009 5:15PM
Is this a joke?? Sprint Center is by no means empty. Yes, it has no NBA team, but they have concerts/events every about every 3 days. I know because I live less than 2 blocks away. http://www.pollstar.com/resultsVenue.aspx?ID=119814&SortBy=Date&SearchBy=sprint%20center
Just for shows listed on Pollstar (doesn't even include many of the events held there), there are 21 major concerts.
The surrounding restaurants/bars have hardly been open a year and new places are opening up every month. AMC's flagship movie theater with bar and grill is opening up on May 1. They just opened a downtown grocery store a couple months ago. There's a new upscale 24 hour diner opening up. Barely any retail has opened yet.
I'd be happy with an NBA team for KC but the sprint center is by no means empty.