The new Kansas City Sprint Center arena on Wednesday, March 12, 2008, in downtown Kansas City, Mo. The new $276 million arena seats more than 18,000 people and has 72 suites. BY CHRIS LANDSBERGER, THE OKLAHOMAN
The last time I visited downtown Kansas City was eight years ago. I was, to be blunt, bored. I was attending a convention, and downtown was simply dull day and night. I had to drive to Crown Plaza to have some fun. Putting all bias aside, I swear downtown OKC even then was far more enjoyable to visit.
But Kansas City is changing. And in light of a package of stories done by the Kansas City Star which I referred to in today’s Main Street column, it’s appropriate to begin my second You Tube downtown tour with a stop in Kansas City.
They have a new arena. It’s sharp, and yet OKC is staying in the fight for hosting Big 12 basketball tournaments. But Kansas City also has the Power and Light district coming up - and the city is really exploding with downtown housing.
So let’s begin our tour….
July 29th, 2008 at 3:01 am
Kansas City, Missouri along with the whole KC Metro area is growing fast and that KC down town that use to be boring isn’t so boring anymore. The new $800,000,000 power and lights district, is the first step in the right direction for Kansas City along with the neighboring $276,000,000 sprint center. The city is even in talks with four NHL teams to move into the new Sprint center. Pittsburg almost moved in and is still thinking about doing it yet. Even rumors of a NBA team couold find it’s home in Kansas City. Also, Both Arrowhead Stadium the home of the Kansas City Chiefs and Kauffman Stadim the home of the Kansas City Royals; both of these stadiums are each going to see a $300,000,000 make over to modernize those classic parks. Kansas city is going to even build a new suspension bridge over the missouri river, The proposal is a $245 million project that calls for a six-lane bridge over the Missouri River on Interstate 35. Kansas City Is also, going to build several new sky scrappers in the downtown loop. The first of these buildings is the new cordish hotel near the power and lights district which will be 450 ft high. This 35 story building will have 20 ft high stories vs the normal 10 ft high stories. Also, a new GSA Federal building that will include 1,600 workers and it will be between 650 to 700 ft high. Which could make it Kansas city’s new tallest building compared to the 634 ft high One Kansas city Place. Kansas city even has proposals for a 900 ft toffice builing and a 1,000 ft office building, that might be the new homoe for Sprint Communications. Also there are plans for a new 500 ft building and it’s main tenant is one of Kansas City’s largest law firms. Kansas City is even approved a new light rail system that will run a 27 mile stretch from the Kansas City Zoo to the Plaza to Union Station, to Down Town, then along stops in the North Land KC and at last the Kansas City International Airport, which by the way is building another terminal that will take the airport from it’s current 90 gates to 120 gates and the airport is thinking about building another two more 13,000 ft runways and featureing more international flights. I guess it wants to be more like the Dallas Fortworth Airport. A new study shows that the KCMO City is now over 530,000 people and the KC metro is at about 2,500,000 people and climbing towards 3,000,000 people. Also St Joseph to the north is 175,000 in it’s metro and topeka about 250,000 in it’s metro, and these towns are each about 30 to 45 minutes from the Kansas City Metro. KC has it’s Nascar track and is now building a new Stadium to host it’s Major League Soccer Team the Kansas City Wizards, and in case you guys didn;t know because America is still getting into soccer, that soccer is the world’s biggest sport and it is grwoing fast, good thing the former owener of the Kansas City Chiefs who is Lamar Hunt started Major League Soccer here in the United States and is also, the former owner of not only the wizards but also FC Dallas who has the biggest Soccer Trianing feild in the world. Kansas City Wizards were the national champions not to long ago and might be getting help from some european teams. The Stadium will only hold 45 to 50,000 though. Not as big as Arrowhead with it’s 80,000 seats.Let’s not forget about Kempar Arena, which is now the home of the AFL’s Kansas City Brigade. Kansas City is growing and growing fast with almost 12 Billion dollars in development. Kansas city has shown the Mid West that even they can be big.