By DAVID MARTIN
Kansas City Star business writer Rick Alm has spent too much time with tourism officials who try to make cities feel bad about their convention facilities. In his column this week, Alm wrote that the Sprint Center was “smallish.”
Yep. Sorry, folks. You spent $276 million on a spiffy new arena. And it’s “smallish.”
Alm’s column began with a new study suggesting that the convention-venue industry may be overbuilt. This is not news. For years, cities have improved and expanded convention centers in order keep the podiatrists and church groups coming to town. It’s an arms race that taxpayers lose because convention business has not kept up with the construction boom.
After warning that Kansas City had insufficient hotel rooms to land conventions, Alm made the “smallish” crack about the Sprint Center.
But here are the seating capacities of Kansas City’s pipsqueak of an arena and its competitors. (Capacities listed are for basketball games.)
Ford Center, Oklahoma City: 19,599
Pepsi Center, Denver: 19,309
American Airlines Center, Dallas: 19,200
Sprint Center: 18,795
Wells Fargo Arena, Des Moines: 16,110
OK. Sprint Center’s on the small side. But it seems implausible that Kansas City is going to lose conventions left and right because Dallas can squeeze 405 more fannies into its arena.
So, Kansas City, you’ve recently expanded and remodeled your convention center. You have casinos, delicious barbecue and a new downtown entertainment district. Say, how big is your arena?
It holds 18,795 for basketball.
Click.
ahhh, OK. Let's assess here. If you knew about the pro sports industry - you would know that the industry standards regarding stadiums are changing.
The NBA for instance, relies on intimacy. Fans want to be closer to the court, not farther away and placed on a bevy of layered luxury boxes. Fans want to be close. And, if you look at it, new arenas in the NBA don't seat 22,000 anymore. 18,000 or so is a nice round number for the NBA.
Ditto for the NHL. Smaller is better. There arent too many 20+,000 seat NHL arenas either.
Double ditto for the MLB. Ballparks are getting smaller. How about Oakland, who's building a new ballpark eventually - topping out with about 37,000 seats. Tampa Bay went even lower. They're proposed new one will seat about 34,000. Gone are the days of the 50,000 seat Camden Yards and Coors Fields.
Bottom line: Smaller is better, and is becoming standard in pro sports these days.
Posted at: March 13, 2008 12:55 PM