I don’t know 810WHB Sports Talker Kevin Kietzman but I don’t like him.
His mostly cheerleading fan boy sports perspective misses the point that pro-sports in Kansas City has always been about mediocrity and money grabbing from tax payers in KC Proper. I’m guessing the dude lives in JoCo since he’s a Shawnee Mission North/K-State grad and from his overall jocular on-air persona aimed at impressing the d-bags who closely follow Kansas City Sports in order to distract themselves from their lives of quiet desperation.
Again and again, Kietzman misses the political and socio-economic impact of pro-sports in Kansas City and actually wastes time thinking about what happens in these mostly meaningless games. That’s probably because pro-sports funding and coverage in this cowtown represent a wide-scale endorsement of the status quo which keeps dudes like Kietzman in business. To to be fair, Kietzman did take on a Union debate regarding the Stadiums earlier this year and was spun into a tizzy by political operatives and paid lead on fan boys like him. But at the end of the day most of his reporting on the subject was inconsequential and turned out to be nothing but Union muscle flexing with the help of his microphone.
Still, Keitzman missed the real Stadium Tax rip off. And pretty much like every other JoCo resident,
looper
Points 1, 3 and 4 are basically the same point, which actually has nothing to do with the Sports Complex itself. The teams suck right now. We know. But I’m surprised you don’t see that you have something in common with all the people out at Arrowhead rooting for a lost cause.
Point #2: If you had to go all the way to Deadspin to find someone who doesn’t like Royals Stadium, that speaks for itself. The vast, vast majority of sports fans, both in and outside KC speak very highly of the Sports Complex. In an era when ashtray-shaped, multi-use stadiums were the norm, we absolutely lucked out. Sure, Royals Stadium is pointed at the highway for some reason and is a knockoff of Dodger Stadium, but it could have been much, much worse. Like old Busch Stadium worse.
Hey, but I do like that you keep using the phrase “in the final analysis” in your posts… makes it sound like you used facts and stuff. Brings a smile to my face.
d
Deadspin wrote about Kauffman Stadium because they are doing a series title “Why Your Stadium Sucks”. Each week they will write about a different stadium. And eventually every stadium will have a report on why it sucks.
The opening line describes Kauffman Stadium as “a wonderful baseball venue”. It actually got a good review, considering the source.
C
Another rant against the ‘haves’ from a do-not. Did Kietzman turn you down as a guest on his show Tony? Let me know how JoCo benefits from Arrowhead and the K…not as much as KC proper does.
You’ll find any excuse you can to rant against Johnson County and the white man. It’s not a crime to be white and in JoCo.
smartman
If the KCMO school district didn’t suck whitey wouldn’t flee to the burbs. If JOCO wasn’t conveniently located next to JACO and WYCO it’d be like Hutchinson or Goodland. It’s not a crime to be white and live in JOCO but maybe it should be. The JOCO Milfs and Cougars still flood into the hood when they’re looking for some REAL satisfaction.
C
Stupidman,
Wrong. And your ignorance shows big time when you compare Hutchinson to Goodland.
Jealous much? Go to your corner and put on your little racist dunce cap with Tony.
jojo
for the first time i agree with tony. Not because
he can’t understand the real value of sports…
but because we agree that these stadiums were
choked out of the taxpayers by the conmen owners
who basically said fix the stadiums or we’re moving.
If the teams were playing well there would be no
concern on the partof people about the waste of
money that was sucked from jackson county
taxpayers.
KC is a dead town. It’s dying. It has mortgaged
it’s future and bet on a bad deal. The mayor/the city council/the county/the politicians/the free loaders/the conmen/the
thieves/the vultures have all gotten their money
and now they are moving on.
Union station will die. P and L will eventually
end up like bannister mall…dead because the
hoodlums took it over and destroyed the
overall experience. Downtown, despite the p and
l is dying. It’s still a ghostown. The plaza
is also hurting. Sales figures are way off and
the economy could finally make the plaza a lost
dream. JOCO continues to grow and more money
stays there as shoppers and buyers head out to
the newer developements to buy thier overpriced
goods.
