By JUSTIN KENDALL

Sunday morning, The Kansas City Star offered up this headline: “Sprint Center is hopping, even with no team.” No shit, the Sprint Center is busy, with the exhuming of Sir Elton, Van Halen with Diamond Dave, and Garth. But Star reporter DeAnn Smith’s article left questions unanswered, especially how AEG plans to match its Garth-a-thon next year — once the arena's newness has worn off.

And Smith missed the real news, which she finally got around to in the 14th paragraph. That’s when Tim Leiweke — president of AEG, which is managing the arena for the city — told Kansas Citians not to get their hopes up for an NHL or NBA team in 2008.

“We are very focused on getting an anchor tenant,” Leiweke told the Star. “It is not a question of if. It is a question of when.”

“When” keeps getting further away. In September 2005, Leiweke told the Star that the Sprint Center would have either a pro basketball or a pro hockey team “when you open the doors.” (For more broken promises, read “We’re Pucked.”) Now, a little more than two years later, Leiweke is reportedly targeting the 2009-10 or 2010-11 seasons — and considering minor-league franchises. Talk about lowered expectations.

Meanwhile, the Sprint Center is getting older. Older buildings rarely find anchor tenants. Team owners want more luxury boxes, club seats or just the newest arena.

Smith cited New Orleans and Nashville as winners on their build-an-arena-get-a-team gamble. Wait a second. Yes, New Orleans lured the NBA’s Hornets out of Charlotte. But Katrina washed the team out of the Big Easy for a couple of years, and the Hornets’ returned this season to the worst attendance in the league. The Nashville Predators, with new ownership, will be staying in Nashville, at least for now.

Not exactly model cities.

The countdown to the first round of renovations began in October. Read this to be truly depressed about KC’s future.