Unfettered Letters

Kemper wastes taxpayers’ money

Mike Hendricks (12/12, Local) writes that Kemper Arena’s future looks grim.

Kemper Arena has been around as long as I can remember and, for at least the past few years, the place has been sitting empty.

Besides hosting the American Royal every year, the arena continues to sit vacant and lose millions of dollars, money that the taxpayers have to pay back.

The American Royal can be moved to a different location, since this is the only event keeping Kemper Arena open. We cannot have an arena that is costing so much money to keep open just sit there without any events taking place.

Even though Kemper Arena has been a part of Kansas City’s history, sometimes people are ready to move on to bigger and better things.

I think that is the case for the people of Kansas City.

Kristen Pflumm
Overland Park

Thanks, Sprint Center staff

I just wanted to give a big thank-you to the guest services people at the Sprint Center. We

bought tickets to the Eagles concert when they went on sale. Unfortunately, I fractured my

knee a few weeks before the concert. I’ve had to wear a knee brace and be on crutches, which

I’ve never been on in my life.

I was so concerned on how I was going to get around the Sprint Center on crutches, but the

guest services people were extremely helpful, making sure we got to our seats, checking on

me to see how I was doing and even escorting me out of the building after the concert and

staying with me until my husband picked me up in the car.

What a great staff. The whole experience was wonderful. And, by the way, the Eagles were

awesome!

Sue Travis

Kansas City

Sprint Center’s success

As a citizen of the metropolitan area, I realize that everything Kansas City, Mo., does affects us. I was interested in the Sprint Center because it was such a large undertaking. The Star’s article (7/30, A-1, “Fiscally, Sprint Center is rockin’; Revenue from local fees exceeds projections, and arena’s debt refinanced for $15 million savings”) containing facts about the Sprint Center’s success confirmed what I believed would happen.

I think Mayor Kay Barnes’ daring and leadership made this project work, and now we are all benefiting from it.

Shirley Smith
Gladstone

Praise for Sprint Center service

I attended Cirque du Soleil at the Sprint Center last Thursday night. Besides loving the event, we were completely impressed with how Sprint Center guest services handled my 80-year-old mother and her friend.

With one call to guest services on Wednesday there were two wheelchairs waiting at the disabled ramp entrance to transport my mother and her friend to our seats on the lower level. My husband and I were able to park without any worries.

After the show was over, the two Sprint guest services employees picked my mother and her friend up from their seats and took them to meet our car at the curb. It allowed all of us to enjoy the wonderful show. All of the employees we encountered were professional and cheerful.

We are going to certainly attend more events at the Sprint Center, knowing how accommodating they can be to the elderly. Truly impressive!

Jo Ann Mendenhall
Olathe

Sprint Center’s snug seats

What’s this nonsense about a shortage of space at the Sprint Center for the seats? (7/7, A-1, “Because of space limitations, it’s a tight fit at Sprint Center”) Seems to me that maybe they could have just installed larger, but fewer, seats. But oh, no, the money-grubbers didn’t want to lose any money on ticket sales, did they?

I think people who buy tickets for the smaller seats in the corners should get a discount.

Yeah, right.

Diane Capps
Kansas City

Sprint Center’s ‘tight’ seats

After calling it a “tight fit,” The Star revealed that seats in the new Sprint Center were 18 to 21 inches in width (7/7, A-1, “Because of space limitations, it’s a tight fit at Sprint Center”). The article cited government studies showing that the average American woman has a hip width of 19.7 inches.

This fact has apparently not yet reached the airline industry. Most U.S. airlines fly with seats 17.2 inches in width, even on international flights.

If folks find it tough to sit through a two-hour concert in Sprint Center seats, imagine spending eight hours in the air in a smaller seat with far less legroom. Flying has increasingly become a degrading experience. Why do we put up with it?

Peg McMahon
Kansas City

Why don’t people get off the Sprint Center’s back? It is an asset to the city. There is no way you are gong to please everyone, so just enjoy what we have.

The photo illustration you had in the paper with the two obese people, a tub of popcorn, purse and umbrella is not a good example of the seats. You can put things on the floor, and you have no right to complain about the seats when you are the one too large for the seat.

When are people going to start being responsible for themselves?

Donna Miller
Leawood

Feeling unwelcome in KC

I feel the Sprint Center and Power & Light District doesn’t welcome out-of-town spectators.

My husband and I live in Topeka and had to rush right after work to make it to the recent Bon Jovi concert, which began at 7:30 p.m. It was a scramble finding an exit off of I-70 that would lead us to the Sprint Center. No apparent signs directed us there. At 6:47 we found the Sprint Center but had trouble parking. There were numerous empty spots for valet parking, but where were the valet attendants?

By 7:25 we were standing in a long, congested line. Thirty minutes later, we had made it inside but missed the opening act.

After the show we hoped to have dinner, but none of the Power & Light District restaurants were serving food. We were back in Topeka at 12:39 a.m. heating up leftovers.

Shanna M. Dunn-Vigare
Topeka

Making memories downtown

Thanks to Jon Bon Jovi for helping us understand that, once in awhile, elected politicians get it right in the use of tax dollars and TIF money projects.

The intensity that Bon Jovi and his band displayed in their performance April 17 at the Sprint Center was something that my friends and I agreed comes along only once in a great while.

To say the concert was awesome is an understatement. That was what a lot of us further discussed over a couple of drinks at a bar called Howl at the Moon in the new Power & Light District that was built to complement our Sprint Center. We just didn’t want the night to end.

Thanks to Mr. Bon Jovi and thank you, former and current city officials, for a night we will always remember.

Barb Womack
Liberty

Judy Ludwig
St. Louis

Kelley Horst
Springfield

Special parking at Sprint Center

The Sprint Center has special suites that average Joes like me are helping pay for, since I have rented cars multiple times since the tax passed. I will never see these suites, which are occupied by companies that I will probably never know the names of.

I am sure these special suites have better seats than what I have gotten to sit in. I am sure these special suites have wider rows than what I have had to navigate through.

Now these same privileged companies will probably be getting special parking spots that I will not get to use (4/8, .A-1, “School board plans HQ sale; City is interested in the 11-story building for Sprint parking, an annex and a light-rail station”). But who is going to pay for their parking? I am sure it will be the average Joes.

It really makes me shake my head, wondering who our government is for. Everyone, or the privileged few?

Steven Thomas
Kansas City

Sprint Center blues

Anticipation to see the new state-of-the-art Sprint Center, for the wonderful Celtic Woman concert (3/30), was exciting.

Since this is a brand-new arena, you’d think there would be more than three stalls in the women’s restroom I was waiting for. The line was all the way down the hall, and the 20-minute intermission was not enough time to accommodate the number of women.

Another unpleasant surprise came when the main floor exit was barricaded at the end of the performance. Everyone seated on the floor had to climb at least 30 stairs to get to the second floor to take an escalator back downstairs. It was bad for some folks who were truly having a hard time breathing trying to make the climb. The exit plan was unbelievably insane.

It’s really too bad that this new center is so unwelcoming to Kansas Citians and visitors.

K. Schlegel
Olathe

We, too, visited the Sprint Center and were rudely stopped at the door because we were leaving with the collector cups we had purchased (3/29, Letters, “$8 down drain at Brigade”). We showed that they were empty, and the woman at the door continued to be rude, saying she didn’t know they were empty. Our fault, apparently.

But we’re curious about something. When the Sprint Center has the police arrest their guests for leaving with their purchased soft drinks, what city ordinance will be violated, and does McDonald’s Corp. know about this?

Cynthia Mancillas
Overland Park