Car rental firm expects backlash over K.C. arena

The Associated Press

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Enterprise Rent-A-Car said it believes Kansas City voters can forgive and forget the company's efforts to sink a series of taxes designed to pay for a downtown sports arena.

Voters on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved the taxes, ignoring an anti-tax media campaign largely funded by Enterprise, which argued that the taxes are unfair and plans for the arena are incomplete.

"The voters have decided on this issue," Patrick Farrell, a spokesman for the St. Louis-based company, said Wednesday. "We respect that decision just as we hope our neighbors in the community respect our decision to stand up for our customers."

Don't bet on it, arena supporters said.

"I think a lot of people are going to remember what Enterprise tried to do to this city," said Chad Boeger, general manager for sports talk radio station WHB, which supported the taxes and frequently criticized Enterprise.

Boeger said his company will no longer rent vehicles from Enterprise. He expects other local companies likely will do the same.

The Kansas City Sports Commission, another proponent for the arena and the tax, said it ended a three-year corporate sponsorship deal with Enterprise and will look elsewhere for rental vehicles.

Still, Kevin Gray, the group's president, said he wasn't harboring a grudge.

"There was a lot of passion in this campaign," Gray said. "I'm a believer that you win gracefully and you lose gracefully. We have to move forward as a community."

Fifty-seven percent of voters approved an additional $1.50 per night tax on hotel rooms and $4 per day tax on vehicle rentals in Kansas City.

The taxes are expected to raise $123 million, about half of the estimated $225 million to $250 million price tag of the arena, to be called Sprint Center.

Of the remaining money, $50 million will come from Los Angeles-based Anschutz Entertainment Group, which has signed a nonbinding contract to develop the arena, $10 million will come from the National Association of Basketball Coaches and $62 million will come from the naming rights deal with Overland Park, Kan.-based Sprint Corp.

Mayor Kay Barnes and other arena supporters said Wednesday that they plan to choose an architect in the next two months and break ground on the project by August 2005. They said the arena, which they hope will attract a professional hockey, basketball or arena football franchise, will open in early 2007.

"We've got a lot of work ahead of us," said Tim Lieweke, president and chief executive of Anschutz Entertainment. "I'm very appreciative of the mandate voters have given us."

The Coalition Against Arena Taxes, which received most of its $437,000 war chest from Enterprise, criticized the level of public funding for the arena, saying other cities had forced private companies to foot more of the bill. The group also said with the new taxes in place, Kansas City would have some of the highest hotel and vehicle rental taxes in the nation, which could chase off tourists or convention business.

Farrell, the Enterprise spokesman, said supporters of the arena tax turned the discussion into a battle between cross-state rivals instead of addressing the group's concerns.

He said that while Enterprise is based in St. Louis, it has operated in Kansas City for 32 years, employs 500 people at 50 locations and pays about $6 million a year in taxes to local governments.

Farrell said the company had received a few letters from customers expressing disappointment with the company but said he felt a majority of customers would understand Enterprise's position.

"This wasn't a discussion about dueling cities but a local business that had concerns about a ballot issue," he said. "We continue to be a member of this community."

Bruce Newman, a professor of political marketing at DePaul University in Chicago, said it's unlikely that Enterprise won't see much long-term fallout from the campaign, noting companies such as Nike and Wal-Mart have enjoyed continued growth despite being accused of misdeeds.

"I think the average consumer is too busy in a life full of pressures to notice and remember this," Newman said. "It's much ado about nothing."