KC is in a ditch. Someone needs to save it. The
great city that we grew up in quickly becoming
a haven for poor financial decisions.
Reckoning is coming. Bills will eventually come
due and kc will probably fall under the weight
of debt that was built up for the last 10 years.
Kemper and the otrher facilities will fall short
and conventions will move elsewhere. Companies
will leave downtown and head to the suburbs where
cities will allso go into debt to bring in another employer.
The state line has killed our city. Its divided
the money and growth from the tattered remains
of a once vibrant city. JOCO and wyandotte county will scavenge the few remaining projects
that could save kc and all the money will flee
to the suburbs.
It’s a sad day. Tony…i hate your commentaries
but kc is sinking. And right now there appears
noone who can save it.
CM
To paraphrase Tony’s own words:
I don’t know Tony, but I know I don’t like him.
I agree that the money spent on the Truman Sports Center for renovations was a waste of money. They should have made the teams pay for their OWN stadiums and not used taxpayer dollars. But who’s fault is that? Joco? No one put a gun to the head of Jackson County voters. They voted for it, and they got it.
Also, here’s a newsflash: Kietzman is the host of a SPORTS TALK radio show. Of course he’s going to talk about sports, and he’s going to talk about the stadiums. Why is this so shocking? He doesn’t miss the socio-economic impact – he just doesn’t talk about it because it’s a SPORTS SHOW. By the way, Kietzman was actually AGAINST the renovations, and pushed for a new baseball stadium downtown, which would help downtown and create jobs.
Plus, I still can’t understand how anyone in Jackson County could get angry about RICH Joco citizens driving across the state line and spending TONS of money on entertainment. Does Jackson Co. not want out-of-state money? Would they prefer Kansans to keep their money in Kansas? Maybe KC could save some money by shutting down their tourism bureau if they are so against non-Missouri money.
Tony is uninformed. By the way, doesn’t he have his OWN blog where he can spew his dumb comments and pictures of slutty women?
the birdman
Tony, you are a minority? Gosh, I hadn’t heard…
kc rush
Spot on CM, I couldn’t have said it better myself.
jojo
Tony…I know many many fine upstanding, successful, hard working, family oriented,
articulate, and honest latinos in the kansas
city area…and you ARE NOT ONE OF THEM.
dean
Its “could NOT care less”, you dumb-ass.
MandDshagger
Hey C….get a sense of humor. Every big city has an interloper problem, and that’s not the best way to state it. People in NJ and CT bop into NYC for world class culture and food and then bop back to their white picket fences. KCMO’s problems have to do with a lack of leadership. Unfortunately KCMO has been providing some major lifestyle amenities that make places like OP, Lees Summit, Kearney, etc more “live-able”. I think that bi-state taxes are BS since there will never be agreement on who gets the money and how it’s spent. KCMO has made some bad development decisions and to smartmans point the school district sucks. If KCMO had quality schools and did a better job of attracting new employers and giving people some incentive to live in KCMO instead of the burbs we wouldn’t have this problem. Whether it’s fair or right doesn’t matter. KCMO does shoulder a big burden for the metropolitan area. It’s also bullshit that people like KK spount off propaganda about things like the Sprint Center. No one with any real intelligence thought that we would get an NBA or NHL team. That’s not being negative that’s being realistic. When you tell all of your listeners, most of whom are not really in tune politically or economically, to vote for something that serves your personal interest and not the interest of the community as a whole, that’s bullshit. It’s no different than health care or the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. When personal ideology trumps common sense you’re on a path to self destruction. All the local media, led by The Star shoved the downtown development down our throats. Did something need to be done, yes. Did KCMO do the right thing, no. KCMO is in deep trouble as a result of poor leadership and there isn’t anyone on the radar screen who can lead us out of this mess.
Coyote
Why didn’t you just type, “I don’t like sports or people who like them!” Then you wouldn’t have wasted your and our time.
