KTKA News Article - TOPEKA

Would like to see the event come to wichita. Surely with the reported "economic impact" and central location it would be an ideal location. Like the article states....“Without a doubt, there are other cities in Kansas that would love to host this event,”....how about it Wichita??????????

Theres other threads that talk about this every year.
Its all political!
It would be either Hartman or Intrust and some would argue Hartman is too small.
And Intrust is managed by the same company as the EXPO and they will not rob Peter to Paul.

Plus they signed like a 3 year contract so it aint changing anytime soon!

Topeka and our Kids State crew have done an excellent job. the City of Topeka actually acts like they like having the tourney there. Does Wichita really care???

Change is not always good, is it? I know people complained alot when 4, 5 and 6A were being held at the Coliseum but to be honest, I miss 4A not being in the same building. I know this is a bit off topic but my point is, if its working now don't mess with it. I enjoy going to Topeka for Kids State, changing it to Wichita, well, would be like going to the Park City Classic twice a year. JMO...

Im sure they do like having the tournament there but can they really handle it?
Theres been proven cases of room prices being higher on the weekend we are there.
Wichita would keep prices down to compete for the business because of the number of rooms compared to Topeka.
I dont think the treatment from the venue (if it was Intrust) would be any different.

It is what it is...
I dont see it coming to Wichita anytime soon...
To many important people don't want to drive that far lol

Expocentre does a great job with the event and we're close enough we can sleep in our own beds. But also OK with me if it were in Wichita every other year. Wichita should want it. City of that size should want it. Question is, do they care? Guess the 3-year contract Topeka has answers that question.

Its not Wichita that failed to bring this event south, It was the fact that the venue in Wichita was unable to match the profitability of the Expocenter. But keep in mind that the 2 main venues that bid for the event are ran by the same management company and there's no telling what incentive they got for making it turn out like that.
Again, I think you would have more spectators in Wichita then Topeka so the extra gate revenue would help offset a high building rental. What it comes down to is in 2 more years where will the Exec board vote to hold it at?
I think they need to give it a shot and try it.

The state staff does a great job running this event, but i cant say the same for some of the expo center staff. Some of them are extremely rude. I seen one of them literally yell at a girl that couldn't have been more that 5 yrs old for standing in the stairway. But as i said great job to the wrestling staff.

This morning I went into Casey's General Store for my morning cup of coffee and breakfast on our way to the tournament. As I was paying for our items, I looked down at the newspaper and noticed on the front page that the headline was the horse show that took place right next to the 2011 Kansas Kids Wrestling Championships.... I have nothing against the Horse show or whatever it was, but I heard through the gragevine that the Kids tourney brought in somewhere close to 1.25 million? I doubt the horse show brought in 1% of that.

My problem with this is simple, these KIDS are KANSANS, FUTURE KANSAS TAXPAYERS, and FUTURE KANSAS FAMILIES and their supporters and parents (WHICH ARE KANSANS) just spent 1.25 million and they can't even get on the front page of the Topeka Capital Journal??? Instead, they had to settle for the back page of the sports section (or close). The Topeka Capital Journal should be ASAHMED of themselves for overlooking something as big as this.

I know, I know, someone wants to give me a tissue. Just frustrated that's all, these kids deserve HUGE RECOGNITION!!!

Hell, I thought with ol Brownback being there we would have surely been a shoe in for the front page!

Looks like Topeka don't care much either!!

i hope you don't really believe that wichita area motels would't raise their rates. it's called capitalism. they would raise them just the same.

i agree about the treatment, from the arena staff, it's all the same everywhere.

i don't think the businesses of topeka show enough hospitality. or planning. not one business seemed prepared to handle the spike.

No they wouldn't because they have more rooms available and thus would have competition for pricing.

They will raise the rate: i worked at a motel in Hays for a few years when in college and we would raise the rate for any event being held within 4 counties,
I know what your thinking Hays doesn't have as many motels, but for the size of Hays and the size of the events we have a ton of motels. And i guarantee you that when i worked at the motel we jacked up the prices close to double for some events, just as any other cities motels do.

