It’s not easy being an icon, let alone a fast fading one…
Unfortunately that appears to be the case with both the American Royal and now its fabled World Series of Barbecue.
Once upon a time – you know the drill, a long time ago – the American Royal’s annual horse and livestock shows at Kemper Arena in the West Bottoms by the old stockyards was a really big deal. Local civic leaders and businessmen from all walks of life participated and the auctioning of it grand champion steer was front page news.
And its nearly 70 year-old Belles of the American Royal (BOTAR) debutante ball was right up – almost – with the town’s vaunted Jewel Ball.
Then in 1980 a handful of amateur barbecue teams got together to cook out, get hammered and strut their smoked meats skills and it took off and became an annual event, with packed crowds and ridiculous traffic jams on Friday nights when locals flocked to opening night.
That was then.
By the early 2000s though Union Station honcho George Guastello – then with the American Royal – could see the handwriting on the wall, and began bringing in touring musical acts like Ike Turner to liven things up.
Unfortunately for the Royal (and fortunately for Guastello) he landed the Union Station gig and the handwriting was on the wall. The concerts went away, along with what remained of the buzz, and by the time the bbq moved to the Kansas Speedway, it was game over.
How bad was this year’s World Series of BBQ?
“Devastatingly bad,” says a 39 year-old professional who took his young son. “It was dismal at best. They had a band there with maybe 20 people watching it.”
Was it at all crowded?
“No, it felt like there was no energy there – it was dead – outside of the teams competing. And this was on a Saturday night during what you would think would be a peak time. There were maybe 400 people there.”
Wasn’t always that way…
“I had a good time 10 years ago when it was down in the bottoms. They had absolutely great energy back then.”
As for the contestants handing out free tastes, “No, unless you went there with a group that you knew. Unless you wanted to eat at one of those food trucks that looked like they were selling street meat.”
Was it at all crowded?
“No, it felt like there was no energy there – it was dead – outside of the teams competing. And this was on a Saturday night during what you would think would be a peak time. There were maybe 400 people there.”
Great article Hearne. Your dipshit 39 year old professional went the wrong night. The event was Friday night, not Saturday night. No wonder there were only 400 people there. You really shouldn’t say the event is on it’s “last legs” when you go the wrong night.
The wrong night?
Only two nights a year – the second being a Saturday – and it was the “wrong” one?
Maybe they should cut it back to just Friday based on that thinking.
BTW nice touch calling a clean-cut, successful businessman and father a “dip shit” because he didn’t do enough research to go on the night that 800 people showed up despite that they had to buy “street meat.”
In my opinion what has hurt the American Royal BBQ has been all the competition it faces. Back when it first started they were about the only ones having a BBQ competition and it was a cool thing to go see and enjoy. Once everyone saw what was going on they all jumped on the band wagon and you had every city and county fair for hundreds of miles around having a BBQ competition of their own and sometimes more than one in this area you could attend. People grew tired and semi bored with it all simply because the AR BBQ was no longer unique. It’s all the same cuts of meat and just how many recipes for a sauce can there be? Holy Moly, as a judge could you sit there and say whose was the best when they probably are all making some really good BBQ. Over exposure is what I think has hurt the AR BBQ contest not it’s location.
He shoots, he scores!
Super Dave serves up a super slice of good, old-fashioned common sense.
I have to follow up on table steaks comment…
First of all, I’m going to pretend that I don’t suspect that you’re a ringer for the AR and/or the bbq contest.
Because it’s highly unlikely that you did anything approaching a crowd count.
I will say that in the event’s peak years – very early on when the novelty had yet to wear off – Friday night was the “big” night. People crawled down 12th Street to the West Bottoms in a kind of “thing to do after work” mindset.
What they – and I – discovered was that the myth of wandering around and mooching free bites from the competitors was just that – a myth. So you were stuck back then – in the pre food truck era – with buying crummy vendor food from companies that paid for the right to be there.
The net result being that you wandered around aimlessly unless you bumped into someone you knew, ate mediocre to bad food, had zero entertainment and watched a bunch of drunk dudes grill meat.
Sound like unto you?
If that does, well, I would say you’re easily entertained.
No offense…I find boring stuff fun too from time to time.
NBo way though are we to believe that as a neutral party at the event you would be moved to calling someone you don’t even know a “dip shit.”
Seriously, very classy.
