Industry Noize: Kemper Arena Future Debated

One side includes the American Royal, which holds a 50-year lease on the property and has pushed for the aging venue to be torn down to make way for an multipurpose agricultural center.

Opponents of that plan include developer Foutch Brothers, which has proposed the venue be turned into a youth recreational center.

The battle over the building could be short lived, however.

The city appears to be on the side of the American Royal, as mayor Sly James told the Kansas City Star “we have a lease with the American Royal that we need to honor, and that lease is controlling.”

He added that if the Foutch Brothers’ plan had been viable, the Kemper would have already been serving that function as the arena has had an annual deficit of about $500,000 annually and generally only hosts graduations and small functions.

But the Foutch Brothers claim their plan could accommodate the Royal’s lease and save the arena for only $21 million, compared with the Royal’s plan that could reportedly require many times more than that amount.

“The whole building will be one big shopping mall of sports training and options,” Steve Foutch told the Star, noting he’d already received letters of intent from several sports clubs and could host as many as 1,000 children per night.

Foutch Brothers are trying to get the arena listed on the National Register of Historic Places and a determination could come by April.

Meanwhile, officials for the American Royal are working on a memorandum of understanding with the city that they hope could be finished within 30 days, the paper said.

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