Sprint Center
Encyclopedia
Sprint Center is a large, multi-use indoor arena
Arena
An arena is an enclosed area, often circular or oval-shaped, designed to showcase theater, musical performances, or sporting events. It is composed of a large open space surrounded on most or all sides by tiered seating for spectators. The key feature of an arena is that the event space is the...

 in downtown Kansas City
Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...

, Missouri
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...

. The building is located at 14th Street and Grand Boulevard, on the east side of the Power & Light District. The arena's naming rights partner is the telecommunications company Sprint
Sprint Nextel
Sprint Nextel Corporation is an American telecommunications company based in Overland Park, Kansas. The company owns and operates Sprint, the third largest wireless telecommunications network in the United States, with 53.4 million customers, behind Verizon Wireless and AT&T Mobility...

, whose headquarters is in nearby Overland Park, Kansas
Overland Park, Kansas
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 149,080 people, 59,703 households, and 39,702 families residing in the city. The population density was 2,627.0 people per square mile . There were 62,586 housing units at an average density of 1,102.9 per square mile...

.

Sprint Center opened to the public on October 10, 2007, and a concert on October 13, 2007 by Elton John
Elton John
Sir Elton Hercules John, CBE, Hon DMus is an English rock singer-songwriter, composer, pianist and occasional actor...

 was the first event held at the arena. The arena seats more than 19,000 people and has 72 suites. Sprint Center has effectively replaced Kemper Arena
Kemper Arena
Kemper Arena is a 19,500 seat indoor arena, in Kansas City, Missouri.It is named for R. Crosby Kemper Sr., a member of the powerful Kemper financial clan and who donated $3.2 million, from his estate for the arena...

, which was built in 1974, just a few miles away in the southern portion of the West Bottoms
West Bottoms
The West Bottoms is an industrial area immediately to the west of downtown Kansas City, Missouri at the confluence of the Missouri River and the Kansas River. The area is one of the oldest areas of the city....

. Additionally, the College Basketball Experience
College Basketball Experience
The College Basketball Experience featuring the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame is a fan interactive facility located in Kansas City, Missouri...

, which includes the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame, is connected to and located directly north of Sprint Center.

The Sprint Center is home to the Kansas City Command of the Arena Football League
Arena Football League
The Arena Football League is the highest level of professional indoor American football in the United States. It is currently the second longest running professional football league in the United States, after the National Football League. It was founded in 1987 by Jim Foster...

. The Command (formally the Brigade) played the 2008 season at Sprint before returning for the 2011 Kansas City Command season
2011 Kansas City Command season
The 2011 Kansas City Command season was the fourth season for the franchise in the Arena Football League, and the first under their new team name, having previously been known as the Kansas City Brigade. The team was coached by Danton Barto and played their home games at Sprint Center...



Sprint Center also hosted the 2008 Big 12 Men's Basketball Tournament
2008 Big 12 Men's Basketball Tournament
The 2008 Phillips 66 Big 12 Men's Basketball Championship was the 2008 edition of the Big 12 Conference's championship tournament held at the Sprint Center in Kansas City from March 13 until March 16, 2008. It was the 12th Big 12 tournament in the series...

, and in addition hosted the first and second rounds of the 2009 NCAA Men's Tournament
2009 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament
The first and second round games were played at the following sites:First and Second Rounds: Thursday and Saturday, March 19 and 21, 2009-Qualifying teams:-Brackets:Results to date * – Denotes overtime periodAll times in U.S. EDT....

 and the regional rounds of the 2010 NCAA Women's Tournament
2010 NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Tournament
The 2010 NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Tournament started Saturday, March 20, 2010 and was completed on Tuesday, April 6 of the same year with University of Connecticut Huskies defending their title from the previous year by defeating Stanford, 53-47. The tournament bids were announced on...

.

