Last Place in the Standings

The question has already been asked, “When Histories Compete, Who Wins?” Well, what else does local heritage tourism compete with? Look no further than the epicenter of competition where the Chiefs play football, the Royals play baseball, and, more recently, college football match-ups such as the “Border Showdown” with MU versus KU. It is called the Harry S. Truman Sports Complex, yes, named after our good neighbor. With the high concentration of people coming to this part of the KC Area, someone a few decades ago thought it was a brilliant idea to locate our Missouri Tourism Welcome Center at the Sports Complex property. Unfortunately traffic and architectural designs were not considered with this site selection. The photo above is a view of the Welcome Center from street level taken last winter. One can easily miss it while driving by. On games days, it is almost impossible to get to because of the traffic. For game days/events that are near sell-outs, they actually lock the doors and close the Welcome Center to avoid traffic problems (which goes against the reason for putting here). And even though Jackson County taxpayers are spending $600 million to update the Truman Sports Complex property, not one dime was considered necessary to improve the Tourism Welcome Center. Visitors who are successful in getting there are greeted by a concrete building with no apparent front entrance. When you find the front door, you are greeted with a sign that states “Please do not leave valuables unattended in your car” which may lead some to go back to their car and keep driving out of town. It should not be surprising that the KC Welcome Center is in last place in the standings for visitor head-counts considering all six centers throughout the state that were operating the entire year of 2008. Yes it’s true, the Chiefs and Royals are not the only last place teams located at the Harry S. Truman Sports Complex.