Kemper Arena Replacement Must Be A Priority

By James Dornbrook

The quest to replace Kemper Arena is like a duck on a pond moving quietly forward on the surface, with turbulent paddling going on underneath.

It's been a year-and-a-half since the American Royal and the Kemper family released a proposal to raze Kansas City's Kemper Arena and replace it with a 5,000-seat Agricultural Events Center that better fits the needs of the American Royal and agricultural-related events. But there is still no signed agreement in place, no memorandum of understanding on how to move forward.

Behind the scenes is the American Royal, which is tirelessly negotiating, quietly raising money, constantly strengthening its case and rallying supporters to its cause.

The strongest point of the American Royal's debate is that the city continues to pump millions of dollars into upkeep of Kemper Arena, which languishes in relative obscurity. Its busiest tenant right now is the Kansas City Renegades, a Champions Professional Indoor Football League team with six home games.

"Kemper Arena is no longer the facility it was when it was leased to us, primarily because of the construction of the Sprint Center downtown," said Brant Laue, chairman of the board of governors for the American Royal. "Everyone recognizes that. There frankly are not too many people using Kemper Arena anymore aside from us, and it's not well suited to our needs."

Mariner Kemper, son of Kemper Arena's namesake R. Crosby Kemper Jr., said most people don't remember or understand that the original designs for the arena were focused specifically on use by the American Royal. But as the process went along, the city decided it needed a multipurpose arena to attract sports and other events, and it was redesigned.

"People forget that," Kemper said. "And while the arena isn't always full for an American Royal event, it isn't because the American Royal isn't doing well. It's full at the level a similar event would be at in another city."

Kemper argued that it's better for the city to pump current maintenance dollars into a new venue that would boost the American Royal and help attract more events to the city. He said the American Royal commissioned a study that shows hundreds of agricultural events throughout the country not only looking for new facilities that are more conducive than a multipurpose arena, but for venues closer to home. Most venues fitting their needs are on the East Coast, not smack dab in the middle of the United States like Kansas City.

"I think it's a real opportunity to breathe life into the American Royal and capture events around the country that are going elsewhere today, because the Kemper and its surrounding buildings aren't conducive in a way that they could be if they were designed specifically for agricultural-related events," Kemper said. "People tend to forget just how huge the American Royal is for this city. It has as much economic impact as the Major League Baseball All-Star Game did last year, and they do it every year."

Laue said the time to act is sooner rather than later because Kemper Arena continues to deteriorate. He understands that Kansas City is working on other projects — such as a streetcar, a 1,000-room hotel, sewer improvements, etc. — but he says Kemper Arena also needs to be on the list of priorities for the city.

"Everybody acknowledges that Kemper Arena is problematic, so our view is that now is the time to act," Laue said. "If not now, when? If not this, what? So we're charging forward."