TKC EXCLUSIVE!!! The Sprint Center is above the law!!! Huge corporations don't need to comply with Kansas City's anti-billboard ordinance!!!
A few weeks ago I was driving East and I noticed a disturbing sight. A monster billboard was glowing in downtown and its light could be seen all the way to the Westside. As I moved closer, I saw that the huge billboard was advertising the victory of some suburban guy on a TV show I've never watched. I had things to do so I didn't investigate further.
Last night on Google I looked up the billboard and confirmed my suspicions that the sign is relatively new. An article in The Star on April 28th, 2008 confirms the new(ish) construction. Corporate shills that they are, The Star tries to quash debate over the billboard:
That big, black, metal monster rising by the new Sprint Center may look like a double-faced billboard, but it’s actually the “marquee sign” included in the arena development agreement.It seems to me that's not a quote but a justification. Nevertheless, one fact is clear:
The 25-foot-tall sign is nearing completion at the corner of the arena loading dock area near the intersection of Grand Boulevard and Truman Road. The panels are actually 17-by-50-foot electronic LED boards and will provide the same kind of dazzling video capability as the arena scoreboard inside.
OUTSIDE OF THE SPRINT CENTER THERE IS A HUGE BILLBOARD THAT VIOLATES A RECENT KANSAS CITY ORDINANCE!!!
Kansas City effectively banned billboards last year, before the Sprint Center opened and before they even started construction on the billboard.
The two justifications touted by the corporate soapbox otherwise known as The Star don't stand up to scrutiny:
By the way, the argument that billboard is a "marquee" is simply moronic. The sign even advertises the same kind of garbage that's slapped on every other billboard in sight:
Even worse, the malfeasance of the Sprint Center shows a blatant disrespect for the locals who worked so hard to pass the anti-billboard ordinance. If the Sprint Center doesn't obey the law, why should anybody else?
In the final analysis, there is absolutely no difference between the Sprint Center Billboard and the other billboards that the people of Kansas City worked to prohibit. It's a huge electric, double-sided, monstrosity, visible for miles and intended to attract customers.
Once again, there's a sign that the law doesn't apply to everyone and it's glowing brightly downtown at this very moment reminding everyone that corporations don't need to play by the rules in Kansas City.
Update: Taxpayer Paid Advertisements
Yeah, I noticed that too.
ReplyDeletePretty disgusting if you ask me. Looks like downtown can get absolutely anything that it wants.
Thanks City Hall!
I am going to hack that sign, Adbusters style.
ReplyDeleteUnder the cloak of darkness, I will change it to read "Amerikan Idle", as in a nation of fat slobs watching passively instead of doing something with their lives.
Actually, that sounds like a lot of work, and pretty risky too.
I'll probably just stay in and watch "Curb" on DVD instead. After all, tomorrow is a work day.
Maybe you can talk them in posting a public service anouncement about all of KC's murders.
ReplyDeleteSo there's no way they're going to tear it down right?
ReplyDeletePersonally, it doesn't really bother me all that much. But it did remind me of a cool little rhyme from Ogden Nash:
ReplyDelete"I think that I shall never see a billboard as lovely as a tree.
Indeed, unless all the billboards fall, I'll never see a tree at all."
And I believe somewhere in the fine print..KC taxpayers are either paying for this or are on the hook for the bond debt.
ReplyDeleteIt just keeps getting better don't it?
thanks Kay. Wayne, keep up the good work.
So maybe they could lower ticket prices.
ReplyDeleteKC is ahead of the nation. We used to be the city of fountains. Now we are the city of high definition displays (sprint center and at the K).
ReplyDeleteWay to go. At least there's no high def sign out at KCI where they have the 1970ish neon light display with the sewage water spilling out of it!!!
WTF? You mean Kansas City taxes go toward congratulating a guy who doesn't bother to comb his hair?
ReplyDeleteWhat a bunch of losers! Tony is just upset because there's a white guy being congratulated for his success. If it was toting a brownback for an excellent tag job he'd be throwing around the kuddos. As for making it seem like he didn't know who David was or was it accomplished, I sincerely doubt it. It's just his way to downplaying the fact that the white guy won!
ReplyDeleteAmeriklan for the win!
XV3
What's a brownback?
ReplyDeleteYou better believe that KC taxpayers are footing the bill for the Sprint Center's infrastructure costs as well as the electric bill for that cotdamned billboard.
ReplyDeleteAs usual, corporate welfare > trumps everything else.
I'd like to see a municipality invest the same money they use to handjob big time companies with and give a vocation to working class people. An electrical layman's course would be a good start.
Pay for your own G-D electrician's course, you fucking goldbricker.
ReplyDeleteThe marquee is in a business district not a neighborhood like the one in the westside welcoming Mexicans.
ReplyDeleteI love the white commenters on Tony's blog. They actually disprove white supremecy everyday. Fucking idiots.
ReplyDeleteWhile that may be true, I'm still betting that a cure for cancer doesn't come out of Guadalajara.
ReplyDeleteProbably China, prig.
ReplyDeleteWhen will we see this headline about all the illegals breaking the law on here you dumbass.
ReplyDeleteI was waiting for somebody to mention that.
ReplyDelete