Tuesday, August 2nd is a big day for Kansas City in the polls. Arguably one of the biggest votes ever in KC is on the table – a new downtown arena. I, Seth Gunderson, am in favor of this idea (along with a new downtown baseball stadium) and think the city really needs it. The arena will be home to a couple of Big 12 Tournaments, probably some NCAA Tournament stops, hopefully a new NBA or NHL franchise, and will be located right next to the new Power and Light Entertainment District.
Unfortunately, there are those who oppose building an arena. Why? Well, they say it's because the tax-payers of Kansas City will end up paying for the arena. I'm not exactly sure how that will work, since the arena tax is a Hotel and Rental Car tax. Unless we Kansas Citians are paying for all of our out-of-towners to come here, stay in a hotel and drive around... then no, we won't be paying for it.
The opposition goes on to say that people coming to stay in KC won't want to pay those taxes. First of all, a majority of people coming to KC come here for business, so the tax doesn't matter. And secondly, NO ONE wants to pay taxes, but we do.
Here's the thing. The opposition is being led by Enterprise Rent-A-Car. Enterprise is based in St. Louis, MO. Oddly enough, St. Louis is very upset that we're about to build an arena, because they want an NBA franchise in their city. Enterprise, the main face in the opposition, has now put forth approximately $687,000 towards the anti-arena campaign. Another odd thing... the PR firm that is assisting Enterprise is Fleishman-Hillard, also a St. Louis-based company. So, is it Enterprise and Fleishman that don't want this arena built... or is it St. Louis?
I'm not going to tell you how to vote. I just want you to go and vote. But before you do, make sure you know the facts behind the arena vote!
+ original post date: August 2, 2004 09:20 AM
+ categories: KC
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