Arrowhead keeps looking better and better

I just finished looking at numerous pictures of Dragon Stadium, the '03 and forseable future home of the Burn. Overall it's very much like Naperville with limited better seats, metal bleachers, limited seating, similar turf, perma-lines, and ammenities. Most glaring is the dark (Bears) purple turf coloring that dominates the picture. That's not likely to blend well with the Burn's home red.

The Texas HS stadium does have a bit more room on the sides but maybe less on the end lines according to posts. We'll see how the TV angles (set up for football) will be limited given the larger space.

Bottom line is that today as we await the dc opener all to far in the future, we do have one of the better places to visit in MLS. The knocks on Arrowhead are easy to target: Too big to hold noise (falicy IMO), not soccer specific(so what), not many businesses surrounding the stadium, football lines late season. Those, legitimately are about it.

Taking into account the whole stadia experience of Arrowhead, we have it pretty sweet. Remember, many of us spend more time outside the stadium than in it. Everything else is, at worst, good. Ease of travel there, ease of getting out in good time, finding it in the first place, :25 to airport, early opening gates and team provided grills for tailgating, plentiful lot space for kickarounds or whatever, shady grass if needed, trees, plenty of space for team sponsored activities, pregame bands, short/no lines for everything in the stadium even at crowded games, heated bathrooms (you sit on cold porcelain and then talk to me), overhangs for weather, TV monitors everywhere that give PbP and replays and weather, cup holders stadium wide, grass (then there's that!), practice facility is close, offices are right there, great TV lines, not a bad seat in the house, it isn't an ugly angular rectangle like Columbus' house (more asthetic and better for viewing angles), no bleachers, no metal seats, giant video screens (2), plentiful scoreboards, professional sound/PA system, it's not surrounded at field level by endless gaudy blaze orange murals (New Mile High), the seats are close to the field by horizontal and vertical distance unlike most other MLS stadiums, and it isn't falling down around you (RFK & Giants). I'm also certain I left out at least a thing or two.

Anyway, obviously Dragon and Naperville are subject to change in the future. LA's new stadium should certainly be better, but until it's done...who knows? NE's is up for debate as I've read many posts about how there is no atmosphere outside the stadium, little parking, and no tailgating. RFK certainly has atmosphere on Arrowhead, but that has nothing to do with the stadium. Spartan is, well, spartan. I've mentioned the others.

Bottom line is that given the total package from leaving your driveway to pre-game to game amenities to getting back home, Arrowhead has to be considered near the league top...for now.

 

[soapbox]
I did foget to mention that in a recent article Mark Connelly was asked who had the best food in MLS. His answer was that the best single item was Arrowhead's BBQ sandwich. OK, great, good for us. Seriously, if he is impressed by Vollume Services' offering, he should really make an effort to get a full order at one of 40 or so other places in town. Gates' in Independence is pretty close by.

Also there is price, front row center is $17. $13 if you have been a season ticket hoder since at least '99 (they capped ticket increases for 5 years if you paid early that year - sweet!). GA is $10 I think. Suite level (top ticket) is only $18.

It isn't perfect, Arrowhead does have some things to not like: We would love to have it closer to some nightlife within a drunk stumble(only two hotels, Denny's, and Taco Bell anywhere close), the oppressive August humidity, the inevitable April monsoon once a year, the field could be a few yards wider ideally, no lineup scoreboard, no Samba band circa '97, the generally horrid music selections, the parking lots could be flatter, less football lines, and the turf could be better in April.

Pretty nitpicky really. Everything considered, it's amazing that anyone in KC can still grouse about lack of a SSS. You have to ask why anyone would want a new stadium. If you strip away the admittedly intrinsic romance of the idea you are left with little more than another way Lamar Hunt can charge the public for an already publicly paid for idea. (The stadium would only be built with the inclusion of tax dollars) At the very least a new SSS in KC would be a free marketing bonanza for Hunt Sports and a great excuse to jack up everything from parking to tickets. No small wonder (NSW) he's pushing the SSS. NSW his personal ticket marketing is certered around unpaid volunteers. ("If everyone just sells 2 tickets"..."If everyone just gives 10% of your after tax income to the Church [sic]"..."If everyone just recruits 3 friends who recruit three friends", etc. All of these ideas have been similarly abused in the past and continue to be.) NSW the Chiefs continue to miss the playoffs yet Lamar cashes bigger checks than all but 3 of the other 31 NFL teams. NSW that Chiefs' GM Carl Peterson has a contract with an enormous bonus based on team profit and not team wins. Does anyone really think Hunt Sports will run a new SSS any differently? Is it worth it? Not to me it isn't. BTW, I'd run it the same way if paid to do so, it's just smart business. I digress.

