Now it can be told…
The first thing that sprang to mind last week when I learned that the Foutch Brothers had mysteriously and abruptly withdrawn their bid to save Kemper Arena by turning it into a regional youth sports facility was a question; was there something fishy going on?
Did somebody buy the Foutch Brothers off?
Little did I know that pushy-beyond-belief supporters of the American Royal had sicced their lawyers on the F bros, threatening in a manner of speaking to sue them back into the Stone Age.
If at first you don’t succeed…litigate,,,or at least threaten to.
And I thought bullying was the province of school kids.
An interesting passage from the Kansas City Star story on the subject:
“The American Royal plan is strongly endorsed by 75 prominent Kansas City business executives, including Mariner Kemper of UMB Bank, Neal Patterson and Cliff Illig of Cerner Corp., and Terry Dunn from JE Dunn Construction. Kemper is the chairman of the American Royal board.”
Great, the bigshots – most of whom likely live in Jayhawk Country – are muscling the deal.
Kemper for example resides in Colorado. And if Dunn would be willing to swear an oath that he’s not in this game because he expects to land the construction contract for the job, I’d like to hear him say so.
Somewhat ridiculously, the newspaper and a number of city councilmen defaulted to the concept that absent the Foutch deal, the American Royal’s $60 million folly of tearing down Kemper and building a far smaller horse and livestock showcase makes sense. Smaller because of the fact that so few people go to these sorts of events anymore.
There’s just one thing wrong with that fall back plan.
It ignores the fact that in today’s society, livestock and horse shows are not worth the powder to blow them to hell, to borrow an expression.
And just because you lose one reasonably good deal doesn’t necessitate snapping up a bad deal to replace it with. Especially one that’s going to cost $60 million for a building and a plan that nobody outside of a handful of powerful and influential businessmen has the slightest interest in.
But hang on for a minute…
I’m willing to concede that these men may be visionaries and at some future point livestock as entertainment will roar back into fashion and become the “next big thing.”
And that teens may one day turn their backs on hip-hop and rock music in favor of the minuet. After all, turntables came back and audio cassettes are starting to almost magically reappear.
But face it, this falderal about horse shows and needing more parking for a barbecue contest that could easily move to any number of other superior locations at a minuscule cost is silly. And that it’s being set forth by highly successful, powerful businessmen wearing straight faces is bewildering.
Does anyone think these men would let their companies invest 60 Large into a deal this shaky?
The almost comical thing about it all is that the vast majority of the citizens of Kansas City – the men, women and children who actually have a dog in this fight – appear not have a clue about any of this. They’re on the outside, looking in. Which frees their representatives at City Hall to feather their future nests by acquiescing to these pushy, self-aggrandizing narcissists.
Incredible.
Hey, they lined up for the X Factor Why wouldn’t they line up for a horse show?
Here’s an idea.
If American Royal backers think this is such a great idea, how about the city council puts it to a vote and lets the unwashed (who will be stuck paying for it) decide if that’s how they want to see $60 million spent in Kansas City?
Anybody out there think that would have a snowball’s chance of passing?
bulldoze the royal.
Liquidate the land.
Hold a competing BBQ competition on the grounds of the county-owned Truman Sports Complex.
let the AR go. They don’t need subsidy.
To me 600k a year in upkeep to have a 2nd arena is money well spent but if the people of the city don’t want it just knock it down and sell the land.
+1
Nice article!
Holding the BBQ event at the Truman Sports Complex would certainly be an interesting option…
It’s basically the tailgating capital of Kansas City, one of the leading tailgating towns in America. As evidenced by the October 28 story in USA, “The Kansas City Royals Have the Best Tailgate Parties in Baseball.”
and then hold a kick-ass series of concerts in Arrowhead or Kauffman?
finally the wizard Harley agrees with mike t and
admin.
have the bar b q at arrowhead…parking at royal
is horrible.
put on a weeklong event….
make it the crown jewel….100,000 prize money…
folks either you go big or you go home.
get big sponsors….bring in the money….as far as kemper give it to some investor….no one needs to go
there now anyway.
Most livestock shows are not controlled by the horsey set. They attract the folks who raise breeding stock and the 4-H, FFA crowd.
The successful shows at Denver Harrisburg (PA) and Louisville attract huge crowds from the industry. Maybe some rodeo thrown in the mix or some draft animals but steeped in agriculture.
Think of the horsey set in the same light as the Best of The Pitch.
now you’re talking.
If the people of kc can save a custard joint in brookside..think what they
can do when they go against all those billionaires.
don’t fool yourself hearne…what the duns want to get built and make
money off of and what the cerner boys will do for a taxbreak…whatever
they want they get.
When the people wake up and get the pitchforks outand realize that
we’ve all been fuked…democrat/independent/republican….then and only
then will we be a true democracy.
See what happened in Kansas when we Kansans fell asleep at the whee l
and became the guinea pigs for trickle down economics. Andv we’re paying
hundreds of millions of dollars because a few people loved seeing people
dying and not being able to get medically insured. the fools turned down
money to get peo-ple insured. Think of the kids who are probably suffering
or sick with few options.
nice article..in fact great article.
we’re getting ready hearne….Harley has seen the future..and its not
good for anyone.