JMO

My understanding was that hotels in Topeka would not raise their rates if the tournament was kept there. However this has not been the case! Since I pay the bills for our club I know in the last 4 years the hotel rate has increased Significantly!

They did a news story on KSNT news in Topeka last night and this is the 2nd largest revenue maker event for the city! I'm from Topeka and wrestling gets no love compared to football and basketball! We email and call but to no avail. It's sad when I have to go to the Holton paper to read about about a tournament that my son who is from Topeka wrestled in!

Consultant urges $60M in improvements to Kansas Expocentre
Wichita Business Journal
Date: Monday, March 28, 2011, 7:43am CDT

Market research suggests the Kansas Expocentre in Topeka should be upgraded with $60 million worth of improvements, including a second show ring, according to a consultant who will report to the Shawnee County Commission.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports the improvements would help the Expocentre compete with facilities including the planned Kansas Star casino in Mulvane, which would offer an indoor, concrete floor show arena for events like horse shows.

The report comes shortly after the Expocentre lost an Extreme Cowboys Association event to a larger facility in Oklahoma.

Horses again??? I don't know the economics of horse shows but they must bring in big bucks!

There are many other options in Wichita besides Hartman or Intrust. Such as Century II or Koch arena...

Report urges $60M in Expo upgrades
By Tim Hrenchir
Created Mar 26 2011 - 8:52pm
THE CAPITAL-JOURNAL

The fastest-growing sport on the equine scene grew too fast for the Kansas Expocentre.

The Extreme Cowboys Association made the complex's R.R. Domer Livestock Arena the site of its world championships in 2009 and 2010 but then said "happy trails," moving the event to Guthrie, Okla.

The Domer facility's single-ring arena simply couldn't accommodate the number of Extreme Cowboy racers, forcing competition to go until 2 or 3 a.m., says H.R. Cook, who runs the Expocentre for Philadelphia-based management group SMG.

But a consultant's report that will be discussed at Monday's Shawnee County Commission meeting cites market research in suggesting this community should pony up the funds to expand Domer Arena and give it a second show ring.

The plan recommends the entire Expocentre make improvements it estimates would cost more than $60 million to stay competitive with complexes in other cities in the region. It also suggests potential funding sources, including property taxes and sales taxes.

"The overriding tone of all the interviewees that had knowledge of the Kansas market was that expanded Expocentre facilities would be highly successful," the Kansas Expocentre Long-Range Strategic Plan prepared by Duluth, Ga.-based Strategic Advisory Group said of the Expocentre’s livestock facilities.

The $60 million figure is "a very scary number," Cook acknowledged this past week.

Still, he pointed out that the report indicates that unless the community invests in improvements at the Expocentre, it will begin to lose business. The county consequently would need to increase its annual tax subsidy to the Expocentre, which is about $1.7 million.

Cook noted that the Expocentre has seen no major improvements in its 24 years of existence and that the complex , which had a $19 million price tag when it opened in 1987, is competing for events with venues in other communities that have invested at least $100 million in them.

Jerry McClendon, a partner in the Strategic Advisory Group, is scheduled to make a presentation about the long-range plan when County Commissioners Vic Miller, Shelly Buhler and Ted Ensley meet at 9 a.m. Monday in their chambers in Room B-11 at the county courthouse, 200 S.E. 7th.

Commissioners voted this past June to pay SAG $66,500 to explore the needs of the Expocentre, including potential renovation and expansion.

No taxpayer dollars went into the study, which was financed using money from a capital contribution SMG made for the express purpose of funding the analysis as part of its contract with the county. SAG teamed up with Betsch Associates and Schwerdt Design Group to craft the plan, which totals 127 pages.

McClendon said in a telephone interview Friday that the first improvements recommended in the plan involve carrying out deferred maintenance and infrastructure work estimated to cost $8.4 million.

The Expocentre hasn’t received the capital investment needed to properly maintain the complex, which will need that work done just to stay open, McClendon said.

The report also recommends improvements to the Expocentre's livestock arena, convention facilities and Landon Arena, the facility’s primary venue.

“We assessed each of those market pieces and talked to many, many meeting planners and promoters in each of those areas,” McClendon said.

