Fight over three proposals for KC arena shaping up

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The arena talk is heating up in the Kansas City area, with officials in downtown Kansas City, Olathe and Wyandotte County pursuing building the metropolitan area's first arena in nearly three decades.

In Kansas City, the Greater Kansas City Sports Commission, backed by Mayor Kay Barnes, is expected to release a study in early December on the feasibility of building a downtown arena.

The Olathe city government has given Springfield developer John Q. Hammons until Feb. 12 to submit his plan for a complex that includes an 8,000-seat arena, among other attractions.

In Wyandotte County, John Ehlart, owner of the new minor-league baseball team there, wants to develop a 7,500- to 9,500-seat arena next to the new ballpark.

National experts and local leaders acknowledge that the area probably could not support three, or even two, new arenas.

"In terms of overall regional planning, we're cannibalizing each other," said Bill Hall, chairman of the Greater Kansas City Sports Commission. "The likelihood they could be supported with multiple teams is highly unlikely."

Few metropolitan regions have built two arenas at the same time, much less three, according to Bill Dorsey, executive director of the Association of Luxury Suite Directors, which follows the arena and stadium industry.

"Not that many cities can support one of these midsized arenas with a major one, too," Dorsey said. "It's sort of strange for Kansas City to be doing this."

If all three plans go forward, though, it would produce the biggest sports building boom since the Truman Sports Complex and Kemper Arena opened in the early 1970s. The region would jump from having 150 events to 450 or more at local arenas.

All three projects are looking to some of the same sports to fill their schedules -- including indoor soccer, arena football and minor-league hockey.