http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/16/sports/16kc.html
Going to Kansas City? New Arena Waits, and Waits
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: March 16, 2008
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Shimmering glass panes cover the outside, more than 2,200 in all, reflecting sunlight and images of surrounding buildings like a huge upside-down crystal bowl.
Inside are dozens of flat-screen televisions around the concourses, oversized sinks and showers in the basketball locker rooms and an enormous smoker for the fans to enjoy Kansas City’s famous barbecue.
The new downtown Sprint Center is a world-class arena that has nearly everything. Only one piece is missing — and it may be the hardest to obtain.
“We’re just waiting on a team,” Brenda Tinnen, the Sprint Center’s general manager, said.
The $276 million Sprint Center opened Oct. 10 as part of an $850 million revitalization project in Kansas City’s Power & Light District.
The hope was events at the new arena would lure people back to downtown Kansas City, reinvigorating an area that has been deserted after dark for decades.
In all, the Sprint Center will have about 100 events its first year, including the Big 12 men’s basketball tournament, which is ending Sunday. It will is also be a site in the first two rounds of the N.C.A.A. tournament in 2009.
But for all the activity at the Sprint Center, it still lacks the financial foundation of an anchor tenant.
The arena can scrape by on concerts and Arena Football League games — the Brigade will play seven there this year — but an N.B.A. or an N.H.L. team means at least 40 guaranteed dates.
“The model seems to be pretty set in stone with owners A.E.G. being very successful and very comfortable, but I think over the long term we’re going to need a team to make the numbers work,” Kevin Gray, the president of the Kansas City Sports Commission and Foundation, said.
The N.H.L. seems to be Kansas City’s most likely candidate.
The Anschutz Entertainment Group is run by Philip Anschutz, the owner of the N.H.L. Los Angeles Kings and several teams in Major League Soccer.
But the problem is finding a team.
The Pittsburgh Penguins and the Nashville Predators flirted with Kansas City before deciding to stay in their current cities. The Florida N.H.L. teams have been on shaky financial ground, but no teams appear close to considering relocation.
Expansion, if it were to take place, would probably start in Las Vegas, with Canadian hockey hotbeds like Ontario and Quebec making hard pushes to land a franchise.
An N.B.A. team in Kansas City seems even less likely.
The Sonics are almost certainly headed out of Seattle, but they will probably end up in Oklahoma City.
The Kings may leave if a new arena is not built in Sacramento, but the team owners, Joe and Gavin Maloof, have strong ties to Las Vegas. And although the Hornets have struggled financially post-Katrina, N.B.A. Commissioner David Stern seems dedicated to making New Orleans work.
As for expansion, the N.B.A. seems more interested in creating a European division than adding teams in the United States.
“It’s a difficult proposition trying to lure a team,” said Andrew Zimbalist, an arena expert and economics professor at Smith College in Northampton, Mass.
The build-it-and-they-will-come theory has worked.
Nashville built a $156 million arena in 1996 and was awarded an N.H.L. expansion team two years later. St. Petersburg, Fla., opened the $110 million Sun Coast Dome in 1990 and landed baseball’s expansion Tampa Bay Rays, though it took eight years and $66 million in renovations to get it done.
New Orleans built an arena in 1999 and was able to lure the N.B.A.’s Hornets from Charlotte, N.C., in 2002.
Others have not had as much luck.
San Antonio opened the Alamodome in 1993 with hopes of landing an N.F.L. franchise. Although it was home to the N.B.A.’s Spurs for 10 years and will play host to the N.C.A.A. men’s tournament for the third time this year, plans for an N.F.L. team never materialized.
Des Moines; Little Rock, Ark.; and Omaha also have built professional-ready arenas. None have major tenants yet.
Oh my god, that last line kills me. Des Moines, Little Rock, and Omaha 
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