The reality is that a new SSS would be a serious step down in most of the amenities mentioned previously. Yes, an atmosphere like Naperville last Oct. would be incredible. Just sell another 5000 tickets and the blue electricity will be there. {Psst, getting the Samba band to return wouldn't hurt either!!!}
[/soapbox]

 

Would that be Hunt Sports' profit, taxpayers profit, or the overall positive Net Present Value of the project on its own cash flows?

If it's the latter, please explain how $xM invested will translate to profit. "Profit" being defined by more money made than spent after converting all future cash flows to today's dollars (NPV). If you can't, I can. Take 15,000 times $11. Let's say you can do that consistently over 18 games (KC did 13k attendance last year at a lesser average, so maybe). That's $3.3M. A stretch, but maybe. Parking, a NAT game and a big youth final and maybe you stretch $4M. The complex and land would be $30M now (at a bare minimum-see the cost of LA's new digs) plus millions a year on improvements to get it finished, plus money to run it. Sure youth programs might be a part of it but the main money will roll in from Wizards gate receipts and parking. With that math and interest, we are talking well over a decade in the most charitable of all worlds with unacceptably high risk. If simply building a SSS would make a franchise profitable, Hunt and everyone else would have them built by now. The real talent is getting the politicians to rubber stamp enough money to change the math and the risk. Hunt's a smart man and is looking for $20M+ math-changing dollars today, so you figure it out how "profitable" the above sounds in a vaccuum.

Truely, I'm all for a stadium most anywhere in KC that has the same amenities Arrowhead has and seats 20k. That just isn't the reality. Arrowhead is rediculously more comfortable and profitable when compared to any plan for a new SSS. But, it isn't when someone hands you 20 MIL.

 

As to OJ's assertions of the problem of being #2 and condemnation of grassroots marketing: I didn't condemn anything - If you want to work for free under the guise of group, glory, and community; fine, it's a choice well made. Just recognize what the reality is and what the true end goal of Hunt Sports is. Also be aware that when MLS takes off, when not if, the ticket prices and everything else will skyrocket. I'm not in a huge hurry to get there, we'll be there soon enough.

To #2:Like most things, it's only a lagre problem if you make it into one.

Sorry I couldn't entertain at the level you require.

Sticking with Blong's immaterial and petty theme introduced above...

So, if Hunt can lose the perma-lines (which isn't done yet, BTW) that would upgrade a HS stadium to professional level? Or if Dragon stadium had pristine grass that would somehow make it a better MLS home than Arrowhead overall? How about if Dragon had the exact same turf as Naperville with no lines whatsoever?

Please.

I understand my posts are longer and it's easier to get lost within them. Again, here's the main point of the thread. Take it in at your own pace...


Arrowhead is one of the better facilities in MLS when you consider the whole of the experience. Further, we in KC are lucky to have it.

 

Brings back visions of Digital, Preki, and Chung flying forward in the red striped blue at pace to the increasing intensity of the flowing samba beat. It seemed to magnetize pople directly after a turnover. The second KC got a midfield turnover it was a rush the other way. Then the previously quiet drums would come alive to demand your attention with a subtlety that at hit almost every sense. The rythyms at once captivated, forced you to the edge of your seat, and left you wanting more. The best thing about it is that you really didn't even notice how you were sucked in until the drums were gone. You want to know what "sexy football" is? KC in '96, my friends, was it. (2000 was great, but God what a boring team by comparison.) Yes, there was palpable atmosphere throughout the stadium in 96 and 97 (the '98 drummers were understudies and pathetic). Basically, it turned a May game into a late season feel. Can't really blame CJ for not getting them back. He wasn't here, didn't experience it, and has no idea. If I'm him, it's #1 on my todo list after the draft.

- Tooooot! This has been a recording --

I don't know if you can get rid of the cheap seats, though. I just saw an article on Dallas' seat prices for 2002: The suite seats were $35. Front Center was $24 and the low adult seat was $16. We'll find out if suburbia is willing to pay the higher dollar. In both of my two visits to the Cotton Bowl there were a couple thousand in the cheaper end zone seats-just as there usually are at Arrowhead. I doubt many of the dwellers in the Cotton Bowl end zone will travel North to suburbia and pay $6-7/ticket more for the privledge. I could be wrong, Chicago had increased prices and they packed thier small house at the end of the season, so maybe it will work. Still, Arrowhead isn't going anywhere and there is obviously a market for the "cheap seat" in KC.