tk13
06-25-2005, 01:29 AM
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/sports/11981711.htm
WNBA looking at KC market
League president says it would be ‘good fit’
By RANDY COVITZ
Kansas City Star
Maybe NBA commissioner David Stern wasn’t kidding when he made an off-the-cuff remark a few months ago by saying Kansas City should go after a WNBA team once the Sprint Center opens.
Stern dispatched WNBA president Donna Orender to the official Sprint Center groundbreaking Friday, and she said the league is investigating the prospects of bringing an expansion team to the $250 million arena after it opens in the fall of 2007.
The 34-game WNBA season runs from May through August, so the earliest a franchise could play in the 18,500-seat facility would be 2008.
“Kansas City certainly would be a place that would be a good fit,” said Orender, who was accompanied by Margaret Stender, president of an expansion franchise for Chicago that will begin play as the league’s 14th team in 2006.
“The WNBA’s goal is to add a franchise a year for the foreseeable future,” Orender said. “Kansas City is a great sports town. It’s a town that supports youth in sports that are family focused and affordable. That’s what the WNBA brings to any market it comes to.”
Orender, in her first year as WNBA president, and Tim Leiweke, president and CEO of Anschutz Entertainment Group, which will manage the Sprint Center, met with Mayor Kay Barnes and potential investors for the franchise — which could cost between $10 million and $15 million.
When the WNBA was formed in 1997, its franchises were owned and operated by NBA clubs in the same city, and the teams could share business operations. The WNBA changed that business model a few years ago and allowed teams to be in non-WNBA cities.
A WNBA exhibition game between Minnesota and Detroit in May drew 4,052 at Municipal Auditorium.
That facility, which seats around 9,000, would seem to be a better fit for the league, which averaged 8,571 fans per game in 2004, a slight drop from the 8,826 in 2003.
The Chicago franchise will play at the University of Illinois-Chicago Pavilion, which holds 6,500, but Leiweke said Municipal is not an option.
“David Stern has made it very clear, it’s Sprint Center or nothing,” Leiweke said. “If you look at the footprint of the WNBA, they need a team in this region, and as you see with K-State and KU, women’s basketball has begun to emerge here that people are following and are interested in.
“K-State had a pretty good year, and KU has a new women’s coach, and their program is on the rise. The WNBA has done its homework, and hopefully we can find a group of owners and community leaders who want to step up to the WNBA. This is a great market for the WNBA, and then the big fish … capturing an NBA or NHL franchise.”
It’s still not out of the realm of possibility that Kansas City could have an NBA or NHL franchise by the fall of 2007 said Leiweke, who is in constant communication with Stern and NHL commissioner Gary Bettman.
“I have met with both commissioners,” said Leiweke, whose company owns the NHL’s Los Angeles Kings and part of the NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers, “and they’re very impressed by the city, by the passion, and by how enthusiastic everyone is for the Sprint Center.”
Because neither league is in a mode to expand, Kansas City’s best shot at landing an NHL or NBA franchise is to convince an existing club to relocate.
“We don’t believe in going in and robbing a team in the middle of the night,” said Leiweke, who sits on the Board of Governors of the NHL. “We want to do this the right way, and not the wrong way. We’re going to stay within the direction of both commissioners.”
Meanwhile, Leiweke signed final documents with the city regarding AEG’s responsibilities with the Sprint Center, clearing one of the roadblocks to completing a deal with the Arena Football League franchise that is expected to move into the Sprint Center in 2007 or 2008 after beginning play at Kemper Arena in 2006.
A group headed by C. Tyler Prochnow, who attended the groundbreaking, is expected to be introduced as the Arena League’s newest franchise once a lease for the Sprint Center is signed.
“We haven’t been able to negotiate a lease because we didn’t have the right to do that until we had an agreement with the city in its definitive form,” Leiweke said. “We’re anxious to sit down with them and move along.”
WNBA looking at KC market
League president says it would be ‘good fit’
By RANDY COVITZ
Kansas City Star
Maybe NBA commissioner David Stern wasn’t kidding when he made an off-the-cuff remark a few months ago by saying Kansas City should go after a WNBA team once the Sprint Center opens.
Stern dispatched WNBA president Donna Orender to the official Sprint Center groundbreaking Friday, and she said the league is investigating the prospects of bringing an expansion team to the $250 million arena after it opens in the fall of 2007.
The 34-game WNBA season runs from May through August, so the earliest a franchise could play in the 18,500-seat facility would be 2008.
“Kansas City certainly would be a place that would be a good fit,” said Orender, who was accompanied by Margaret Stender, president of an expansion franchise for Chicago that will begin play as the league’s 14th team in 2006.
“The WNBA’s goal is to add a franchise a year for the foreseeable future,” Orender said. “Kansas City is a great sports town. It’s a town that supports youth in sports that are family focused and affordable. That’s what the WNBA brings to any market it comes to.”
Orender, in her first year as WNBA president, and Tim Leiweke, president and CEO of Anschutz Entertainment Group, which will manage the Sprint Center, met with Mayor Kay Barnes and potential investors for the franchise — which could cost between $10 million and $15 million.
When the WNBA was formed in 1997, its franchises were owned and operated by NBA clubs in the same city, and the teams could share business operations. The WNBA changed that business model a few years ago and allowed teams to be in non-WNBA cities.
A WNBA exhibition game between Minnesota and Detroit in May drew 4,052 at Municipal Auditorium.
That facility, which seats around 9,000, would seem to be a better fit for the league, which averaged 8,571 fans per game in 2004, a slight drop from the 8,826 in 2003.
The Chicago franchise will play at the University of Illinois-Chicago Pavilion, which holds 6,500, but Leiweke said Municipal is not an option.
“David Stern has made it very clear, it’s Sprint Center or nothing,” Leiweke said. “If you look at the footprint of the WNBA, they need a team in this region, and as you see with K-State and KU, women’s basketball has begun to emerge here that people are following and are interested in.
“K-State had a pretty good year, and KU has a new women’s coach, and their program is on the rise. The WNBA has done its homework, and hopefully we can find a group of owners and community leaders who want to step up to the WNBA. This is a great market for the WNBA, and then the big fish … capturing an NBA or NHL franchise.”
It’s still not out of the realm of possibility that Kansas City could have an NBA or NHL franchise by the fall of 2007 said Leiweke, who is in constant communication with Stern and NHL commissioner Gary Bettman.
“I have met with both commissioners,” said Leiweke, whose company owns the NHL’s Los Angeles Kings and part of the NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers, “and they’re very impressed by the city, by the passion, and by how enthusiastic everyone is for the Sprint Center.”
Because neither league is in a mode to expand, Kansas City’s best shot at landing an NHL or NBA franchise is to convince an existing club to relocate.
“We don’t believe in going in and robbing a team in the middle of the night,” said Leiweke, who sits on the Board of Governors of the NHL. “We want to do this the right way, and not the wrong way. We’re going to stay within the direction of both commissioners.”
Meanwhile, Leiweke signed final documents with the city regarding AEG’s responsibilities with the Sprint Center, clearing one of the roadblocks to completing a deal with the Arena Football League franchise that is expected to move into the Sprint Center in 2007 or 2008 after beginning play at Kemper Arena in 2006.
A group headed by C. Tyler Prochnow, who attended the groundbreaking, is expected to be introduced as the Arena League’s newest franchise once a lease for the Sprint Center is signed.
“We haven’t been able to negotiate a lease because we didn’t have the right to do that until we had an agreement with the city in its definitive form,” Leiweke said. “We’re anxious to sit down with them and move along.”