Speaking of sports…
Anybody out there remember the Kansas City T-Bones?
You know, the “professional baseball team” that migrated here in 2003 from Duluth, Minnesota to take advantage of the fact that locals were willing to pay good money to watch bad baseball. Provided of course the price was right and it was kid-friendly.
To that end, the T-Bones delivered in spades.
Even though the team got the name of KC’s famous steak wrong – it’s a strip not a T-bone – they made the tickets and food dirt cheap and the in-game promotions super silly.
For example, there’s a “party patio” with all-you-can eat “buffet style” food, beer and soft drinks for $32 a head. And for 20 bucks a year, kids 12 and under can join a club, get free temporary tattoos and free admission to every Sunday home game (then run the bases afterwards).
And while the Kansas City Royals were the laughingstock of Major League Baseball all those years, it kinda worked.
Never mind that the T-Bones are not even close to being a “minor league” ball club. The odds of a T-Bones player making the majors is dwarfed by the odds of them sacking groceries or riding a trash truck.
But who cares right, baseball is baseball?
Not anymore!
The Royals are USDA Choice hot now, and once again, baseball in Kansas City is about winning, not bad hotdogs and free fireworks.
Oh, but money does matter…
For example, after 17 years, the T-Bones’ Northern League folded in 2010 and now the T-Bones play in the American Association against teams like the Wichita Wingnuts.
And with only 6,500 seats to sell, it’s an uphill climb.
Because suddenly, T-Bones games no longer matter, if they ever did.
Parents who want to see bad baseball can simply watch their kids play.
Now Kansas Citians can attend Royals games that do matter or stay home and watch them on TV for free – where they still matter. And feed their kids far better hotdogs that cost way less than a buck.
The bottom line being, Kansas City ain’t Joplin.
Don’t get me wrong, Joplin’s on fire right now because for the first time since 1954 the city’s fielding a professional baseball team called the Joplin Blasters.
The Blasters played the team’s first home game this past Friday and kicked the Wichita Wingnuts butts by a score of 3 to 2.
However it was just an exhibition game, “the two teams will meet in a much more important contest in less than a week at Joe Becker Stadium to kick off the regular season.”
Seriously though, how much more important can it get?
Jop’s Joe Becker Stadium only seats 2,000.
BTW, New York Yankees superstar Mickey Mantle played there in 1950 before the stadium burned down for a second time in 1971.
Again though, Kansas City isn’t Joplin – Wichita even.
Kansas City’s a major league town, despite that we’ve been unable to attract the NBA or NHL team supporters of the Sprint Center all but promised we’d get if we abandoned Kemper Arena and sunk a couple hundred mill into a new downtown venue.
Mantle played for the Kansas City Blues when it was the New York Yankees top farm team, but those days are long gone.
Kansas City just took two out of three against the dastardly Yankees by a combined score of 19 to 6. And nobody here has even heard of the Joplin Blasters – nor do they care.
About the only person who does is the copy editor at the Kansas City Star who’s stuck making sure the results of the T-Bones game against Joplin tomorrow makes it into the newspaper.
I wonder if they’ll report the attendance?
Incredibly, the T-Bones say they drew over 5,000 per game in 2014 and more than 200,000 fans per season since the team’s inception.
Yet in 2013 KCK had to kick in $174,000 so the T-Bones could pay the mortgage on its ballpark. Then in order to keep the T-Bones chestnuts out of the fire, KCK stepped in and bought the ballpark to ensure “long-term tourism success.”
Seriously? Tourists come to KCK to watch the T-Bones play Wichita and Joplin?
KCK kept the deal secret though the T-Bones season because “public disclosure…could have hindered negotiations and affected the team’s ticket sales, especially if news surfaced of any financial difficulties,” KSHB TV reported.
Financial difficulties, the T-Bones?
It’ll be interesting to see if the Royals success affects the Bones. And if the influx of tourists from Joplin will be enough to offset any possible losses.
Stay tuned…
My guess is you can wright the same article about Sporting KC in the next year or two.
Does anyone really talk about them anymore now that the Royals are good?
You have a good point, Word, but…
With only 20,000 seats to sell and the corporate firepower, money and marketing muscle of Cerner behind them Sporting’s in fine shape and not going anywhere.
At some point in time, soccer will achieve at the very least, the status of basketball in this country and probably a whole lot more.
“At some point in time, soccer will achieve at the very least, the status of basketball in this country and probably a whole lot more.”
Said every soccer fan since 1974. Pele will save soccer in the US, Go Cosmo’s!!!!
Well, it has come a long way in a very short time, Word…
The Wiz debuted in 1996, I believe
add in a much improved chiefs and the sporting and t bones will be bombs!
kc is on a roll……..everyone loves a winner!
Sporting does need to field a more entertaining team than it currently does.
If they go back to playing like they were when they were at the T-Bones park, even those 20,000 crowd could thin out.
But no way lump them with the T-Bones, guys. Not even close.
Well, they have a season ticket waiting list and a sellout streak far longer than anything the Royals have done so I’d say you’re wrong.
Around 2001 the Chiefs had a waiting list a mile long as well. Now my email is filled with updates that tickets are still availible.
The truth lies somewhere in-between…
The reason Sporting is selling out is threefold.
The growth in this country of soccer, the power of the Cerner ownership group and the success of the team.
Unfortunately the latter has gone by-by and while that won’t spell overnight or long term doom, it won’t help.
The team’s fallback is how few seats are available.
yes…the growth of soccer is strong…but the growth
of the Spanish population has increased attendance
because that’s their national sport.
Was at a soccer match in l.a. 3 years ago with
former comets official….3/4 of crowd was
hsipanic…
and according to news…UNIVISION IS NOW
BEATING NBC/ABC/CBS IN VIEWERSHIP….
pretty simple to figure out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You should go to a Sporting game sometime Harley…
White dudes galore
fun well done! so stick a fork in it.
Aren’t we leaving out a hockey team in Independence? The real story, in the words of the fantastic Kansas City Mayor, Mayor Kay Waldo Barnes, was if we build it, they will come, and personally I got sick and tired of going to the Sprint Center to watch her bat the puck around alone on Monday nights. Even Sprint may not last long, coming to the Asian Continent near you soon.
Now, for the really big news, we return to the US Supreme Court that handed Maryland, land of riots and the Baltimore Oriole and Ravens the attention getter it needed, stating that it cannot double tax income derived in another state. And, pray, what does that mean to Kansas City? It means the earnings tax is toast, particularly for those souls who live in Missouri but work in the Jayhawk and Wildcat state of Kansas. Kansas City, Missouri cannot afford to lose the revenue, but it is actually worse than that. There are two other Supreme Court Cases that have affected Kansas City in terms of school funding, that now have the ability to really hurt. They are Davis versus Michigan and Beam versus Georgia. In the latter case, the US Supreme Court stated that unconstitutional laws were unconstitutional from their dates of passage, not their dates of declared unconstitutionality, and they ordered the states of Virginia and Georgia to refund years of taxes collected on an unconstitutional law. How old is the Earnings Tax, and how many years of tax have Kansas residents paid, working in Missouri? Can we say whoops?
Perhaps the Royals and Chiefs should move to Kansas.
Interesting stuff, Cowboy. Thanks for sharing. As a Kansas resident that works in Missouri, I look forward to my refund from the Show Me State. However when the Missouri residents look to Kansas for their refunds, I have to believe I’ll be getting the bill for that expenditure.
I used to go to a couple T-Bones games a year. It was a good way to spend a nice summer evening. I haven’t been back since I got Sporting season tix 4 years ago. That’s a better way to spend a nice summer evening.