Kansas City has entered into discussions with the NHL
National Hockey League
The National Hockey League is an unincorporated not-for-profit association which operates a major professional ice hockey league of 30 franchised member clubs, of which 7 are currently located in Canada and 23 in the United States...

 and the NBA
National Basketball Association
The National Basketball Association is the pre-eminent men's professional basketball league in North America. It consists of thirty franchised member clubs, of which twenty-nine are located in the United States and one in Canada...

 regarding possible expansion or relocation of a professional hockey
Ice hockey
Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...

 and/or basketball
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...

 franchise for the arena.

Details

Ground was broken
Groundbreaking
Groundbreaking, also known as cutting, sod-cutting, turning the first sod or a sod-turning ceremony, is a traditional ceremony in many cultures that celebrates the first day of construction for a building or other project. Such ceremonies are often attended by dignitaries such as politicians and...

 for the arena on June 24, 2005, and construction completed on October 11, 2007. The final design, by the Downtown Arena Design Team (a collaboration of the architectural firms Populous (then HOK Sport), 360 Architecture, Rafael Architects and Ellerbe Becket), was selected in August 2005. The construction manager responsible for the entire project was M.A. Mortenson Company, based out of Minneapolis, MN. The complete exterior glass facade system, all metal panels for the adjacent buildings and all accessory metal cladding was custom designed, detailed and supplied by Overgaard Ltd. Hong Kong to Architectural Wall Systems, the Des Moines, Iowa based glazing contractor who installed the building envelope. In total there are approximately 13,000 m² (139,932 square feet) of double insulated glass and 5,000 m² (53,820 square feet) painted aluminum curtain wall panels. In addition there are roughly 200 tons of system profiles and accessories. All of the 2,404 individual glass units on the main building were produced sequentially and completely assembled prior to shipping. The arena also features a work of public art
Public art
The term public art properly refers to works of art in any media that have been planned and executed with the specific intention of being sited or staged in the physical public domain, usually outside and accessible to all...

, The Moons, by artist Chris Doyle
Chris Doyle
Chris Doyle is a multi-media artist who lives in New York. His major public projects have included LEAP, presented by Creative Time in Columbus Circle and Commutable, presented by the Public Art Fund on the Lower East Side , both in New York City...

, commissioned by the Kansas City Municipal Arts Commission (KCMAC).

The Big 12 Conference
Big 12 Conference
The Big 12 Conference is a college athletic conference of ten schools located in the Central United States, with its headquarters located in Las Colinas, a community in the Dallas, Texas suburb of Irving...

 Men's Basketball Tournament
Big 12 Men's Basketball Tournament
The Big 12 Men's Basketball Tournament is the championship men's basketball tournament in the Big 12 Conference. It is a single-elimination tournament of four rounds, with the top four seeds getting byes in the first round...

 was held at Sprint Center in 2008, marking the tournament's return to Kansas City after three years in Dallas
Dallas, Texas
Dallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...

 and Oklahoma City
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Oklahoma City is the capital and the largest city in the state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, the city ranks 31st among United States cities in population. The city's population, from the 2010 census, was 579,999, with a metro-area population of 1,252,987 . In 2010, the Oklahoma...

. After returning to Oklahoma City in 2009, the Sprint Center again hosted the tournament in 2010 and 2011. It is scheduled to be the tourney site through 2014.

The arena also houses the College Basketball Experience and the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame
National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame
The National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame, located in Kansas City, Missouri, is a hall of fame and museum dedicated to college basketball. The museum is an integral portion of the College Basketball Experience created by the National Association of Basketball Coaches , located at the Sprint...

 which, is located at 1301 Grand Boulevard connected to Sprint Center.

The outside of the arena is entirely glass. Inside it has state of the art technology with a 360 degree LED
LEd
LEd is a TeX/LaTeX editing software working under Microsoft Windows. It is a freeware product....

 video screen. This facility allows Kansas City to draw most concerts touring the United States. There has been speculation of an NBA or NHL team relocating to Sprint Center, but as of yet no definitive plans have been announced.

