KC Star: Hunt answers cynics on stadium funding (Murphy)
 

Hunt answers cynics on stadium funding

By KEVIN MURPHY The Kansas City Star

Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt said Thursday that passing a sales tax to upgrade Arrowhead Stadium would require answering critics who think the team should pay for the work.

Voters in the Kansas City area will be asked Nov. 2 to approve a quarter-cent sales tax to pay for $180 million in construction at Arrowhead Stadium, with a similar amount for Kauffman Stadium. Arts projects also would be funded.

The Chiefs had a profit of $24 million last year and have a value of $709 million, according to a Forbes magazine report this month.

“I know there is a cynicism that says, ‘Oh, if the Chiefs are making money, why should we help?' ” Hunt said in an appearance Thursday before the Kansas City Rotary Club at the Arrowhead Club. “The fact is, this is a public facility. The Chiefs only play 10 games a year here.”

Arrowhead and Kauffman are owned by Jackson County. Hunt alluded to other events scheduled at Arrowhead this fall, such as Wizards soccer games, the Billy Graham crusade and the Big 12 Conference championship football game.

Hunt, who said he planned to take an active role in trying to pass the tax, urged Rotary members to explain to skeptics that Arrowhead's value goes beyond housing the Chiefs.

The tax would pay for new concession areas, restaurants, enlarged concourses, more rest rooms, utility upgrades, and a training and administrative building. The Chiefs would contribute $50 million.

Arrowhead opened in the early 1970s. “While this is a magnificent home and has been for 32 years, I think you can appreciate that a house needs refurbishing after 32 years,” Hunt said.

Hunt said the team was not about to move if the tax measure failed. The team has 12 years left on its lease.

In addition to the Chiefs profitability and value, ticket prices may also be an issue with people, Hunt said in an interview Wednesday. The team's average ticket price of $67.26 ranks third in the National Football League, according to a survey released last week in Team Marketing Report, a Chicago research publication.

Hunt said: “We need to step back and think about the Chiefs coming to the middle of the range in ticket price.'' Hunt said he wrote a memo to that effect this week to Carl Peterson, Chiefs general manager.

The sales tax measure would raise more than $1 billion over at least 12 years. Voters in Jackson, Clay and Johnson counties would have to approve the tax for it to take effect, but it also will be on ballots in Wyandotte and Platte counties.

This is the most important line in the thing...

I will be voting early and often for this ...
 

Damn ... I thought Lamar was a cheap bastard.

So who is right -- BigRedChief and Wahzarus .... or the facts?

MM
~~:hmmm:

Hunt said: “We need to step back and think about the Chiefs coming to the middle of the range in ticket price.'' Hunt said he wrote a memo to that effect this week to Carl Peterson, Chiefs general manager.

It's a friggin bribe to get us for more money.

MM let me straighten you out on something. I have respect for Lamar. He has been a great owner. That doesn't mean I have to agree with every one of the teams financial decisions.

You can disagree all you want ... I have no issues with that at all. I've done it just as much as anyone else.

But calling them "cheap" is, IMHO, a flat-out lie, as is calling the desire to have lower ticket prices a "bribe."

It's simple economics -- if the stadium receives the rennovations it needs, then there will be no need to have higher ticket prices because revenue will increase.

If anyone votes down Bi-State2, then turns around and whines about the price of tickets, hot dogs, etc., they should be slapped and told to STFU.

MM
~~:arrow:

Is there any chance that if the bi-state tax passes they will start using warmer water in the urinals?
Man that stuff is cold.

So...........Lamar owns TWO franchises, whose home is provided by tax payers. He wants tax payers to fund the needed upgrades, and then is going to turn around and raise ticket prices again, because its a nicer stadium.

nice.

How much of the $59 upper deck ticket and $25 parking, and $6 beer goes back to the county or into the stadium?

You're not supposed to drink it.........

I guess the way I look at it, if we are paying the third highest ticket prices, it is justified. Arrowhead is the best stadium in the NFL as regards to entertainment, even though we have yet to win a Championship in it.

Um ... you might wanna re-read it. Lamar does NOT want to raise ticket prices. He wants them to be somewhere in the middle, not one of the top three most expensive.

MM
~~:)

Oh man...no wonder everyone looks at me so funny.

It's cheaper than buying a beer.

oh fuck you, rahtard.


the fact that we had cap room, had profit margin and still said we didn't have the money to add free agents this year is proof enough for me.



if Lamar Hunt we so concerned about ticket prices then why did he let them get that high in the first place?

Some people here are ridiculous beyond comprehension.

The man comes out and SAYS BLATANTLY that ticket prices are too high.

Instead of saying "good" they say "it's a BRIBE".

:rolleyes:

FACT: the team made a profit
FACT: the team said we didn't have any money to sign free agents
FACT: the team didn't sign any high-profile free agents
FICTION: the team has cap room

Look, I'm just as upset that you that the team did nothing in the offseason, and I would still like to see McCardell and McKenzie in a Chiefs' uniform.

But I'm to going to let this die. You THINK (by way of compelling circumstantial evidence, I'll admit) that we have cap room. You do not KNOW they have cap room.