The Jackson County Sports Complex Authority and the Kansas City Chiefs hosted tours of Arrowhead Stadium on Saturday, March 25th. Acccording to the KC Star, attenders were shown cracking concrete, failing plumbing, aging electronics, narrow concourses, inadequate restrooms and other problems. Amazingly, the KC Star focussed on the the problems at hand and not the real driver behind the save our stadiums campaign. Once again, this group used the smoke screen of real problems to pass a tax hike to expand their facilities and make more revenue for themselves. I wonder if the tour sponsors took the people to see what they are going to do on the Club level. I wonder if they took the tour attenders to see the new suites, the new and improved Arrowhead Club, or the new Training and administrative facilities. As the KC Star reports it, the tour attenders just saw the legitimate problems that need to be repaired. I think this tour was more of the same, a political parade of grandstanding and reported as an event for concerned citizens.

Looking at the Chiefs proposed "legitimate" upgrades is interesting, but it just does not add up. The Chiefs say that they need $38 Million for electrical upgrades while the Royals only need $3.4 Million for the same. If the stadium systems are close to the same age, why are the repairs at Kauffman Stadium less than 10% of those at Arrowhead? The HVAC repairs are almost the same story. The Chiefs are saying that it will cost them around $20 Million to address their HVAC woes, but the Royals only need about 20% for their HVAC repairs. Basically, what cost the Royals around $7 Million is costing the Chiefs $58 Million. This does not make sense.

Click here for the KC Star article