The Kansas City Brigade captured the attention of Kansas City football fans in the first three years of being a part of the Kansas City Sports Scene. Their first season was not great, but they came back and made a couple of strong bids during the next two years. Arena Football in Kansas City was a great experience for those who could not afford the outrageous prices demanded by the Kansas City Chiefs. It was Blue Collar football. It was Kid-Friendly football. It was fan-friendly football. Then the team moved to the Sprint Center and it all came apart.
The move to the Sprint Center brought a lot of complaints. Many of the season ticket holders did not like the new venue and many were talking about not renewing their Season Tickets. Those who did decide to renew their Season Tickets were met with the collapse of the League and instead of being notified about the situation and how to get their refund, left a lot of season ticket holders to find the information for themselves.
With the creation of the new Arena Football League, things changed. Kansas City wasn't a part of the first season under the new owners, who managed to set Arena Football back about twenty years when they broke the Player's Union before Season two. The Kansas City Brigade came back with the same ownership, and the same losing head coach, but they didn't come back as the Brigade, they basically gave all the old Brigade fans the finger by renaming the team the Command ... but keeping all the team logos.
It was the same Sprint Center experience. Over Priced Parking, discouraging tailgating, and with the significantly lower player wages, they failed to field a team that could play football well enough to even give the fans something to hope for. It was NOT the Arena Football Experience that captured the attention of Kansas City Football fans as the Brigade, and the attendance over the past two years was solid proof that the Team, and the League, was failing to provide what the fans were wanting.
The Kansas City Command were dead when their feet hit the floor. They kissed the wrong asses. They held up the wrong people to promote Arena Football in Kansas City. They made it clear to far too many people that the days of Fan-Friendly Arena Football were long gone and it was now all about raking in the money. I wish I knew how many people told the owners of the Command that what they needed to do was take the team back to Kemper Arena. That they needed to get back to the basics of providing a good product at a reasonable price. They didn't listen to any of us, and now we get to say goodbye to the Arena Football League (AFL) in Kansas City.
The question that remains ... however .... is ...
Has the Kansas City Command tainted the sport for others to try? Will the football fans of Kansas City give the newly formed Kansas City Renegades a chance to pick up the gauntlet and run? Different owners, different league, and the return to a popular venue. We will have to see.
2 comments:
I disagree. Moving to Sprint Center didn't hurt the team infact if anything it helped. Interest in the team was dropping almost from the start. The team never did anything to get it's name out there. The SC brought some interest to the team. People whet to see the arena, even if they didn't know anything about the product. The Command just never capitilized on it. Plus I just don't get the love that Brigade fans had with Kemper Arena. It was...is...and will always be a dump. Wasen't as fan friendly as you thought it was and I think turned a lot of people off to arena sports in this town. The Big 12 tournament almost never came back because of that place. Kemper Sucked.
Moving the Brigade to the Sprint Center seemed like a great idea. Unfortunately, it didn't take long before a growing number of fans started talking about how they liked Kemper better. You see, there are those people who do not go to a football game for the quality of the audio/visual systems. They like to be close to the game, they are there to see a game, not watch it on the overhead screen. And there was the fact that the people in the upper deck, the blue collar fans, felt like they were getting the shaft. The seats were considerably higher up from the field, having two levels of suites under them. The seats were smaller, aisles were cramped, and after enjoying being included in the perks at Kemper, being completely left out at Sprint made matters worse. Add to the complaints the talk about the cost of parking, no place to tailgate, the attitude of the Sprint Center staff, the people over at KC Power and Light, and follow it up by the fact that the players were being taken out of the arena for appearances at the KC Power and Light instead of being on the field after the game (as per league obligation).
Kemper Arena's nickname as the Hump in the Dump, and the fact that the Big 12 Tournament pulled out because of Kemper is not really an issue here. Arena Football made its mark in Kansas City as Blue Collar Football. It was a sport that the average person could attend. The average person cannot really afford to park for the basketball tournaments at Sprint Center. Back that up with the once published fact that ticket sales steadily dropped from the time they moved to Sprint, as the Brigade, and never came close as the Command.
And now that we have the Renegades, let's not fall back on this Kemper hurt arena football when discussing their failure to draw fans. The same people who converted from the Brigade to the Command are the same people who brought you the Renegades, and its all about the fact that they couldn't field a product that allowed them to compete in the new, but not improved AFL.
No, Kemper is not a great place for big money sports. But when you're trying to field a blue collar indoor football team, Kemper is a better experience, especially when you can keep the ticket prices down.
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