Tony: The 2012 MLB All-Star Game Has Already Failed This Town

The Internet has already offered me two great things today: A confirmation that I never need to pay for dead tree media again AND a reminder that so many of this town’s taxpayer subsidized dreams end in failure.

The Bottom Line: The upcoming All-Star Game in Kansas City already looks disappointing.

A local blogger offers some proof via printed content she gleaned from ESPN Magazine. Here is the money quote:

“I have one teammate who actually complained about being named an All-Star because it’s the only week in eight months he can spend decent time with his family, away from baseball. I also know for a fact that guys around the majors are not psyched about the prospect of spending All-Star week in Kansas City in 2012. The park isn’t great, and there’s just not much going on in that town.” (page 20, bold added)

So you’re probably asking yourself? What does this all mean, Tony? Fortunately, I’m here to help:

Basically, The All-Star game isn’t that big of a deal. Most folks understand that those overblown estimates about all the revenue the game generates are nothing more than PR fodder. And that this might not so much be an event for this town to shine but rather another grand disappointment.

Think about it this way . . . This town is in the midst of a budget crisis and we recently had to borrow money (from ourselves) just to make sure that KC Proper could pick up all of the trash that this event would create. There’s nothing in the budget to wow visitors and right now our grand party P&L District is losing cash at the rate of $12 million a year.

So, the first impressions of this town from new visitors just might be that we’re horribly broke with a very limited budget. Of course, the way around this is to emphasize locally owned party places that have somehow managed to survive the downturn and keep slogging away. Sadly, this town will probably do something lame like throw a parade or run a bunch of PR for the already packed BBQ places. In other words, the ALL-Star game already looks lame.

On the bright side, thanks to a blogger I didn’t even have to buy the dead tree version of ESPN’s content offerings to learn of an important clue as to this so-called “win” for Kansas City.

Tony Botello

http://www.mb-kc.com/
This entry was posted in Tony_Botello and tagged . Bookmark the permalink.

15 Responses to Tony: The 2012 MLB All-Star Game Has Already Failed This Town

  1. Anonymous says:

    Brian
    Tony, STFU. Your attempt to depress everyone with your crap is getting old. Every time I see a blog from you I roll my eyes and wonder just what is it that you are going to whine and cry about now. Get a life loser. You seriously are reminding me more and more of Jason Whitlock.

  2. Anonymous says:

    John
    While I’m still happy the ASG is here in 2012, it will be interesting to see what others outside the area think of the town and the ball park.

    Most people who think the K is great, never been to another ball park. The K is just OK. Not bad, not great. But, nothing to write home about.

    I’ll admitt that I wanted a downtown ball park. I think it would of been better for the city and the team. A ball park downtown would of prevented the problems going on in P&L. I rather have a downtown ball park then an arena for a team that’s not coming.

  3. Anonymous says:

    kcfan
    KC blew it when we chose to renovate the K instead of building downtown. We had the opportunity to do something transformative in building our city and chose to slap on a bandaid. The K will turn out like the Kemper Arena band-aid. In the next 10 years, we’ll start planning the new downtown stadium.

  4. Anonymous says:

    John
    kcfan Says:KC blew it when we chose to renovate the K instead of building downtown.

    I think KC didn’t blow it, as much as David Glass. If KC built a new ball park, Glass would of had too put more of his own money into it. So in stead of that he just rebuilt an old park.

  5. Anonymous says:

    Kyle Rohde
    John and kcfan are right – KC definitely blew it not building a downtown ballpark. Imagine the ASG festivities downtown – packed hotels, packed P&L district, using our new necessitated-by-the-ballpark mass transit system, it would have been great.

    Tony, it’s annoying enough reading your negativity on a daily basis at your own blog but it’s even worse reading it over here too. I know it’s your shtick…but at some point, maybe you could try something new? Or maybe you could move somewhere else and tell the people there how terrible their hometown is?