Sprint Center opened on time and on budget on October 10 at 10:10 am. A tour lasted from 10:10 am – 10:10 pm for those who wanted to see it to grab a ticket at the box office. The tour consisted of the College Basketball Experience
College Basketball Experience
The College Basketball Experience featuring the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame is a fan interactive facility located in Kansas City, Missouri...

, two open concession stands: "Taco Taco" and "Oak Street Pizza"; a free drink from UMB Bank
UMB Financial Corporation
UMB Financial Corporation is an American financial services company based in Kansas City, Missouri with operations in seven, mostly Midwestern, states. The company owns commercial banks, a brokerage company, a community development corporation, a consulting company, a mutual fund servicing...

 and other free items: a UMB Bank cup, a UMB Bank frisbee, and a UMB Bank ice scraper. UMB Bank is the only ATM
Automated teller machine
An automated teller machine or automatic teller machine, also known as a Cashpoint , cash machine or sometimes a hole in the wall in British English, is a computerised telecommunications device that provides the clients of a financial institution with access to financial transactions in a public...

 in the new arena because it is a Sprint Center Founding Partner along with Farmland
Farmland Industries
Farmland Industries was the largest agricultural cooperative in North America when it declared bankruptcy in 2002.The Farmland brand and its slogan "Good Food From the Heartland" is now owned by Smithfield Foods. While owned by Smithfield Foods, Farmland Foods, Inc...

, The University of Kansas
University of Kansas
The University of Kansas is a public research university and the largest university in the state of Kansas. KU campuses are located in Lawrence, Wichita, Overland Park, and Kansas City, Kansas with the main campus being located in Lawrence on Mount Oread, the highest point in Lawrence. The...

 Hospital, QuikTrip
QuikTrip
QuikTrip is a Tulsa-based chain of convenience stores primarily found in the Midwestern and Southern United States....

, and Olevia
Syntax-Brillian Corporation
Syntax-Brillian Corporation was a corporation formed on November 30, 2005, by the merger of Syntax with Brillian Corporation . The company sold HDTVs under the brand name of Ölevia and its stock was previously listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market under the ticker symbol BRLC...

. There are other Sprint Center Founding Partners: H&R Block
H&R Block
H&R Block is a tax preparation company in the United States, claiming more than 22 million customers worldwide, with offices in Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom. The Kansas City-based company also offers banking, personal finance and business consulting services.Founded in 1955 by brothers...

, Toyota, American Century Investments
American Century Investments
American Century Investments is a privately-controlled and independent investment management firm that has focused on delivering superior investment performance and building client relationships for more than 50 years. Its headquarters are located at 4500 Main in Kansas City, Missouri, near the...

, YRC Worldwide
YRC Worldwide
YRC Worldwide Inc. is the holding company for a portfolio of brands including YRC, YRC Reimer, New Penn, USF Holland and USF Reddaway. YRC Worldwide has a comprehensive network in North America with local, regional, national and international capabilities...

, and Time Warner Cable
Time Warner Cable
Time Warner Cable is an American cable television company that operates in 28 states and has 31 operating divisions...

 of Kansas City.

Notable concerts

  • On October 13, 2007, Elton John
    Elton John
    Sir Elton Hercules John, CBE, Hon DMus is an English rock singer-songwriter, composer, pianist and occasional actor...

     performed the inaugural concert to a crowd that sold out in less than 90 minutes.

  • Garth Brooks
    Garth Brooks
    Troyal Garth Brooks , best known as Garth Brooks, is an American country music artist who helped make country music a worldwide phenomenon. His eponymous first album was released in 1989 and peaked at number 2 in the US country album chart while climbing to number 13 on the Billboard 200 album chart...

     performed nine sold out shows on November 5-12 & 14, 2007. All shows sold out in under two hours. The November 14 show was broadcast live in movie theatres across the United States.

