Basketball from a fan’s perspective

The conundrum of sports palaces

By now most of you are aware citizens of Jackson County voted against the tax plan for a downtown Royals Stadium and additions to Arrowhead home of the Chiefs. This was not a close election the NO’s had far more votes than YES votes. Although this is not basketball related it borders on the difficulty of a city-county maintaining facilities for its sports teams. In December residents of Oklahoma City faced the same taxpayer question however citizens there voted in the affirmative.

Perhaps the fear of losing the NBA Thunder may have been a driving force behind the yes vote. I cannot go back in time for a true answer however it seemed owners were not making million dollar demands on citizens to fund the cost of stadiums and arenas. I’m sure a number of you are familiar with the term “Million-dollar stadiums (arenas) for billion-dollar owners.” Although the money amount individually is made to appear small it’s a perception issue for many. I located this information online, the Hunt family owners of the Chiefs have a net worth of $24.8 billion. Although small by comparison, CPKC stadium (11,000) purpose-built women’s soccer stadium was constructed with private funds. On a larger scale you might remember I wrote Chase Arena home of the Warriors was privately financed, Intuit Dome owner Steve Ballmer is assuming all costs for the Clippers. 76er Place the planned home of the Sixers is also to be built with private funds. In Kansas City and Jackson County this I believe occurred, the stadium plan was rushed without due diligence being applied to parts of it.

As proof almost weekly the Royals more so than the Chiefs would announce an addendum to the plan. Finally this jewel popped up, whether it was media driven I don’t know…” the Royals and Chiefs will leave unless this plan is approved.” Unrelated but I believe impacting the vote was an ongoing property tax issue. With this matter plus dissatisfaction with the stadium plan, city and county residents said an emphatic no with their vote. Although public financing votes can be contemptuous residents must be provided proof in advance the value they are to receive. An example might be our airport, KCI International now rivals (in my view) many of the other major airports across the nation. Taxpayers approved funds to build a replacement over the 1972 version.

A look ahead

It’s been a few days since UConn beat Purdue for the 2024 NCAA championship. Despite that fact several .com sites decided to look toward next season, that’s okay for me, it provides me with something to write. I read 247Sports, CBS, Andy Katz plus ESPN.com polls before writing this column. A number had Kansas projected at the top while another said Duke and a third placed Houston at the top. 

The rankings between team number 2 and team 25 contained a varied number of teams. As a reminder you might remember I once wrote polls are glorified beauty contest, they prove nothing until two teams face one another for the NCAA championship. As a reminder, the pre-season and opening week poll indicated Kansas was the number one team in the nation. Of course we know that’s not the finish projected last October. The final A/P poll list Kansas at number 19 while the Coach’s poll place them at number 21

Bits n Pieces 

Former NBA player Matt Barnes says Shaquille O’Neal could beat Wilt Chamberlain in a strength contest, that might well be true but first a Closer Look. 1980 is the year, that was the birth year for Barnes…keep that number in the forefront. Chamberlain retired in 1973, Shaq did the same in 2011, as you can see their NBA careers certainly didn’t lap over. Barnes began play in 2002 so there was no opportunity on his part to even compete against Shaq. Do you see how ridiculous this argument appears on the surface? We have one former player (Barnes) with no opportunity other than video to see either Chamberlain or Shaq in real time. I certainly have no idea how Barnes can conclude one player was stronger than the other, I fall into this trap every time but hopefully this will the last.

Is it the water or something else with the recent influx of tall Canadians? We’ve witnessed Zach Edey 7-foot 4 300-pounds during his time at Purdue especially the recently completed NCAA tournament. Most believe he is headed for the NBA in June. This next Canadian hails from Montreal and he’s even taller than Edey believe it or not, his name is Oliver Rioux. Did I say bigger, yes I did, he weighs about the same 300 pounds but he stands even taller at 7 foot 7. He’s enrolled at IMG Academy in Florida but headed for the University of Florida in the fall.

“I don’t like him” rolls off the tongues of a number of college basketball fans. They were not discussing any of the UConn players there vitriol was aimed at winning coach Dan Hurley. I’m not going to detail many of the comments I read or heard, we all get it. His confidence appears to be arrogance to a number of basketball fans. If you have issues with Hurley I’m not here to convince you to my side. Hurley is okay with me, I hope he is able to win 2-3 more championships.