Recently, I talked with a really nice middle-class white lady who was completely disgusted with Missouri Mavericks.
It wasn’t the hockey fights that troubled her. No, everybody knows Kansas City Area hockey fights are awesome. And because this really great lady was moderately affluent it wasn’t the price gouging that goes on at every professional sporting event that troubled her. And, of course, everyone in this cowtown is accustomed to commuting, so the drive across town was not a point of contention.
Nope. Despite the fact that The Mavericks are the most successful pro-sports franchise in Kansas City, it’s the crowd at Missouri Maverick games that causes a bit of consternation among Kansas City’s professional consumer class.
It’s not my bag, but go ahead and call them whatever stereotype you’d like: Lowbrow, WT, Sons of the soil, Methland Hillbillies. The “working class” fans of Independence hockey seem to be causing a sense of anxiety among the housewives and professionals who typically support Kansas City professional sports. For me, it’s hilarious that a few white people would be scared off by small differences in class, but like it or not that’s the scuttlebutt among a few ritzy local sporting denizens.
“Those people are just gross,” my white lady anonymous source said to me. “It’s worse than shopping at Wal-Mart.”
I wondered what behavior had led her to this conclusion.
“They’re just icky, the women were all wearing sweatpants and the guys all looked like Meth addicts.”
Of course, that sounds like Independence to me but I assumed they kept things just a bit more upscale at The Independence Events Center. Maybe she was just being picky. The description of a lowbrow crowd and tickets obviously low enough for people not among the professional class in JoCo, actually sounds like a draw. And more than anything, even though it’s just minor league pro-sports, it would be nice to see any team from the Kansas City area win for a change no matter the company.
Tony Botello
Mr. Anderson
It’s not that they’re lowbrow it’s just that it’s Independence. Some people can be snobs.
Orphan of the Road
Did her Douchness think minor league hockey would be a Happening?
PucKChaser
You know, the Missouri Mavericks isn’t a bad entertainment product. The Mavericks do need some work on “game production”. They need to turn the PA system down to below jumbo jet decibels. I don’t agree with this woman’s comment, but I do think that the Mavs need a “family” section or two. I went to a weeknight game that wasn’t very crowded so I moved closer to the glass in the end where the Mavericks shot twice. The fans were CONSIDRABLY more vulgar than the other sections.
All-in-all, I like the Mavs. I would prefer the American Hockey League in Sprint Center, but we all know that AEG isn’t interested in bringing a professional sports franchise to Sprint Center. They’d lose money by tying up those 41 dates.
PucKChaser
I went yesterday afternoon with this post in mind. I’d have to say I disagree. I’d say the crowd is no worse than a Chiefs game. It’s not exactly the crowd at the Lyric Theater, but it certainly isn’t a day at Wal-Mart.