  • The Britney Spears
    Britney Spears
    Britney Jean Spears is an American recording artist and entertainer. Born in McComb, Mississippi, and raised in Kentwood, Louisiana, Spears began performing as a child, landing acting roles in stage productions and television shows. She signed with Jive Records in 1997 and released her debut album...

     concert held on April 2, 2009 was the largest pop concert held at the arena, with 16,872 guests in attendance.

  • The February 27, 2010 concert of Elton John & Billy Joel
    Billy Joel
    William Martin "Billy" Joel is an American musician and pianist, singer-songwriter, and classical composer. Since releasing his first hit song, "Piano Man", in 1973, Joel has become the sixth best-selling recording artist and the third best-selling solo artist in the United States, according to...

     holds the record for highest grossing show at the arena.

  • Reba McEntire
    Reba McEntire
    Reba Nell McEntire is an American country music artist and actress. She began her career in the music industry as a high school student singing in the Kiowa High School band , on local radio shows with her siblings, and at rodeos. As a solo act, she was invited to perform at a rodeo in Oklahoma...

     & George Strait
    George Strait
    George Harvey Strait is an American country music singer, actor, and music producer. Strait is referred to as the "King of Country," and critics call Strait a living legend. He is known for his unique style of western swing music, bar-room ballads, honky-tonk style, and fresh yet traditional...

    's performance on April 9, 2010, holds the record for concert with the highest attendance, with 18,045 guests in attendance.

Possible major-league sports

The Kansas City Brigade played at the Sprint Center for one season before the original AFL folded after the 2008 postseason. However, the revamped AFL announced that the Brigade will be part of the league starting in 2011. Arena contracts are under negotiation; the team has stated that they intend to return to the Sprint Center. The Brigade will change its name to the Kansas City Command for the 2011 season.

William "Boots" Del Biaggio, III, made an offer to purchase the Nashville Predators
Nashville Predators
The Nashville Predators are a professional ice hockey team based in Nashville, Tennessee. They are members of the Central Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League...

 of the NHL
National Hockey League
The National Hockey League is an unincorporated not-for-profit association which operates a major professional ice hockey league of 30 franchised member clubs, of which 7 are currently located in Canada and 23 in the United States...

 with the intention of bringing the team to the Sprint Center. However, Del Biaggio has since joined a group of Nashville investors in an effort to keep the Predators in Nashville. In June 2008, Kansas City's hopes to land the Predators took another blow as Del Biaggio ran into legal trouble over a multitude of unpaid loans, culminating in him filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, effectively ending any chance of Del Biaggio moving the Predators to Missouri. On January 10, 2007, it was reported that the Los Angeles Clippers
Los Angeles Clippers
The Los Angeles Clippers are a professional basketball team based in Los Angeles, California, United States. They play in the Pacific Division of the Western Conference of the National Basketball Association...

 have taken an interest in moving to the arena.
New York Islanders
New York Islanders
The New York Islanders are a professional ice hockey team based in Uniondale, New York. They are members of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League...

 owner Charles Wang
Charles Wang
Charles B. Wang is the co-founder of Computer Associates International, Inc. and owner of the New York Islanders ice hockey team and their AHL affiliates, the Bridgeport Sound Tigers....

 announced the Islanders will play a preseason game September 22, 2009 at the Sprint Center against the Los Angeles Kings
Los Angeles Kings
The Los Angeles Kings are a professional ice hockey team based in Los Angeles, California. They are members of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League...

. Local media reported that anonymous team sources stated the game was a test of the Kansas City market. In 2007, Kansas City and the Sprint Center also attempted to attract relocation of the Pittsburgh Penguins
Pittsburgh Penguins
The Pittsburgh Penguins are a professional ice hockey team based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. They are members of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League . The franchise was founded in 1967 as one of the first expansion teams during the league's original...