  6. Anonymous says:

    randyraley
    Never experienced so much hand wringing over an event that is bringing national attention to KC. How could that be wrong? KC’s broke? So is 75% of the other cities in MLB. Damn, folks, quit crying about getting the frigging all star game. This is an opportunity to dispell all the rumours of a glorified cow town to rest unless of course, you’re a glorified cow town…Get the city cleaned up, have people volunteer. There is more to it than teh All Star game when MLB brings it’s whole production to town. The St. louis downtown never looked as good as it did last summer and I think we send a good message about STL to a national audince. You’ll never know what you can do with attitudes like this. Well, KC sucks and do we want the whole country to see it? Spare me. KC does NOT suck. Stick your chest out for three days next summer and quit bitchin about it. I thought KC was better than this.

  7. Anonymous says:

    randyraley
    Sorry about the typos…my bad.

  8. Anonymous says:

    craig glazer
    Tony makes a couple good points. First off, its better to have it here then not, it is a national show and our city looks pretty good. Tony is right we are broke, but so is everyone. The best point he makes is the bullshit about how much revenue an All Star game or any one event brings in…way overblown…it only benefits a few…but its nice to have. I think the Chiefs Monday night opener against San Diego is a bigger deal for us and local fans…

  9. Anonymous says:

    Mayor Wetherwax
    To reiterate the sentiment of others, once again KC demonstrated its short-sightedness by passing over a chance to truly revitalize downtown by building a new ballpark. Instead, what we do have? A Sprint Center that will never see a true anchor tenant, Rivals sports bar in right-field and the biggest TV in all the land!

    As far as the All-Star game. Boo-hoo. I’m sorry some ballplayers do not want to go play a game in Kansas City. I’m pretty sure it’s their job though. How would the MLBPA like it if there were no team in KC and dozens less jobs for their members? We are not here for the MLB players. They are here for us and they can damn well play here once every 30 years.

  10. Anonymous says:

    Johnny Utah
    KC could have built downtown for the money they put into the K. it was lack of ambitious thinking. Land downtown was cheap, and it could have been in the 35K fan range.

    Big miss from the city and Glass.

    That said, the ASG will be fine in KC. it’s only a few days, and there are plenty of good restaurants in different parts of the city.

    Tony, are you a KSU grad? I recognize that inferiority complex…

  11. Anonymous says:

    Hubie
    “So you

  12. Anonymous says:

    Bob
    Ok, so they exaggerate the numbers… so what? If it brings 1/2 of what they say it’s still a good deal! Yeah, Glass should have built a new stadium downtown. he’s a cheap moron.

    Now about the players. How would they know what’s here? They probably think that since there is nothing by the stadium. And they are only here 3-4 days usually. And they don’t have time to find out if there is anything here.

    Lets not just think about Tony’s negative attitude toward this city. I’m really starting to hate his always sucky blogs. I have to wonder if he ever has anything good to say about anything.

  13. Anonymous says:

    Peter Putz
    Tony, What do you not complain about? Sriro Agnew once coined the term, Nattering Nabob of negativity. You are it.

  14. Anonymous says:

    smartman
    Since Sunday,I’ve been in New York City, the Jersey Shore, New Haven, Philly, Providence and Boston. Trust me, KC sucks. Lots of windshield time with lots of sports talk too. In that regard we REALLY suck. Don’t even get me started on pizza.

    We is who we is. Deal with it.

    Thank God I get to travel cause if my life was only in and around KC I’d have to whip out the CZ Arms .40 cal and do the honorable thing.

    Having traveled on average of 100 days a year for the past 30 years I’ve seen KC swirl around the shitter and lots of other cities pick themselves up out of the crapper.

    We can do it again but not with the windbags and douchebags we call our business, civic and political leaders in the metro area.

    E-Tax has to go. Full body contact strippers and legalized prostitution and sports books will fund world class charter public prep schools where kids wear uniforms and say yes sir, no ma’am, thank you and please. Grills are on cars and in restaurants. Corn rows are in Iowa. The rest of the money goes to a five to seven year plan to get infrastructure up to snuff. After that we rape and pillage every Fortune 500 company we can to move to KC with win-win tax breaks and incentives.

  15. Anonymous says:

    John
    I’m happy KC has the ASG.I just wish David Glass and JaCo has the drive to build a downtown ball park. Would of been way better for the city. In stead we rebuild a old park in the burbs when few MLB towns build in the burbs anymore.

Comments are closed.