We’ll see what happens today….but 2016 is the start of the revolution…
and ferguson will be the match that lights that fire.
We’ve fallen asleep. We lets the barbarians ruin what was left to us.
thanks
Harley
The “Barbarians” you dolt, are here already.
PANTS UP DON’T LOOT!!
Wow Hearne, NOW IT CAN BE TOLD? What? That you also read The Star like millions of other people?
Lynn Horsely reported the fact about the lawsuit threat YESTERDAY AFTERNOON!
http://www.kansascity.com/news/government-politics/article3545207.html
The rest of this post is just your typical blather. Why are you trying to deceive your readers into thinking that you’re anything but an outsider who also doesn’t live in Kansas City, Missouri? I would have had more respect if you would have just offered a link to the real story with your comment. You’re just as bad as TKC. Worse really, at least his blog doesn’t censor readers and pretend to write “journalism” for a bunch of old fogies.
Greedo, I think you are being a little harsh on the H man. Hearne has written on this topic before, here and he is coming at the issue from a bit of a different angle than the STAR is. I, for one, am interested in Hearne’s take on this and he certainly is not simply repeating the STAR’s perspective.
Also think you’re a bit harsh on “old fogies”. We put in a lot of effort to achieve that status. 🙂
Greedo writes; “That you also read The Star like millions of other people?”
Star readership = millions.
Good to know.
I think I’ll reconsider their offer….
Greedy is somewhat obviously a Star staffer…
They get caught up in taking credit and being thin skinned. Trust me I was there for 16 years; they can dish it out but they’re the absolute worst when it comes to taking it.
Which by the way has nothing to do with my story on Kemper and the Royal.
TKC is basically a link master who takes everybody else news, links to it with a flip comment or three and throws in some usually unconfirmed rumors from his KICK ASS TIPSTERS!!!!!
Obviously I was editorializing on the news and offering a fairly extensive analysis. That you didn’t get that is rather lame.
In any case, welcome to the world of assuming that Harley lives in, Greedo.
You obviously have no idea as to the readership of KCC but if you’re such a fan of the Star and a reader, you obviously have little room when it comes to finger pointing about “old fogies”
And rather than address the issue under discussion, you chose to detour into petty character assassination.
Seriously and your actual point is?
Patterson lives in Loch Lloyd, the Cass County enclave he and Illig developed:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loch_Lloyd,_Missouri
Julius…where the hell you been bro?
I’m still around, Harley, doing freelance writing, editing and public relations. I’m still in Kansas City but I’m originally from Memphis, so I’m hugely conflicted regarding the ongoing, bitter controversy over Memphis barbecue vs. Kansas City barbecue. But no one said life would be easy, right?
Thanks Julius, I know that but it was wee hours late when I wrote the first draft.
And he also has a huge “ranch” in South JOCO if he hasn’t sold it.
Never knew you were from Memphis, Julius.
Spent a lot of time there and still do. They obviously had pulled pork long before KC and Oklahoma Joe’s (before you correct me on that one, I know they have changed their name) – unsuccessfully to date.
I thought Patterson lived out south (Loch Lloyd or something)? Isn’t that how his wife ran against Cleaver.
Yep I was at her campaign victory party…
It’s where I met a Pitch intern named…Nadia Pflaum
A little aside here.
I did some work for Jeannie Patterson 12 or so years ago. She was really nice, I liked her. It was at Loch Lloyd in a HUGE house. 6 Garages. Nice family.
Anyway, the guy who lived next door (As I understand it, and I was just some schmuck working there.) was so pizzed that his 4,000 SQ FT home looked so small next to the Pattersons, he sued. So, Patterson buys Loch Lloyd to end the dispute.
The guys house DID look like a toll booth next to Pattersons.
I don’t know if that is all true, but that is what some people who worked there told me after I asked why the guy next door was standing out in his front yard all day.
🙂
Interesting, Chuck…
And fun story.
Loch Lloyd was Missouri’s answer to Hillbrook and Deer Creek in the late 1980s/early 1990s and it struggled mightily for such a long time.
The school district and the obviously not-very-upscale geography.
Hearne, completely off topic, but you better write about this: If you are not a digital subscriber for The Star, you are prohibited from visiting its entire web site.
I just went to the site minutes ago, as of midnight on Nov. 5. I can’t even scroll through the page without a pop-up window telling me that I need to become a digital subscriber in order to read articles.
If that isn’t the final nail to the dead tree media coffin, I don’t know what is.
Browse the site using incognito or private mode. Paywall is kill.
Will check into it, Steely…
However, they have made their subscription process as confusing as they could – at least at first. The reason being that they wanted to snag as many older as they could into paying extra for the web – even though they knew many of them didn’t use it.
I think they were successful in that.
As a print subscriber – and not paying super close attention – I went with the entire package. But I kind of thought early on that as a print subscriber you got it all.
I’ll break it down here before long.