, but the Penguins reached a deal with the City of Pittsburgh to build a new arena, the Consol Energy Center, and stay in Western Pennsylvania. The Sprint Center is currently being looked into as a possible relocation spot for the NBA's New Orleans Hornets and the Sacramento Kings
Sacramento Kings
The Sacramento Kings are a professional basketball team based in Sacramento, California, United States. They are currently members of the Western Conference of the National Basketball Association...

 (the latter of which had previously played in Kansas City).

Other sporting events

  • The CBE Classic
    College Basketball Experience Classic
    The College Basketball Experience Classic is an annual season-opening college basketball tournament founded in 2001. The tournament is currently sponsored by Progressive and is held in mid-November...

     is held every year at Sprint Center. The event was held on November 19, 2007 and November 20, 2007. It was also held on November 24, 2008 and November 25, 2008.

  • AVP
    Association of Volleyball Professionals
    The Association of Volleyball Professionals, or AVP, is a beach volleyball tour which takes place throughout the United States. The summer tour starts in April and continues almost every weekend until the end of October....

     Pro Beach Volleyball's Hot Winter Nights Tour was held at Sprint Center on January 12, 2008.

  • The PBR holds a Built Ford Tough Series
    Built Ford Tough Series
    The Built Ford Tough Series is the "major league" tour of the PBR competitions. It is a 30-city event series culminating in the PBR World Finals every year in Las Vegas, Nevada. The top 45 riders of the PBR compete in the BFTS with the rankings determined by points and money won...

     event at Sprint Center annually since 2008. Prior to 2008, the event was held at Kemper Arena
    Kemper Arena
    Kemper Arena is a 19,500 seat indoor arena, in Kansas City, Missouri.It is named for R. Crosby Kemper Sr., a member of the powerful Kemper financial clan and who donated $3.2 million, from his estate for the arena...

    .

  • The Kansas City Brigade
    Kansas City Brigade
    The Kansas City Command is a professional arena football team in the Arena Football League. The team was founded before the 2006 season. Former Kansas City Chiefs Strong safety Kevin Porter served as head coach...

     of the Arena Football League played their 2008 season at Sprint Center. They returned in 2011 after the 2009 AFL season was canceled due to financial reasons and the 2010 season saw Kansas City decide to take a break from Arena Football.

  • The NCAA Womens Volleyball Final Four was held at the Sprint Center on December 16th and 18th, 2010.

  • The Pittsburgh Penguins
    Pittsburgh Penguins
    The Pittsburgh Penguins are a professional ice hockey team based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. They are members of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League . The franchise was founded in 1967 as one of the first expansion teams during the league's original...

     faced the Los Angeles Kings
    Los Angeles Kings
    The Los Angeles Kings are a professional ice hockey team based in Los Angeles, California. They are members of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League...

     on September 27, 2011 in front of a sold-out crowd of 17,779. The Penguins won the NHL
    National Hockey League
    The National Hockey League is an unincorporated not-for-profit association which operates a major professional ice hockey league of 30 franchised member clubs, of which 7 are currently located in Canada and 23 in the United States...

     pre-season game 3-2 in a shootout.

Other events

  • The Arena hosted the general sessions of the 2009 National Catholic Youth Conference
    National Catholic Youth Conference
    The National Catholic Youth Conference, frequently referred to as NCYC, is a three day event for Roman Catholic youth. NCYC is held in U.S. cities every two years and organized in part by the host diocese of the city. The conference is organized by the National Federation for Catholic Youth Ministry...

    , a biannual event which hosts over 20,000 Catholic youth from across the country. The general sessions were held in conjunction with the Kansas City Convention Center, where overflow seating was offered.

  • Sprint Center is now home for World Wrestling Entertainment
    World Wrestling Entertainment
    World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. is an American publicly traded, privately controlled entertainment company dealing primarily in professional wrestling, with major revenue sources also coming from film, music, product licensing, and direct product sales...

