Chiefs Pantalones
07-29-2005, 07:47 PM
Q&A with CARL PETERSON
Jul 29, 2005, 8:04:58 PM
TRAINING CAMP
Q: Can you characterize the negotiations with first-round draft choice LB Derrick Johnson?
PETERSON: “We’re having continued conversations with his representative, but nothing has been consummated. We expect to see Craphonso Thorpe and Khari Long tonight and so we just have one (draft choice) to go.”
Q: Is it reasonable to expect that Johnson will be here in the next few days?
PETERSON: “I wouldn’t speculate on any time limit on our first-round draft choice. We’re still having conversations. I had a conversation with Vann McElroy (Johnson’s representative) today. Denny (Thum) has spoken with Vann’s assistant a couple times. We understand the 13th and 14th (overall) picks have come to agreements, so when Vann and his associate see those numbers and where we are, hopefully we’ll be closer to an agreement.”
Q: Did QB Alex Smith’s deal set the bar at a certain height?
PETERSON: “I think that contract was 80 pages long. I don’t ever want to draft the first overall pick in the draft, but that’s not our problem.”
Q: The State of Wisconsin just spent $2.4 million on a new training facility. Did they set a standard for what other people might have to do, specifically in Missouri?
PETERSON: “If you haven’t seen them, we’d like to give you a tour of the new athletic facilities that the State of Wisconsin and the University of Wisconsin – River Falls have built for us, specifically for the Kansas City Chiefs. They contacted us over a year ago and said they wanted to do this. They came down to Kansas City and looked at the pro style lockers and came back up here. They were able to acquire a $1.8 million appropriation from the State of Wisconsin and another $600,000 from the student body from their fees to come up with a total $2.4 million figure for the improvement of the facilities.
“The new pro locker rooms, the training rooms, the equipment rooms are outstanding. They’re as good as I’ve seen in any NCAA Division I school, maybe even some pro locker rooms. The point is this. We come up here somewhere between 23-25 days a year and they feel it’s that important to them that they can come up with this amount of money, I’ll be candid that it’s a little bit disappointing. We went through this this past spring in Jefferson City (Missouri) that representatives there and even representatives of constituents in Jackson County could not agree on a tax that would tax no one in the state of Missouri, but only professional athletes and entertainers outside of the State of Missouri. We thought it was a very simple solution to solving a very major problem, which is becoming a large one for us at the Truman Sports Complex, specific to Arrowhead Stadium and Kauffman Stadium are going to be 33 years old this year. But our legislature in Missouri made that decision. I wouldn’t say all of them because it did pass the Senate, but it didn’t happen in the House. Yet, we come up here for 23 days and they’ve got $2.4 million of new facilities for us. I think there’s a message there. I hope the people in Missouri are listening, specifically the representatives.”
Q: Have you had an opportunity to speak with any of those legislatures who decided to vote that bill down?
PETERSON: “Yes, I have. They told myself and Clark Hunt in January and in March that they would support it and in May they did not. I don’t like people who say one thing and then change their mind. I’d rather be told directly. But they have to live with what they did and hopefully their constituents will know that the next time they come around to vote. We have a problem and we know that in Jackson County. Arrowhead Stadium and Kauffman Stadium, their magnificent facilities, but they’re 33 years old. We live there. We’re there in the inner confines of the stadium and we see the electrical, the plumbing, the concrete – it’s all 33 years old. You can’t wait until it crumbles to say ‘now we have a problem.’ There’s a short timetable to get this fixed and hopefully we will. Perhaps something like the University of Wisconsin – River Falls and the State of Wisconsin has done for us will send a message to those people in Jefferson City. ”
Q: What’s the end game as far as the Chiefs and Kansas City are concerned?
PETERSON: “It’s out of our hands. We worked hard to support a bill that we thought would facilitate to a degree at least a minimal degree of the maintenance to the stadiums, but we couldn’t get it done. We spent two years in an effort to do that. Now unfortunately, it all falls on Jackson County, the City of Kansas City and still the State of Missouri. We’ll see what happens. We want to stay, the Hunt family has made that very explicit and we hope that there are solutions that will allow us to maintain and upgrade the stadium to a state-of-the-art status that our fans can be proud of and that will facilitate their needs and will allow us to remain there for some years to come.”
