We're Pucked

Millionaire sports-team owners treat Kansas City like a mistress. They flirt with Kansas City. They call Kansas City's new arena pretty. They even tell Kansas City that they'd consider leaving their home cities for her. But it's all pillow talk.

In the end, the owners get newer arenas, better leases and a bigger chunk of arena revenues from their current homes. Kansas City gets left with an empty arena.

Thirteen months from now, Kansas City's $276 million Sprint Center arena is scheduled to open. It will anchor downtown's $850 million Power & Light District. The city entered into a public-private partnership with Los Angeles' Anschutz Entertainment Group, which will operate the arena. AEG is a sports-industry goliath, with connections at the top of the NBA and the NHL.

The place will look like a giant, sparkling-glass radial tire. Inside, it's being built to specs for pro hockey and basketball, with the hope of convincing a team to change addresses.

Mayor Kay Barnes and AEG officials have offered assurances that a major-league hockey or basketball team will call the Sprint Center home by next fall. Barnes has even suggested that Kansas City could lure both. AEG President Tim Leiweke promises the arena won't go empty. "I can assure you, there is going to be an anchor tenant," Leiweke told The Kansas City Starin May 2004.

Meanwhile, the Star has printed these repeated promises without asking many tough questions about them. Instead, the paper has trumpeted speculation about what cities might be poached, including Seattle and Orlando, Florida.

In fact, none of the teams mentioned as possible Sprint Center tenants are still publicly discussing hanging their jerseys in Kansas City.

Several factors have worked against Kansas City in its bid to land a team.

· Experts say Kansas Citians don't have enough income to support another franchise.

· Neither the NHL nor the NBA appears interested in Kansas City.

· The competition is fierce, with cities such as Las Vegas and San Jose, California, likely to outbid any offer from Kansas City.

· Most damning, no local millionaire or ownership group has expressed an interest in buying a team, something crucial to landing a tenant in the Sprint Center.

The reality may seem clear. But like victims of unrequited love, city leaders and AEG officials have stubbornly refused to admit that they're growing desperate. he story of how seven teams passed up Kansas City could foretell the future of the quest for a Sprint Center tenant.

The responsibility for finding a team belongs to AEG. The city struck a deal with AEG in July 2004 and hailed it as risk-free to taxpayers. AEG would cover construction cost overruns and operating costs. The city reportedly had an in with AEG; Herb Kohn, a senior partner at Bryan Cave, the law firm that helped the city secure its contract with AEG, is a friend of the Leiweke family.

The first rumored possibility came in September 2004. Movie producer Howard Baldwin talked about buying the NHL's Anaheim Ducks and moving the team to Kansas City. However, the Walt Disney Company sold the Ducks in 2005 to an owner who decided to keep the team in California.

Howard Schultz, owner of the NBA's Seattle Supersonics, threatened to move his team in February. Schultz, who also is the chief executive officer of Starbucks, put the Supersonics up for sale in April, and the Star suggested that the team could be a tenant for the Sprint Center. But no Kansas Citian with deep pockets stepped up to bid.

Instead, Oklahoma City businessman Clay Bennett bought the Supersonics and the WNBA's Seattle Storm in July for $350 million. Bennett chairs a group trying to lure pro basketball to Oklahoma City, but he has said he'll keep the team in Seattle — if he gets a new arena. The Kansas City Supersonics is a bust.

The New Orleans Hornets basketball team also looked ready to move a year ago. With that city's post-Hurricane Katrina economy wrecked and its population slashed, the Hornets needed a new place to play.

The Hornets considered a temporary move to Kemper Arena but ultimately chose Oklahoma City. But this summer, NBA Commissioner David Stern quashed any hope of the New Orleans Hornets moving. He said the Hornets will return to New Orleans for the full 2007-08 season. "It will happen," Stern told the Associated Press in August.

Rumors that the NBA Kings — Kansas City's pro basketball team until 1985 — would exit Sacramento, California, died in July. The team's owners and Sacramento County officials agreed to put a measure on that county's November ballot asking voters to approve a quarter-cent sales tax increase for a new arena. Even if voters reject the plan, the Kings are unlikely to cruise out of California because the team owns and operates Arco Arena.

In June, owner Paul Allen put the Portland Trailblazers on the market, leading to talk that the team could move to Kansas City. But without explanation, Allen took the for-sale sign down in August.

The Orlando Magic appeared to be a strong candidate. The team has a year-to-year arena lease. The Star reported that Magic officials contacted Kansas City in July 2005 about moving to the Sprint Center. But again, talk of a move to Kansas City or elsewhere became nothing more than a bargaining chip to get local officials to sweeten the pot to stay. Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer announced in August a $350 million plan for an entertainment complex that will include a new arena for the Magic.