Old Man Kissel
Looking back we should have built a new downtown ballpark for the Royals, (A team we already have) in stead of building the SC.
Maybe if we did that the problems with the P&L District might not be happing.
810 scoops 610 once again!
Ross
You just recycling 2006 material for use on this site?
That was poorly reasoned and poorly written. You’re an embarassment to UMKC.
Gavin
I always hesitate to click on Tony’s columns because I really wnat to avoid driving up his page views. But I couldn’t resist this one. Normally I disagree with Tony but have to concede he is mostly spouting off his own opinions, frequently ill-informed as they may be. But usally he tends to at least get the FACTS correct when he writes his angry screeds.
Not this time. First of all, as someone above already pointed out, Deadspin did NOT hate the upgraded Kauffman Stadium. While Deadspin has been doing a series about “Why Your Stadium Sucks” for every major league baseball team, in their piece on The K, they go out of their way to compliment the stadium. It was the team they trashed, as well as certain elements of the fanbase. So now I am forced to wonder if Tony has a problem reading the works he cites or if he just has a problem with reading COMPREHENSION. Or maybe he just figured that on one else knew how to use the interweb and check out the Deadspin article themself.
Second, and I can’t believe I’m doing something that looks like defending Kietzman, but Tony, again, gets the facts completely wrong. Do you employ a fact checker, Tony, or are you supposed to do it yourself? Ff you are DIY, please return the check you receieved for this post immediately because you really fucked it up. Kietzman was HUGELY against updating Kauffman Stadium. He railed agaisnt it over and over. If you don’t believe me, ask Greg Hall. Kietzman was ALWAYS talking about the benefits of a downtown stadium. In fact, he is still doing it even now. He constantly played up the ostensible benefits to downtown and the city center. Now, you may disagree with him and it’s clear you don’t want to have any sort of taxpayer funded stadium projects, but you can’t say that “Kietzman misses the political and socio-economic impact of pro sports inthe city” when that was one of the main reasons for him not supporting updating Kauffman to begin with.
And, as has been mentioned before, no one held a gun to Kackson County’s collective head. You guys didn’t have to vote for the stadium improvements, but you did anyway. But you did it without Kietzman favoring those improvements and, in fact, arguing vociferously against them.
I don’t know Tony, but given his petty and cartoonish bigotry, I doubt I’d like him very much. But I know that he can’t hack it as a journalist when he can’t even perform the simple act of verifying whether his factual statements are accurate.
Hearne, you gotta dump this guy. I don’t mind controvesy. In fact, I like it, even when I disagree with someone. But for someone to have this platform and use it to spout such glaring misstatements of fact is something that is more than mildly disconcerting.
Big Ole D
this is probably the dumbest article i’ve ever read. do you really consider yourself a journalist? oh, you’re latino…well congratufuckinlations. nobody gives a shit. keitzman is a loser, so are you.
Jigga
JoJo…do you do anything besides comment on these horrible articles. You know, like do you have a job? Are you gay? See you at Sidekicks tonight. Your turn to bring the jimmys.
rick
concur with Big Ole D. Last time I even glance at anything written by Tony. Time is to valuable.
John Buckshot
Gavin, you said “Kackson County.” If you replace “Ka” with “Co” that’s where I took your mom.
Boy Stinkem
….heh..heh..heh….Buckshot said cock… ha..ha..ha…ho..ho..hoooooo
Dexter Morgan
Holy shit, this is the best that this Tony fuck can do? I thought this site was staffed with people who had sense and knew how to write. What a piece of garbage this is.
First and last time I ever click on this uneducated hack’s name here.
Bill
My god Tony is consistently just a big cup of fail. What a horrible, horrible writer…who puts almost no effort, logic, or research into his stories. Honestly I cant think of too people more alike in their idiocy than Tony and Kevin Kietzman. Both blow hards who throw shit against the wall just to see if it will stick.
Wyco
To say Keitzman is a “stat geek” is an insult to us stat geeks.
His stat knowledge is woeful…WOEFUL.