For Cook, the report’s biggest surprise was SAG's glowing assessment of the potential of the livestock arena. The document recommends investing $13.4 million to expand the arena plus $1.8 for enhancements.

McClendon said horse enthusiasts really like the dirt footing of Domer Arena, which is one of only two facilities in Kansas capable of hosting shows involving more than 200 to 250 horses.

Preparations are being made to shut down the other, which is the Kansas Pavilions at Valley Center near Wichita, McClendon said.

He said horse and livestock show promoters surveyed “don’t really like” the American Royal at Kansas City, Mo., though Domer Arena could face competition from a horse show arena proposed as part of the Kansas Star Casino at Mulvane, south of Wichita.

“However, as currently planned the Kansas Star would offer one indoor, concrete floor show arena,” the SAG report said. “Larger shows desire at least two indoor arenas and dirt footing is highly preferred.”

The report concluded: "Overall, expanded facilities at the Expocentre could position Shawnee County as a dominant player in the state, with only the Kansas Star competing at the same level (assuming the Kansas Pavilions do in fact close)."

The long-range plan also recommends investing $4.8 million to renovate Maner Conference Centre; $18 million for an expansion and $200,000 for renovations to Exhibition Hall; $6.4 million for expansion of Landon Arena; and $9.7 million for Landon Arena enhancement.

The report indicated Landon Arena offers adequate seating capacity for its market but needs to be renovated and has physical issues.

Citing results of a survey answered by 85 season ticket holders for Topeka RoadRunners hockey games, SAG suggested giving the arena wider, more comfortable seats; upgrading the offerings and quality of available concessions; and renovating the interior to give it a "more exciting atmosphere."

The report added: “Landon Arena should also be improved to extend the climatized connection between all the facilities and to provide an entrance closer to the bulk of the parking spaces. New concourses will also reduce the need to have patrons use exterior steps to enter the building and a new central lobby can also better distribute patrons to the seating on both sides of the arena.”

The report says expanding the Expocentre’s Exhibition Hall, just north of Landon Arena, should solve several of the complex’s competitive weaknesses in terms of attracting conference- or convention-type events.

McClendon said SAG surveyed groups that hold such events and learned organizations that formerly held them at the Expocentre — then went elsewhere — would be particularly interested in returning if the Expocentre would renovate Exhibition Hall and add a sufficient amount of multipurpose exhibit and ballroom space.

“They want to come to Topeka because it’s the state capital and it’s a decent destination, but they say the facilities are old, they’re too small and they haven’t been renovated,” McClendon said.

Those concerns came as no surprise to Cook, who said the Expocentre is starting to fall behind its competition in terms of attracting convention-type events.

Cook said the Kansas Hospital Association recently removed the Expocentre from its rotation of convention sites, while U.S. Custom Harvesters told him this month that its convention won't return.

Cook said those groups gave the same reason for leaving that the Extreme Cowboys did.

"We've outgrown that facility," Cindy Samuelson, spokeswoman for the hospital association, told The Topeka Capital-Journal this past week.

But SAG said the Expocentre could accommodate such groups far more effectively by expanding Exhibition Hall and improving the configuration and variety of available sizes for meeting rooms.

"The largest meeting room space is the Sunflower Ballroom, which is 11,000 square feet, but it doesn’t subdivide," McClendon said. "So you take the whole 11,000 square feet, or you take nothing."

The SAG report recommend the Expocentre add 30,000 square feet of multipurpose exhibit and ballroom space, while ensuring the rooms can be subdivided.

McClendon suggests the addition be built in a location where it would connect to Capitol Plaza Hotel, Maner Conference Centre, Exhibition Hall and Heritage Hall — thereby lnking all of the complex's hotel and meeting space under one roof.

“Once you go in, you’re out of the weather,” he said.

Tim Hrenchir can be reached at (785) 295-1184 or tim.hrenchir@cjonline.com.

No there are not! Not with the current size of the tournament.

A place with more parking would be nice...maybe somewhere that we don't have to compete with horse trailers taking up 3 to 4 parking spots.