Sprint Parking Plan

Some days I can only shake my head and wonder why people can't think outside of the four-wheeled box.

Last night, Fox 4 ran a feature on downtown parking for the Sprint Center...and have even put together a downtown parking map (which doesn't include anything South of the I-670, so if you're looking for easy parking, park in the Crossroads and walk up).

Meanwhile, nowhere in the story did they mention that the MAX bus line will basically provide door-to-door service for you if you decide to park on the Plaza, at the Library, River Market, Union Station, etc and just take the Max line to the concert.    Free parking, plus $1.25 each way on the bus.  Heck, the city could encourage the behavior by actually promoting it and dropping bus prices to 50 cent(s).

Instead, we're determined to feed the crazed machine about how little parking there is downtown instead of focusing on options outside of our four-wheeled box. 

Until we start thinking and talking like a city with public transportation, we'll continue to have people underutilize in and continue to build infanitely more parking than we need and creating dead space in our city.

Comments

[Eric]

Forget public transportation, how about walking? There are 40,000 parking spaces within the loop. The Sprint Center has at most 18,000 seats. Everyone could drive two cars to the arena and still have plenty of places to park.

The city can't encourage people to take the bus because that would reduce parking revenue. It's the same reason why KCI is discourage light rail to the airport - because they depend on revenue from the parking garages and lots.

[DaveKCMO]

I sent Cauthen a note about that article. Whether he mentioned the MAX or not and the Star simply chose to leave it out, we'll never know. All I know is that it would cost the city far less to offer free MAX service on event nights than to pay for more structured parking or to acquire nearby properties for more surface lots (yes, they're looking at YOU, totally nude!).

[Brent]

Agreed Dave. And further, a lot of the parking garages downtown are owned by individuals, not the city. So they would gain all of the profits vs convincing people to take the bus. It only makes sense...plus, when people have an alternative without the frustration of finding parking/long walks, etc they will be more inclined to come downtown more often...an overall net gain for the city.

[Michelled]

There is a HUGE parking lot at the Home Depot at 31st and Main that is rarely at quarter capacity (and Costco has approx 5 million parking spaces that are never used), plus another smaller lot that isn't used after 6pm. These are right at the Max stop. OH, we better make sure they won't divert the buses so people won't be picked up AFTER the concert like they did for the River Market - leaving a ton of people stranded.

[Big XII Fan]

I will be visiting Kansas City for the Big XII tourney. We have attended the Women's tourney in Municipal Auditorium in previous years, plus the one evening basketball game in the Sprint Center and easily found parking (We really like the Municipal Auditorium parking garage).

Anyway. . . I am smart enough to realize that parking for the day sessions of the Big XII tourney will not be as easy because all the downtown office buildings will still be in full swing. With that in mind, do you have any advice or inside deals that you might be able to tell me about? Any wisdom on this topic will be greatly appreciated.

[Big XII Fan]

I will be visiting Kansas City for the Big XII tourney. We have attended the Women's tourney in Municipal Auditorium in previous years, plus the one evening basketball game in the Sprint Center and easily found parking (We really like the Municipal Auditorium parking garage).

Anyway. . . I am smart enough to realize that parking for the day sessions of the Big XII tourney will not be as easy because all the downtown office buildings will still be in full swing. With that in mind, do you have any advice or inside deals that you might be able to tell me about? Any wisdom on this topic will be greatly appreciated.

[Brent]

Big XII Fan,

I hope you have a great time at the tournament...it's going to be great having it back in Kansas City and I have no doubts that you'll enjoy the Sprint Center, the Muny is always great, and the new Power & Light District between them has a lot of events planned. It's going to be fun.

As for parking near the Sprint Center -- there are a couple of parking garages directly across Grand from the arena -- one is a huge 6 story parking garage that is above ground, there is also a garage under the Power and Light District that is five levels down. Most people won't notice this one because you can't see it. You can access both garages on 13th Street, 1/2 a block west of Grand. If you don't mind walking a bit, there should be plenty of parking just south of I670. There are several pretty big parking lots, street parking and small lots just south of the downtown loop (I don't suspect most people will venture South of the loop). That's where I'll be parking. Also, depending on where you are staying, most of the primary midtown/plaza hotels are going to have fan shuttles too that are pretty convenient.

Hope that helps. And enjoy the trip. I'll probably post some more stuff on this in the next week or two too.