Jul 29, 2005, 8:04:58 PM
TRAINING CAMP
Q: Can you characterize the negotiations with first-round draft choice LB Derrick Johnson?
PETERSON: “We’re having continued conversations with his representative, but nothing has been consummated. We expect to see Craphonso Thorpe and Khari Long tonight and so we just have one (draft choice) to go.”
Q: Is it reasonable to expect that Johnson will be here in the next few days?
PETERSON: “I wouldn’t speculate on any time limit on our first-round draft choice. We’re still having conversations. I had a conversation with Vann McElroy (Johnson’s representative) today. Denny (Thum) has spoken with Vann’s assistant a couple times. We understand the 13th and 14th (overall) picks have come to agreements, so when Vann and his associate see those numbers and where we are, hopefully we’ll be closer to an agreement.”
Q: Did QB Alex Smith’s deal set the bar at a certain height?
PETERSON: “I think that contract was 80 pages long. I don’t ever want to draft the first overall pick in the draft, but that’s not our problem.”
Q: The State of Wisconsin just spent $2.4 million on a new training facility. Did they set a standard for what other people might have to do, specifically in Missouri?
PETERSON: “If you haven’t seen them, we’d like to give you a tour of the new athletic facilities that the State of Wisconsin and the University of Wisconsin – River Falls have built for us, specifically for the Kansas City Chiefs. They contacted us over a year ago and said they wanted to do this. They came down to Kansas City and looked at the pro style lockers and came back up here. They were able to acquire a $1.8 million appropriation from the State of Wisconsin and another $600,000 from the student body from their fees to come up with a total $2.4 million figure for the improvement of the facilities.
“The new pro locker rooms, the training rooms, the equipment rooms are outstanding. They’re as good as I’ve seen in any NCAA Division I school, maybe even some pro locker rooms. The point is this. We come up here somewhere between 23-25 days a year and they feel it’s that important to them that they can come up with this amount of money, I’ll be candid that it’s a little bit disappointing. We went through this this past spring in Jefferson City (Missouri) that representatives there and even representatives of constituents in Jackson County could not agree on a tax that would tax no one in the state of Missouri, but only professional athletes and entertainers outside of the State of Missouri. We thought it was a very simple solution to solving a very major problem, which is becoming a large one for us at the Truman Sports Complex, specific to Arrowhead Stadium and Kauffman Stadium are going to be 33 years old this year. But our legislature in Missouri made that decision. I wouldn’t say all of them because it did pass the Senate, but it didn’t happen in the House. Yet, we come up here for 23 days and they’ve got $2.4 million of new facilities for us. I think there’s a message there. I hope the people in Missouri are listening, specifically the representatives.”
Q: Have you had an opportunity to speak with any of those legislatures who decided to vote that bill down?
PETERSON: “Yes, I have. They told myself and Clark Hunt in January and in March that they would support it and in May they did not. I don’t like people who say one thing and then change their mind. I’d rather be told directly. But they have to live with what they did and hopefully their constituents will know that the next time they come around to vote. We have a problem and we know that in Jackson County. Arrowhead Stadium and Kauffman Stadium, their magnificent facilities, but they’re 33 years old. We live there. We’re there in the inner confines of the stadium and we see the electrical, the plumbing, the concrete – it’s all 33 years old. You can’t wait until it crumbles to say ‘now we have a problem.’ There’s a short timetable to get this fixed and hopefully we will. Perhaps something like the University of Wisconsin – River Falls and the State of Wisconsin has done for us will send a message to those people in Jefferson City. ”
Q: What’s the end game as far as the Chiefs and Kansas City are concerned?
PETERSON: “It’s out of our hands. We worked hard to support a bill that we thought would facilitate to a degree at least a minimal degree of the maintenance to the stadiums, but we couldn’t get it done. We spent two years in an effort to do that. Now unfortunately, it all falls on Jackson County, the City of Kansas City and still the State of Missouri. We’ll see what happens. We want to stay, the Hunt family has made that very explicit and we hope that there are solutions that will allow us to maintain and upgrade the stadium to a state-of-the-art status that our fans can be proud of and that will facilitate their needs and will allow us to remain there for some years to come.”