With talks of the Royals moving downtown popping up, another hotly debated topic has reared it's head once again as well, the prospect of Kansas City getting an NBA team. The selling points are there, as the T-Mobile Center has housed NBA and college basketball games before, PNL would be an excellent atmosphere for pre and postgame activities, and there's a genuine public interest. However, the question that runs through everyone's mind is not about the fan interest, but rather the financial feasibility of buying an NBA team for the Kansas City area. What would be needed from the public? How much would it end up costing the city and possibly the state too? All questions that would need to be answered before any sort of idea gets off the ground. Kansas City is a top prospect if the NBA decides to expand, of which they've expressed interest in doing so over the next few years, but there would need to be a solid base here first.
In my opinion? With what we have going on in terms of the Chiefs and Royals, an NBA team may not be in the cards if the Royals move downtown. As it stands now Jackson County and Independence both pay for the Truman Sports Complex, if the Royals were to move downtown that would mean Kansas City proper's tax dollars would go towards the new downtown stadium, making it harder to fund an NBA team. They would have to happen separately, otherwise you risk digging a hole in the budget and paying back a LOT of money. It can be done, but frankly we don't want to end up like Oakland where too many projects at once are going on and it ends up tanking public support because of tax increases, or even losing our teams due to lack of funding/public support. I think if KC and business owners that want these things to happen try and do too much, we could do more harm than good throwing another wrench into it. As much as an NBA team would be fun, I think we need to focus on the clubs we have here currently, stalwarts of KC culture such as the Chiefs and Royals. Not to mention, but there's a certain basketball team at the college level that plays really well and is right down the way (that sometimes plays at the T-Mobile Center) which also makes an impact on this decision. In the end, on paper it's a fun idea, but it's much, MUCH easier said than done. Who knows, maybe Mayor Lucas and the business people of Kansas City will pitch this amazing idea that will garner tons of public support and it all works out, let's just say it didn't happen for Oakland when they tried the same thing however...
Burn Notice: 6/10 A small ember, but could develop into something greater...
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