     (WWE) and hosted the last ever episode of WWE's ECW on Syfy on February 16, 2010. WWE's new Pay Per view (PPV) WWE Money in the Bank
    WWE Money in the Bank
    Money in the Bank was a professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment , which took place on July 18, 2010 at the Sprint Center in Kansas City, Missouri. The concept of the event was based around the Money in the Bank ladder match, with two matches held at the...

     was held on Sunday July 18, 2010. WWE also held an episode of SmackDown on March 15, 2011. On September 26, 2011 Sprint Center is going to host an episode of Raw
    Raw
    Raw is a term referring to food that has not been cooked.RAW or raw may refer to:-Technology:* Raw audio format, a file type used to represent sound as pulse-code modulation data...

    .

Transportation

The arena's vicinity is served by five interstate highways:
  • Interstate 35
    Interstate 35
    Interstate 35 is a north–south Interstate Highway in the central United States. I-35 stretches from Laredo, Texas, on the U.S.-Mexico border to Duluth, Minnesota, at Minnesota Highway 61 and 26th Avenue East. Many interstates used to have splits or spurs indicated with suffixed letters , but I-35...

  • Interstate 70
    Interstate 70
    Interstate 70 is an Interstate Highway in the United States that runs from Interstate 15 near Cove Fort, Utah, to a Park and Ride near Baltimore, Maryland. It was the first Interstate Highway project in the United States. I-70 approximately traces the path of U.S. Route 40 east of the Rocky...

  • Interstate 435
    Interstate 435
    Interstate 435 is an Interstate Highway beltway that encircles much of the Kansas City, Missouri Metropolitan Area in the states of Kansas and Missouri, USA.- Route description :...

  • Interstate 670
    Interstate 670 (Kansas-Missouri)
    Interstate 670 is a 2.81 mile connector highway between I-70 in Kansas City, Kansas and I-70 in Kansas City, Missouri. The highway provides a more direct route through downtown Kansas City than the older mainline I-70, and avoids the sharp turn of the latter at the west end of the Intercity...

  • Interstate 29
    Interstate 29
    Interstate 29 is an Interstate Highway in the Midwestern United States. I-29 runs from Kansas City, Missouri, at a junction with Interstate 35 and Interstate 70 to the Canadian border near Pembina, North Dakota, where it connects with Manitoba Highway 75 via the short Manitoba Highway 29.-Route...



and three U.S. Routes:
  • U.S. Route 24
    U.S. Route 24
    U.S. Route 24 is one of the original United States highways of 1926. It originally ran from Pontiac, Michigan, in the east to Kansas City, Missouri, in the west. Today, the highway's eastern terminus is west of Clarkston, Michigan, at an intersection with I-75 and its western terminus is near...

  • U.S. Route 40
    U.S. Route 40
    U.S. Route 40 is an east–west United States highway. As with most routes whose numbers end in a zero, U.S. 40 once traversed the entire United States. It is one of the original 1920s U.S. Highways, and its first termini were San Francisco, California, and Atlantic City, New Jersey...

  • U.S. Route 71
    U.S. Route 71
    U.S. Route 71 is a north–south United States highway. This original 1926 route has remained largely unchanged by encroaching Interstate highways. Currently, the highway's northern terminus is in International Falls, Minnesota at the Canadian border, at the southern end of the Fort...





Kansas City International Airport
Kansas City International Airport
Kansas City International Airport , originally named Mid-Continent International Airport, is a public airport located 15 miles northwest of the central business district of Kansas City, in Platte County, Missouri, United States. In 2008, 10,469,892 passengers used the airport...

 is located 15 miles (24 km) northwest of Downtown Kansas City in Platte County, Missouri
Platte County, Missouri
As of the census of 2000, there were 73,781 people, 29,278 households, and 20,231 families residing in the county. The population density was 176 people per square mile . There were 30,902 housing units at an average density of 74 per square mile...

.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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