Ingrams September 2023

ARE WE AT A HISTORIC CROSSROADS AS A CITY? Top Executives Envision an Agenda For KC.

K ansas City has been here be fore. Half a century ago, this community was awash with change: A new international airport was taking shape on the outskirts of the city. The sports world stood in awe of a breakthrough stadium design with the Jackson County Sports Complex. A new arena in the West Bottoms would thrust us into the national conversation about a presidential election. Well, times change. The Royals are scouting Downtown locations for a new stadium, and Arrowhead is in line for a significant makeover. Kem- per Arena has been reduced to a community athletic center. The final remnants of that original KCI is being swept away with the completion of the single-terminal facility. It’s a perfect time, then, to sound out the region’s business community on how the civic agenda should be re vised. We did just that with this year’s Ingram’s 250 report, polling a power ful, influential, and affluent executive class on where the new lines should be drawn. Their observations—should— carry considerable clout with the pub lic-sector figures who will have to sign off on planning, zoning, and regulating the reshaping process. They will have much to consider. FIFA and Beyond By an overwhelming margin, re spondents identified two major emerg ing opportunities for the city—a Downtown stadium for the Royals and the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Curiously enough, not one of the 250 executives polled on the question of The Next Big Thing argued against the idea of building a new pro baseball stadium

Downtown. Given where the Royals are in their processes, it seems fait accompli that they won’t be playing at Kauffman Stadium a few years from now. So perhaps it’s not surprising that virtually every one of the executives who weighted in see that development as an opportunity to add a missing piece to Downtown’s appeal. Beyond that, last year’s announce ment that this would be one of three U.S. host cities for the global soccer tournament was a match that has ig nited an intense interest in showing the world what Kansas City has to of

United States built specifically for a pro fessional women’s soccer team AND the national headquarters of Women Lead ers in Sport being in KC, I think Kansas City should lay claim to being the lead ing U.S. city focused on supporting the growth of women’s sports,” she said. For the most part, though, the World Cup is seen as a lever to bigger and bet ter things. “We have great momentum—Su per Bowl, World Cup, NFL Draft, great stuff,” said Ramin Cherafat of Mc CownGordon Construction. “But we also need to develop and implement

“We have great momentum, but we also need to develop and implement long-term economic-growth strategies for our region by growing, attracting, and retaining great companies for the long term.”

— RAMIN CHERAFAT , CEO, MCCOWNGORDON CONSTRUCTION

fer, not just as a soccer capital, but as a place to do business, establish a career or raise a family. “Kansas City is at the forefront of so many things right now—business and industry, sports, culture,” says Doug Wolff of Security Benefit, who can ap preciate those opportunities from the vantage point of Topeka. “It’s great to have an airport we can be proud of as we garner national and global atten tion as a World Cup host site and fu ture home of the first women’s sports focused stadium for the Kansas City Current soccer team.” Anne St. Peter, co-founder of Global Prairie, sees the soccer connection as a differentiator. “With the KC Current and their first-ever soccer stadium in the

long-term economic-growth strategies for our region by growing, attracting, and retaining great companies for the long term.” Shook, Hardy & Bacon chair Mad eleine McDonough concurred. The region can advance, she said, by “attracting new major corporate headquarters to the region while fo cusing on early childhood education, affordable housing, and safer neigh borhoods, all of which will help attract new businesses to our community.” One way to do that, said St. Peter, would be “to continue to highlight our strength in the life sciences—from animal health to digital health to hu man health—KC has significant assets worth celebrating.”

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September 2023

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