Kansas City and AEG are working on getting a pro basketball or hockey team for the Sprint Center. That's what City Manager Wayne Cauthen told The Downtowners lunch club yesterday. He specifically mentioned the New York Islanders. I saved this shaky video from yesterday's dispatch.
Since the announcement that the Islanders booked an exhibition game at the Sprint Center, there's been a lot of talk about the team getting landlocked in Kansas City. A lot of people saw the exhibition game as a sign that Islanders owner Charles Wang was fed up with not getting a new or upgraded hockey rink in Long Island.
says the Islanders are bleeding $20 million a year in America's largest
sports market. The Islanders are the third most popular hockey
franchise in the market, trailing the New York Rangers and New Jersey
Devils. Forbes sees Kansas City as a real threat to steal the
franchise, thanks to the looming presence of AEG President and CEO Tim
Leiweke, who sits on the NHL's Board of Governors and, of course, runs
the Sprint Center.
But as Newsday
reported that the Islanders' lease with Nassau Coliseum prevents the
team from moving until 2015 -- that is, unless Nassau County agreed to
part ways. Don't count on it happening. "Legal experts say the lease
can't be broken by paying off the remaining years because the
prohibition, written as part of the 1985 lease and upheld by a Nassau
State Supreme Court justice in 1998, says the team's presence on Long
Island is what's important."
I called Neil deMause a couple of weeks ago. He's the author of Field of Schemes,
a Web site devoted to the ins and outs of stadium deals. He also lives
in New York. deMause told me that "everybody's freaking out" about the
possibility of the Islanders skating to KC.
"The tabloids are in at least in 50 percent panic mode," deMause said. "What are we going to do? This means we need to get an arena deal done. If that was the intent, then it's working really well."
But deMause added some clarity.
"You don't leave New York for Kansas City," deMause said. "Even in a
down economy, there's more opportunities to make money in New York.
"Maybe if Nassau Coliseum were literally falling down, and they felt
like we're not going to get anything, but they're pretty close to
getting deal in Long Island," he added. "It's just a matter of getting
the local government to sign off on some of the approvals. It's not
like there was $300 million gap or something like there was in Seattle."
At yesterday's Downtowners meeting, Cauthen again pushed the mistaken notion of waiting until the offseason to engage teams. deMause told me a couple of weeks ago that waiting doesn't make sense.
"I don't know why the offseason is some magic time," he said. "That's
really bizarre, but it certainly wouldn't happen for the fall. It might happen for the following year."
deMause questioned AEG's incentive for getting a team. At least Bruce Springsteen and AC/DC pay rent.
"They're not going to give this kinda sweetheart deal that a lot of
teams are going to want," deMause said. "You still
have the same problem that you've got the nice new building, but it's
still a smallish market and you still have the risk of teams like the
[Pittsburgh] Penguins just using Kansas City as a means of leverage on
their hometowns. Yes, hometowns are going to be a little less likely to
cough up a lot of money, but I don't know if that's much of a benefit."
deMause also shot holes in Cauthen's theory that having an arena ready
to go meant Kansas City was better positioned to swipe a team.
"The other problem of course is the the idea of come to Kansas City and
you'll be able to rake in all the revenues from the ad signage and the
luxury boxes and all of that is not that much of a benefit of
nobody's buying ad signage and luxury boxes. So it's a double
edged sword. It means that you don't have as much competition in the
arena building business but it also means that teams are at least
not in the immediate future going to be as eager to upgrade their
facilities because if nobody has any money, then the ability to charge
people more money isn't really a benefit."
Kansas City's best hope for getting a pro sports team for the Sprint Center is "a team that's already
at the end of its rope," deMause said. A team that's exhausted all of its options and
needs a new home. He suggested that the NBA's New Orleans Hornets might be
such a team.
"It's the one team that you actually have leverage because of your market size," deMause said. "Because you can say, OK,
we have an arena and you'd have to pay us some rent but at least you
wouldn't be in a city that's lost half of its population."
But any attempt to lure a team would be surely end up with the team pitting city against city to get the best deal.
Sounds like we're a long way away from seeing a team in Kansas City.
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@Gamma82-The ironic thing is, the Devils STARTED in Kansas City in the mid-'70s as the Scouts (there was a layover in Denver too). And strangely, the biggest rumors of an NBA relocation were from Sacramento...where the Kings moved from KC in the mid-80s. Geez, people.
There won't be a third pro franchise here for a long time, if ever. Kansas City would be the smallest metro in the country with 3 teams. There's a reason markets our size only have 1-2--there isn't enough population to support them. The economy will recover, but even during boom times I didn't see this proposition working.
Here's what I want to know--aside from a small niche of people (including NHL 21), how many Kansas Citians are really itching for a third team anyway?
The Nassau Coliseum is a dump, but the Islanders biggest problem is their lease -- a previous owner gave away almost everything in the 1980s to keep the money from suites. It's a horrible lease that doesn't expire until 2015.
But the Isles also have a TV contract that runs well into eight figures and doesn't run out for another 20 years or so. It would be impossible to come within light years of matching that money anywhere else -- even if AEG gave away the store.
Expect the NHL to use KC as leverage, but don't expect an NHL team there. I suspect the folks there would prefer an NBA team anyway.
I am not an Islanders fan though I live on Long Island. My team plays their games in Madison Square Garden and they aren't going anywhere.
The only quibble I have with your article is saying the Islanders are the third most popular hockey team in New York. That honor by a long shot goes to the NJ Devils. The Islanders may be on a bad run of late, but they actually have a fan base.
If the Arena in Newark wasn't just opened and you were talking about the Devils going to Kansas City I don't think anyone in the New York Tri-State area would even notice.
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