Oh I forgot Hearne. You are never wrong. You write all of your articles with a preconceived agenda. When you are called out for inaccuracies, like the embarrassing fact you are calling an event dead based on a single person reporting attendance on the wrong night, you don’t like it. Like they say, don’t let the facts get in the way of a good story. I am sorry for calling your professional friend the dipshit as he is just your source. The unprofessional author of this misleading story would be the true dipshit.
Drove by on Saturday…No lie, a dead animal on State Ave overpowered the smell of ANY barbeque coming from the Royal.
I guess that pretty much sums up the current state of the AR, doesn’t it?
The ARBBQ started its downward slide when it moved from the West Bottoms to Arrowhead. That in itself wasn’t the real reason. But when they moved the event from the traditional first weekend of October to other times, including Labor Day weekend last year, many of the local teams bailed, and so too did some of the top national teams because Labor Day weekend already had two huge national BBQ competitions across the country. Hence the reason they went from about 600 teams to less than 450 last year. This year, it was 467, likely because they moved the date (again) to away from Labor Day weekend.
Not only that, but the folks running the ARBBQ have turned the event into a huge money grab. They overcharge the teams for anything and everything. Prices for the spaces have increased 2-3 times what they were about 10 years ago. The teams that are going out there to compete, but also have a good time are getting priced out. A small party (maybe 100-150 people stopping by your area) on Friday night, an even smaller party on Saturday and competing can run a team $3,000-$5,000. Divide that by the number of team members and it can be an expensive event. These teams are going to other smaller events in the region the same weekend.
Good riddance to the ARBBQ.
A big thank-you to Jayhawk Tony for breathing some reality and shedding some light on the situation.
Regardless of how you may feel, for the above reasons and others, it’s obvious that the World Series of BBQ is on a serious downslide.
Can or will anybody save it?
Seems to me they need to hand the event off to the city or some independent organization that can ramp it up in the direction Guastello was heading a la Memphis in May.
As a member of a BBQ team that has participated for 21 years now, I support everything stated here. It has become a money grab, teams have stopped participating because the date keeps moving around and there is nothing to do for the general public. We have one of the larger parties, which is a private party (400 attendance at a cost of $30,000) so teams cannot afford to feed the general public. A car show, handful of food trucks and local music fest (or tribute bands) is not a reason to come down. Many teams will hand out samples after the competition portion of the event, but I am guessing the general public does not know that. My team is seriously considering not coming down for our 22nd year.
Sorry to hear that, Doug…
Hey, if you don’t mind, I’d like to dig into this a little deeper on a larger scale. Please email me at hclw@earthlink.net
My beef ( pun intended) with the AR BBQ is the quasi public nature of it. Is it a private event or not? What is a member of the general public supposed to do if they go? What do you do if you don’t know anyone that has a team? As a commenter above mentioned, you:
“wandered around aimlessly unless you bumped into someone you knew, ate mediocre to bad food, had zero entertainment and watched a bunch of drunk dudes grill meat.”
Not a very enticing event to plan to attend, or plan your weekend around.
That’s pretty much where I’m at on the subject, Harry…
Like probably most people, I went because of the hype – and unlike a lot of people – I either knew or was in a position to recognize a lot of people because of my job.
I wanted to like it; I respected it as a Kansas City treasure, if you will.
But once George Guastello exited and the entertainment went south, what was there to do?
Wander aimlessly and buy commercial bbq from vendors.
The only way to make this thing continue to work was to do what Memphis did and incorporate it into a larger scale event with tons of live entertainment in a hip, fun location. None of which is now the case and given the plethora of bbq events in the region…and leave us not forget when the splinter group bailed a handful of years back and put on an event that didn’t quite make it.
So like the American Royal, poor planning and poor leadership is costing KC what was once – however fleetingly – an iconic event.
Too darn bad.
Which by the way has zero to do with Friday night versus Saturday or crowning a respected local individual a “dip shit” for merely making some observations.
Let’s be honest what killed the American Royal was when the Future Farmers of America moved their National Convention to Louisville, KY.
Well, that certainly looks like it was at the very least, the beginning of the end, Ned.
The entire American Royal is dead. Why prolong the funeral.
That’s pretty harsh, but it’s also hard to argue with…
So why not “spin off” the bbq before it turns to nothingness and see if it can’t be built upon and saved?
When Cerner honcho Neal Patterson blew taps that was pretty much the last hurrah. Although he’d all but thrown in the towel when the Royals stepped aside for the sports dudes to take over Kemper – that move had white flag written all over it…sadly, I guess.