K.C. City Council Majority Opposes Plan To Cut Stadium Subsidies

K.C. Mayor Would Prefer To Spend $2M On Police Dept. Rather Than Stadiums

A K.C. City Council majority yesterday said that it "would not agree to abruptly eliminate the city's $2[M] annual contribution for upkeep of Kauffman and Arrowhead stadiums" as proposed last week by K.C. Mayor Mark Funkhouser, according to Mansur & Horsley in a front-page piece for the K.C. STAR. The majority opinion came from eight of the council's 13 members. Funkhouser said that as he "weighs funding priorities ... he chooses to provide that $2[M] to the Police Department rather than to the stadiums." Funkhouser: "For Kansas City residents, this is a choice between safety and entertainment, between families and football players, between cops and choice seats." K.C. City Manager Wayne Cauthen also "proposed cutting the stadium subsidy, but by $300,000, an option that more council members said they might support." K.C. Mayor Pro Tem Bill Skaggs and several other council members said that they "thought the city would put at risk other funding if it were to unilaterally cut off its share of the stadium upkeep." Skaggs noted that the state of Missouri, for example, "contributes to the Bartle Hall expansion," and the state "would likely consider cutting back that aid if the city opted to cut its $2[M] contribution to the stadiums." Council Finance Committee Chair Deb Hermann: "It doesn't do us any good to poke them in the eye" (K.C. STAR, 3/10).