Kansas City is Abuzz With Hockey-Related News

A day after the EPIC Kings-Pens overtime game that decided the best hockey team in the history of the world (or something), Kansas City has even more hockey news.  Even the KC Star is getting into the act, after the jump of course:



Randy Covitz sat down with Darth Leiweke (and presumedly KC mayor Slyyyy James).  Just a fun little interview talking about Kansas City hockey fans and the thrill of the crowd and all of that fun stuff...right?  Uh, oh no, no no.  Don't say that...

Via the KC Star's Randy Covitz:

“Kansas City can take its time,” said (Tim) Leiweke, whose company manages the Sprint Center, where an announced crowd of 17,779 saw the Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Los Angeles Kings 3-2 in an overtime shootout.“The key is you can chase a team, but you’re going to end up not making a great deal and maybe being disappointed. Or you can wait and not only try to find the right situation, but economically make the right deal.“We’re not chasing, and I love the mayor’s attitude, which is: ‘Under our terms.’ ”

Oh, that's not good.

“Right now there is not an urgency,” Leiweke said. “This building is doing phenomenal. When we began this process, if we would have known this building could stand on its own two feet and be one of the top five buildings (for concerts and family shows) without an anchor tenant, we would have been going around telling people, ‘If there is an anchor tenant that makes sense, we’ll get it, but we don’t need it.’“We’re fine without one, and we probably make more money without one. And the city makes more money without one. That said, if we can make the right deal and find the right team, I definitely think that’s what we have to do here.”

Uh, well, at least no one will freak out too much about this.  Nothing to see here, right?  Please tell me I'm RIGHT!!!!

Via CBS Sports

Via KC Star's Don't Kill the Mellinger

Via Yahoo! Sports Puck Daddy

Awesome.

Really, should we be too surprised by Timmy "Living a Lie" Leiweke's statements?  This is the same jargon that anyone and everyone close to AEG has said for the past two years.  Of course, it's good to see some members of the media and blogosphere reacting to such statements, but when does that become blown smoke?  The media can only be angry for so long, but, and I'm sorry to say, the best thing they can do is just keep being angry and mad until that one day the NHL comes to KC for some reason or another.  Is any news good news?  In this case as long as people in Kansas City are talking about hockey (even in a pessimistic light), then I will be happy.  It's unfortunate that everything reported by the media about hockey is usually panning Leiweke (although there is a reason), but as long as they feel slighted, then keep up the talk.  It good to keep the discussion going.  

So, the positivity train lasted about two hours after last night's game until Covitz's article came out online.  Good deal...

But, in other positive hockey news, there are a few special games coming to the area that you should know about if you don't already.

Initially reported by pucKChaser, the NCAA's 2012 Ice Breaker Tournament was formally announced yesterday and is coming to KC's Sprint Center October 12-13 2012.  You can learn more here, but the tourney will feature Nebraska-Omaha, Army, Notre Dame, and historical powerhouse Maine.

Also, if you stuck around after the game last night and watched the Mizzou-Kansas club hockey game, or even if you didn't, you get another opportunity on January 20th, 2012 at the Independence Events Center.  I have been to one of these Border WAR games in the past, and they are damn fun to watch.

Question: After more than four years of trying, what is Kansas City’s outlook for landing its own NHL team?

"I don't know"
--Luc Robitaille, current president and former player of the Los Angeles Kings.  AEG writes his checks.


Awesome.  Not a very encouraging Q&A by Randy Covitz on the KC Star's site today.  That line pretty much sums it up, although it's obvious Covitz was looking for more of an answer out of Luc.  KC needs an owner, it's hard to move NHL teams (but it's not--/laughing), KC needs to support the arena, yada, yada, yada.  The problem is no one has "stepped up royally" and we should all just deal with it.  It's the same old talk, but I am not sure what Covitz was looking to get out of the president of the Kings.  He knows hockey operations, he is not in on the day-to-day of AEG and Tim Leiweke.  Yes, he was in charge of finding a team for the building back in 2006-07, but he is far removed from any business dealings with KC.  His team is coming for a preseason game because the ownership group and a bunch of other people thought it was a decent idea from a marketing standpoint.  Oh, and it is.  Find a decent sized market with no rooting interest and saturate the market.  This will be the third Kings preseason game in KC.  The St. Louis Blues have played in four, they are closer, they appear on local TV occasionally, but they are by no means the Missouri's team.


Covitz asked decent questions, but he asked them to the wrong guy.  Robitaille can only answer based on trends he has seen around the league and hearsay that may or may not be true about Leiweke's motivation to bring a team to the city.  Take it for what it is; a piece by the media to show they are still looking out for the city's interests.  Also, that Luc cannot truthfully answer these questions even if he did have all of the answers.







But, he said this on the topic of tickets sold for the preseason game, which I do not believe.

"We have over 10,000 tickets sold. … We expect to sell out the game. We expect nothing (less). We expect people to come to the game and make this building alive …”

10,000 tickets?  Really?  It has to be corporate or group seats.

But I can't stay mad at him...

“I don’t think you’re being used. You have the best option. Look at North America. Is there another arena that is better than (the Sprint Center)? A city better than this? You have the best options. It’s really hard to move a team. The (New York) Islanders still have to figure out to do their deal … their lease is up in 2015. If that doesn’t happen, what city will take the burden to build a new arena and take the risks they did here? There’s a reason every concert wants to come here.”

Gasp!  Lucky loves us!  *swoon*


Now watch him hit some dingers!