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interesting take from a Draft attendee from out of town
Posted on: May 1, 2023 at 08:16:27 CT
Joeboo MU
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https://www.reddit.com/r/kansascity/comments/133yf0h/kansas_city_businesses_share_disappointment_at/
As a KC draft visitor and visitor to the last few drafts, I have a thought of two from the visitor perspective.
1) this draft was EXPENSIVE to attend. I am in some fan organizations so I am friends with fans from all over the country who go to these events. I was also an inner circle guest and speak to some team reps. Everyone was complaining how expensive hotels were, much more than anywhere else including Vegas. I stayed at the Home2Suites downtown. Normally a brand that is 120-150 a night, was at over $500 per night until they sold out. For the fans that came weds/Thurs to Saturday it was a lot of money to stay anywhere nearby or you were forced out near the airport. Draining guests of that money or putting them at hotels out near the airport are both bad situations for other local businesses looking for business.
2) the way this fan experience and draft stage was set up led to a lot of walking and being on your feet. We are talking miles. Everyone was drained from it and I am sure a lot of fans just went home afterwards, especially any of the fans in the theater or who stayed for the concerts.
3) getting around was a huge hassle. I picked a hotel that I thought would be really close and convenient, but the layout of the city, the highways and train tracks, the layout of the draft experience and road closures plus all the ongoing construction was just too much of a hassle to really explore the city.
4) not a lot of local businesses, namely restaurants, extending hours to take advantage of the draft. Coming out of the draft after midnight left few options for food, mainly 1 of 2 town topic burger shacks (why did I wait 90+ minutes when they could have kept their other location open) or terrible pizza were my only options. In my opinion businesses did not look to hustle at the right time and right way to capitalize. Even a place like mcfaddens in P&L, we were at a table of 20+, took our food order, and 15 minutes later told us sorry the kitchen was closed. This was at about 10pm on Weds night while Lainey Wilson was still performing on stage and the place was packed. How poor was that planning!
5) this one might not go over well, but the truth hurts sometimes…..I was met with a lot of laziness or rudeness by people in town working in retail or hospitality. They acted like I was bothering them whenever I asked for something. This sentiment was shared by a lot of other people I spoke to. A number of people who live in neighboring areas said that is a general problem with people working in KC. I know that will hurt some feelings of **** some people off, but it’s what was experienced and said by too many people I spoke to. As a counter to that though, I went to Jones BBQ and although not actually downtown KC, I want to give props to how absolutely wonderful they were in addition to amazing ribs and bbq sauce among the best I’ve ever had(and I’m in the food/bbq biz).
6) I’m betting the majority of the businesses that made the real money were the big corp/franchise type places that were in major tourist areas and had concessions made to them by the city when closing and blocking streets off. I’m talking about places like Mcfaddens and the other places at P&L. The last thing I ever want to do is visit a city and go to those kinds of places.
In my opinion as someone who travels around the country and even the world for events, hosts his own events, and is in the food and catering biz, KC just seemed very much not ready for this kind of thing. Maybe a more traditional event in a stadium will be better by the time the WC comes, but for the draft it just wasn’t ready. Things I enjoyed: If you read all that, I’ll just say I loved the history of Town Topic and the burgers were good for what they were, loved my Z Man at Joes at the gas station, Jones BBQ may have been the best ribs I ever had and one of the best bbq sauces, Jack Stacks onion rings were great and really good cheesy corn and bbq beans, Grünauer at freight house was an outstanding spot I stumbled upon by chance with excellent bartenders making fantastic cocktails and great food served by knowledge staff.
Edited by Joeboo at 08:16:41 on 05/01/23
As a KC draft visitor and visitor to the last few drafts, I have a thought of two from the visitor perspective.
1) this draft was EXPENSIVE to attend. I am in some fan organizations so I am friends with fans from all over the country who go to these events. I was also an inner circle guest and speak to some team reps. Everyone was complaining how expensive hotels were, much more than anywhere else including Vegas. I stayed at the Home2Suites downtown. Normally a brand that is 120-150 a night, was at over $500 per night until they sold out. For the fans that came weds/Thurs to Saturday it was a lot of money to stay anywhere nearby or you were forced out near the airport. Draining guests of that money or putting them at hotels out near the airport are both bad situations for other local businesses looking for business.
2) the way this fan experience and draft stage was set up led to a lot of walking and being on your feet. We are talking miles. Everyone was drained from it and I am sure a lot of fans just went home afterwards, especially any of the fans in the theater or who stayed for the concerts.
3) getting around was a huge hassle. I picked a hotel that I thought would be really close and convenient, but the layout of the city, the highways and train tracks, the layout of the draft experience and road closures plus all the ongoing construction was just too much of a hassle to really explore the city.
4) not a lot of local businesses, namely restaurants, extending hours to take advantage of the draft. Coming out of the draft after midnight left few options for food, mainly 1 of 2 town topic burger shacks (why did I wait 90+ minutes when they could have kept their other location open) or terrible pizza were my only options. In my opinion businesses did not look to hustle at the right time and right way to capitalize. Even a place like mcfaddens in P&L, we were at a table of 20+, took our food order, and 15 minutes later told us sorry the kitchen was closed. This was at about 10pm on Weds night while Lainey Wilson was still performing on stage and the place was packed. How poor was that planning!
5) this one might not go over well, but the truth hurts sometimes…..I was met with a lot of laziness or rudeness by people in town working in retail or hospitality. They acted like I was bothering them whenever I asked for something. This sentiment was shared by a lot of other people I spoke to. A number of people who live in neighboring areas said that is a general problem with people working in KC. I know that will hurt some feelings of **** some people off, but it’s what was experienced and said by too many people I spoke to. As a counter to that though, I went to Jones BBQ and although not actually downtown KC, I want to give props to how absolutely wonderful they were in addition to amazing ribs and bbq sauce among the best I’ve ever had(and I’m in the food/bbq biz).
6) I’m betting the majority of the businesses that made the real money were the big corp/franchise type places that were in major tourist areas and had concessions made to them by the city when closing and blocking streets off. I’m talking about places like Mcfaddens and the other places at P&L. The last thing I ever want to do is visit a city and go to those kinds of places.
In my opinion as someone who travels around the country and even the world for events, hosts his own events, and is in the food and catering biz, KC just seemed very much not ready for this kind of thing. Maybe a more traditional event in a stadium will be better by the time the WC comes, but for the draft it just wasn’t ready. Things I enjoyed: If you read all that, I’ll just say I loved the history of Town Topic and the burgers were good for what they were, loved my Z Man at Joes at the gas station, Jones BBQ may have been the best ribs I ever had and one of the best bbq sauces, Jack Stacks onion rings were great and really good cheesy corn and bbq beans, Grünauer at freight house was an outstanding spot I stumbled upon by chance with excellent bartenders making fantastic cocktails and great food served by knowledge staff.
Edited by Joeboo at 08:16:41 on 05/01/23
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interesting take from a Draft attendee from out of town - Joeboo MU - 5/1 08:16:27