With no NHL or NBA on horizon for Kansas City, it’s time to appreciate what we do have

Fifty years ago Friday, the groundbreaking ceremony for construction of Kemper Arena punctuated the awarding of an NHL expansion franchise to Kansas City.

The day arrived only after what Star sports editor Joe McGuff a year later called a “bewildering series of events.”

Among the oddities were consideration of 10 potential sites, including Johnson County, the Truman Sports Complex and Union Station, and an initial clash among four ownership groups.

Ultimately, one sprawling group emerged to make the $6 million buy-in that hatched the Kansas City Scouts — who joined the Chiefs, Royals, and NBA’s Kings (here from 1972-85, including three seasons split with Omaha) to fleetingly give Kansas City a presence in the four traditionally most prominent North American sports leagues.

The Scouts, alas, were starcrossed and mismanaged in infinite ways, embodied by their slapstick 27-110-23 record in two seasons before being sold and moved to Colorado and ultimately to New Jersey.

Cautionary tale notwithstanding, a half-century later it’s natural for any hockey lover or even general sports fan to pine for the NHL and/or the NBA to return.

Heck, this time around we already have the building … just like we have since the Sprint Center (now the T-Mobile Center) opened in 2007.

The building has served much of its intended purpose, including reviving downtown as a key cog of the Power & Light District and bolstering Kansas City’s connection to the Big 12 Tournament among its vast variety of sports offerings, concerts and special events.

But despite some passing murmurs and longshots over the years, there’s nothing on the horizon that suggests the realization of an NHL or NBA anchor tenant, as trumpeted by AEG when it sold the project. After all, the NBA hasn’t expanded since 2004 and hasn’t featured a relocation since 2012. No NHL team has moved since 2011, and its last expansion team, the Seattle Kraken, paid a $650 million expansion fee.

Meanwhile, instead of, say, four ownership groups surfacing for either cause, there are none apparent.

At least not until Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, he of the $500 million contract, retires and perhaps seeks to add to the investments he’s already made in Kansas City sports teams (which include the Royals, Sporting KC and the KC Current)

“It would definitely be a goal of mine to get (an NBA) team to Kansas City,” Mahomes told The Star’s Blair Kerkhoff in 2021. “It’s a long-term play that hopefully we’ll be able to do some day.”

Some day. Maybe.

But for anyone who thought a groundswell toward any such endeavor was in the making when Lamar Hunt Jr. bought the minor-league Missouri Mavericks (now Kansas City Mavericks) in 2015, Hunt has gone from thinking it’s a “reach” and considering the NHL price tag “ridiculously big” a few years ago to no longer entertaining the possibility.

“I don’t,” he said at Cable Dahmer Arena this week, later adding, “It doesn’t seem realistic.”

Indeed, there is a “careful what you wish for” point to be made here through Hunt as he continues to stress growing the game locally.

Because maybe it’s about time to reconcile something: No matter how much we might want more, more, more in our sports sphere, perhaps we should also stop feeling like we need something beyond what we have to validate us or make us feel whole.

To put it in context: No region less populous than our 2 million-plus has more than two franchises among the traditional big four leagues. And only two of comparable populations (Pittsburgh and Cleveland) have as many as three.

Never say never, of course, but envy by definition is at odds with appreciation. Especially since it’s reasonable to wonder if we’re at a saturation point for what more can be supported — and to what lengths we’d be willing to go even if we had the means.

Let’s realize we’ve got it good. And maybe even just right … with room for more but less than a need for it.

The Chiefs are on the verge of a dynasty, after all, one that Hunt relishes as a part owner of the franchise and namesake of its founder. The Royals, well, here’s hoping they’re on the verge of a recovery as the 2014 and 2015 American League pennants and 2015 World Series remain in memory but increasingly out of reach.

Of course, we’re also within two hours of the intriguing Division I programs at Kansas, Kansas State and Missouri. And the soccer scene is vibrant here even as Sporting KC and the Current have struggled early.

Sporting still is drawing 18,000-plus a match, the Current set an attendance record (11,301) in their only home match — in their final season at Children’s Mercy Park before opening their own stadium next year — and the Comets led the MASL in attendance with 4,355 a game in their recently ended season. Being a host city for the 2026 World Cup will further catalyze that trend.

Then there’s what spurred us thinking about all this: the ECHL’s Mavericks, (32-30-6/72 points),who can clinch their first playoff berth since 2019 by winning their final two regular-season games (and via other scenarios if they don’t win both) against Cincinnati on Friday and Saturday at Cable Dahmer Arena.

“I honestly think it’s the best team we’ve ever had,” Hunt said. “The way we move the puck, the way we play as a team, the way we adjust, the way we’ve got each other’s backs. Everything we’re doing.”

He added, “We’re here, we’re present and we’re a heck of a lot of fun.”

We can vouch for that from personal experience in the 5,800-seat venue: great sightlines, entertainment in virtual Sensurround and fine hockey.

No, it doesn’t beat the NHL … though these Mavs might well have beaten those Scouts.

But it’s another flourish in a distinct local brand, including the Kansas City Monarchs of the AAPB and others, that we ought not to feel is somehow “less than,” but embrace.

And it would take another series of bewildering events to change that.