LIVESTRONG Sporting Park (Kansas City, Atlanta, Armstrong: sales, crime, buy)

[RjRobb2]

If you havent heard, Sporting Kansas City has donated the stadium naming rights to LIVESTRONG, Lance Armstrong's cancer charity. As part of the deal, a portion of revenue generated at the stadium will go to LIVESTRONG with 7.5 million over a 6 year period.

Sporting KC’s stadium name is nearly pitch perfect - KansasCity.com (http://www.kansascity.com/2011/03/08/2709585/sporting-kcs-stadium-name-is-nearly.html#disqus_thread - broken link)

[brewcrew1000]

A better idea would be to name the park Kansas City Sporting Park and give a portion of the revenue back to the citizens of KCK who helped pay for it.

[RjRobb2]

Originally Posted by brewcrew1000

A better idea would be to name the park Kansas City Sporting Park and give a portion of the revenue back to the citizens of KCK who helped pay for it.

They are going to get their money back and more. One of the reasons they are doing this is to give back to the community and reflect the altruistic nature of the city.

[TheSportsMachine]

Really great idea. They're getting a ton of good pub for this. Good to see we have a pretty progressive sports franchise in town.

[donisanasfan]

The brand that steroids built truly continues to livestrong. Maybe they can change Kauffman Stadium to Barry Bonds Memorial Park ( I know he is still only dead to the world of MLB, not officially from the rest of the world ) Then Kansas City would have made it's deal with the devils complete.

[RjRobb2]

Originally Posted by donisanasfan

The brand that steroids built truly continues to livestrong. Maybe they can change Kauffman Stadium to Barry Bonds Memorial Park ( I know he is still only dead to the world of MLB, not officially from the rest of the world ) Then Kansas City would have made it's deal with the devils complete.

Last time I checked, no one has ever proven Lance Armstrong of any wrongdoing.

Even if they had, LIVESTRONG is an entire organization in which Lance Armstrong is just the face of. They have a great rep and watchdog organizations give them a top rating for a charity.

Good try but your ignorance is bleeding through making you look like an idiot.

[kcmo]

They got money to build a free stadium in a far flung greenfiled and will probably get enough PEAK (Pre-Emptively Attacking Kcmo) money in addition to STAR bond money and other incentives to build the cerner office complex (also in a greenfield, miles from anything) with little private money all while they tore down the bannister mall prematurely and basically said FU to south kansas city which had tens of thousands of people (not cows) really hoping they that project would go through.

The least they can do is a PR move like this that will probably give them a bigger net profit because they can write off that "donation" that is probably going to be much more than a standard stadium sponsorship would have been, so no real loss for cerner there, but great pub.

So, I think it's just a PR move and it worked. But at least it does help a good cause in the end.

But I will always see the project as exactly what is wrong with how metro KC uses massive amounts of incentives to subsidize suburban sprawl, making those same incentives essentially worthless for redevelopment projects and making redeveloping areas infinitely more difficult.

I mean if you can use such aggressive incentives to build on wheat fields in the middle of nowhere, what is the incentive to even think of using them to redevelop an urban (or aging suburban) area that has far more costs and challenges to overcome?

KC has so much blight and abandonment (and the crime that comes with it) throughout the metro with a handful of suburban corners that shine like everything is fine and dandy and this is just one of the many reasons why that is the case.

[RjRobb2]

Originally Posted by kcmo

They got money to build a free stadium in a far flung greenfiled and will probably get enough PEAK (Pre-Emptively Attacking Kcmo) money in addition to STAR bond money and other incentives to build the cerner office complex (also in a greenfield, miles from anything) with little private money all while they tore down the bannister mall prematurely and basically said FU to south kansas city which had tens of thousands of people (not cows) really hoping they that project would go through.

The stadium isnt free, it has to be paid back. Plus, it has gone over budget by tens of millions and it is coming out of their pocket.

They didnt say FU to KC, KC couldnt get it done. They had to get the stadium done because they had no where to play or least a place that was feasible. What did you expect them to do?

Originally Posted by kcmo

So, I think it's just a PR move and it worked. But at least it does help a good cause in the end.

It's more than a PR move. Several of the men in the ownership group have been impacted by cancer including some of their spouses. They have been chasing this deal for months and months and it was originally rejected by LIVESTRONG.

[donisanasfan]

RjRobbbbbbb............Lance has never been proven to have taken steroids?....ok....it has never been proven that Barry Bonds has taken anything other then "cream"-----it was just Nivea hand cream right? I don't think it is my ignorance that is bleeding , you however,might want to grab a tissue.

[kcmo]

Originally Posted by RjRobb2

The stadium isnt free, it has to be paid back. Plus, it has gone over budget by tens of millions and it is coming out of their pocket.

They didnt say FU to KC, KC couldnt get it done. They had to get the stadium done because they had no where to play or least a place that was feasible. What did you expect them to do?

It's free to Cerner, the owner of of the soccer club. It's funded via the STAR bonding that is in place which captures all the sales taxes generated at Village West. The cash is fronted by the state and "paid back" by the tax payers. Wow, they might have to pay for overruns. I wish I could buy a car and only have to pay for tinting the windows!

And PEAK is the same thing only rather than sales taxes it's all the state corporate and income taxes generated, which will come into play with the Cerner office complex.

Then you have overlay transportation taxes etc that are also redirected to the project and the developers.

All in a freaking greenfield. Yet people in KC are just fine with it, but then constantly rip into a far more complicated project (P&L district) that actually rebuilt a massive urban area and required the developer to build the development. Tiff money at the P&L District went to, buy property, clear land of blightened buildings, relocate utilities, rebuild urban streets, sidewalks, traffic signals, lighting, building parking structures (that are used by sprint center too). While at village west, all these incentives are used to actually fund the construction of buildings on open, flat land and that's about it.

Which one gets all the praise? Village West. Which one gets all the negative press? P&L.

Dumb.

OH, and KCMO and MO were desperately trying to put the Bannister Mall project together when the project was yanked out from under them to go the easy route with the easy cash.

It's the KC (or at least the Kansas way) way to take the path of least resistance rather than doing what is right and most sustainable and in the best interest of the entire community.

That's why KC has a massive ring of suburban crap around an even larger mass of decay that rings what's left of the inner urban core that Kansas has not poached yet.

Sorry, while most people see KC an think wow, this is all awesome, I love all these new state funding shopping centers and office parks on the fringe of suburbia!

I see a city that is self destructing compared to many metro areas and a city that will never ever get on the same page and take it self collectivity to the next level.

Denver competes with Chicago and Seattle. Dallas competes with Atlanta and Minneaoplis. Kansas City, MO competes with Kansas City, KS and Johnson County, KS... Pretty much sums it up.