I'm ready to admit two things: first, that professional sports are all about the money; second, that Kansas City, for all its history, beautiful places, wonderful people, and smoking-hot barbecue, is a small market. In college sports, it's the twelfth largest; in professional sports, however, it remains small beans. Nothing needs to be said about the Royals. For all the talent in the farm systems, for all the clever management of Dayton Moore, the Royals are still at the bottom. Perhaps not for long, but to say that the Royals will ever become perennially successful is a long shot. Baseball's just not set up that way.
The Chiefs have a fan-base with a never-ending supply of ignorant optimism based on self-deception. They, too, suffer from being a small market team.
Because of this, Kansas City as a whole suffers from a common misconception on the part of the rest of the world: we must not care about sports, music, or general entertainment.
And yet, Kansas City and her suburbs have some of the highest entertainment spenders in the country. If you don't believe me, you haven't visited Johnson County, KS, where no one eats a meal at home.
When bands come to town, the Sprint Center is packed. I've seen Pearl Jam, Bruce Springsteen, and if the fates allow, the Foo Fighters. All of these concerts (I'm assuming this for the Foo Fighters) were sold out, standing-room-only shows.
I'm guessing (and this is just a guess here) that Kansas Citians, just like New Yorkers, Los Angelians (?) and Chicagoites (I'm just making things up at this point) enjoy entertainment on a big stage.
What is currently bigger than the UFC?
After just signing a deal with Fox, UFC is soon to become a household name, and for good reason. The amount of young talent, mixed with the faces of the UFC (legends like Anderson Silva, Georges Saint-Pierre; veterans like Forrest Griffin, Rich Franklin; up-and coming phenoms like Jon Jones) have already made it one of the fastest growing sports in the United States, if not the world.
UFC is not going away, and is becoming a legitimate, rule and points-based combat sport, and is blazing a path despite undeserved negative press from good-ol'-boy sports writers. Boxing is dying, and I say the faster the better; there are extremely technical strikers within the UFC already, strikers who develop a complete martial-arts game in order to be competitive.
UFC will eliminate boxing within ten years. Guaranteed.
Given the UFC's rise in notoriety, the contract with Fox, and the face time it's been receiving from the media despite their obvious bias towards the sport, it's time to spread out to smaller markets...markets like Kansas City.
The Sprint Center is a smaller arena compared to others in the nation. It's a more intimate venue despite its large capacity. Where other mega-arenas manage to pack thousands into the stands, the Sprint Center combines smart design with a smaller size to create an intimate, state of the art arena in the middle of blossoming downtown Kansas City.
The venue itself is perfect for a UFC event. There wouldn't be a bad seat in the house.
Located outside the Sprint Center is a vibrant, renovated downtown area, the Power and Light district. Full of restaurants, bars, and clubs, it's the perfect place to set up a pre-UFC fan expo (or Crown Center for that matter) and a pre-fight party that will bring in money hand over fist for business owners in the downtown district.
If there is an event, even a smaller card, the fans will show up. Guaranteed. Even people who have yet to become fans of the sport will show up just to say they were there. These people, more likely than not, will become the newest fans of the UFC, and they will tell their friends about the experience. There is nothing like watching a good fight with a couple of buddies, and there's nothing like talking fights afterward. It will boost fan numbers; it will boost pay-per-view numbers. It will be good for Kansas City, as it will be good for the UFC.
I'm not asking for a title defense, or even a stacked card. I'm asking for an event. I, for one, will be there.
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