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Nov
17
More details on The Roof
November 17, 2005 |
The reason this thing could end up costing almost as much as an entire basketball arena is that it has to totally enclose the stadiums. The original plan was just a long half-cylinder to keep out the rain. But for a Super Bowl it needs doors on the ends so the interior can be heated. So they would basically be building the outer shell of a new stadium to put over the existing ones.
Another big condition of the NFL bringing the Super Bowl to KC is 1 million square feet of space for their NFL Experience events. Bartle Hall currently has 400,000 square feet. None of The Roof’s promoters have identified how we’d get another 600,000. The last Bartle expansion cost $150 million for 200,000 square feet, so we’d be looking at spending more on the NFL Experience than the roof itself.
Finally, the Royals made it known today that they have no interest in The Roof. With only 3-4 rainouts a year, they don’t think The Roof is worth the cost and don’t want to put up any of their own money for it. There is also no word on how the cost of The Roof would be split between the Chiefs and the county.
Comments
17 Comments so far
As a St. Louisan I go to KC a lot but not ususally for sports. Your downtown is going to be very exciting and soon. (I already like the plaza) You guys need baseball and football DOWNTOWN. I would love to take the train to KC for a weekend, catch a Royals game and then party in Downtown and the Plaza. PLEASE KC, build downtown. We’re trying to get St. Louis up and running and we want you guys there with us.
“Uh, how the hell am I supposed to get from my hotel downtown to the Truman Sports Complex?”
Of course Glass doesn’t want to spend any of the Royal’s money on anything (like player salaries) so this is hardly surprising.
But…if the Royals aren’t interested then it doesn’t need to be a rolling roof, just a retractable one. How does that affect cost estimates?
So for the sake of argument let’s assume that an additional 600,000 feet of convention space will cost $450 million (at $150 million per 200,000 square feet). Add the $100 to $200 million for the rolling roof, and KC and Jackson County will have spent at least HALF A BILLION DOLLARS on a chance of a football game being played here.
Pardon my language, but that’s just fucking crazy.
Do we have the convention traffic to justify our 400,000 square feet? And after the NFL Experience leaves town, then what? Does KC assume responsibilty for maintaining this empty monstrosity?
Also, I’m not sure we should be looking to St. Louis as an example on this one. They’ve had four downtown stadiums (two Busch stadiums, the Edward Jones dome and the Savvis Center) and they’ve hardly resulted in a downtown redevelopment boom.
I listen to DA in the mornings on 610, and I thought he put it nicely when discussing the Super Bowl thing later in the day.
He said something like “I wish people would stop saying that KC’s been awarded the Super Bowl. It would be more accurate to say that the NFL has agreed to give us one Super Bowl if we achieve an engineering marvel never before seen in the history of the world.”
That sounds about right to me.
It will not happen.
What a huge waste of money it would be for a football game! BUILD DOWNTOWN!
I just don’t know why you would spend $500 million on a roof when you could build a new stadium with a roof for the same price? I realize it wouldn’t be the same as Arrowhead but it just sounds a little far-fetched. Not to mention how much the construction would affect football and baseball seasons for at least a few years.
blow both of those fucking stadiums up and create a year-round renaissance festival. i mean, is the super bowl that important anymore? it’s just about the advertising.
Dave, while I may be ambivalent about this idea I do realize that the Super Bowl brings many millions of dollars into the city holding it. Heck, I don’t even know if this city has enough hotel rooms to hold everyone that comes into your city when the Super Bowl comes to town.
Not gonna happen.
Hmm…
That is one big *IF* to me… While having a Super Bowl would be nice, it’s not worth wasting $500 million of our own taxes. Heck, if the NFL et al want it so badly, why not add fees to the price of tickets and/or other services that the NFL is providing at Arrowhead?
I don’t want to pay for something that MAY OR MAY NOT happen. I like how Noel and Ellen on KMBZ put it: “Build it and they will come..” “They might not..”
Wouldn’t it be great to get a Super Bowl…How great would a Super Bowl be… it would be great for the city to get a Super Bowl…etc, etc, etc.
Ok…How about if we built a new downtown ballpark - we could have an ALL-STAR GAME! Wouldn’t that be great for the city too? Wouldn’t that also bring revenue? Plus, we wouldn’t have to promise to put a giant tarp over it. In baseball it’s simple… build a new stadium, get an All-Star game. It’s very easy.
This “roof” for Arrowhead is a big joke on the people of KC - and there’s no promise that even with everything being done exactly as the NFL demands that we would still get anything from them. The NFL and Lamar Hunt are playing this city for fools.
It makes me sick in the stomach…
How about we just build a stadium or two downtown? Then we’d have year round (more or less) money pouring into the city, and not just this one time.
Prediction: If Kansas City ever hosts the Superbowl, it will be long after I’m dead and gone.