Smoking ban vote to affect Kansas City stadiums
By DEANN SMITH
The Kansas City Star
Here’s a perplexing decision facing Kansas City voters:
If they approve a smoking ban April 8, it will allow more smoking at Kauffman and Arrowhead stadiums.
That’s because new and stricter smoking rules that go into effect at the stadiums today would be overturned if the ballot measure is approved.
And while that measure would be stricter on smoking in bars and restaurants, it doesn’t include stadium smoking.
But many major league stadiums are moving in the opposite direction. In fact, more than half of baseball and football stadiums have banned smoking entirely, a Star survey found.
“The trend is clearly moving toward stadiums going 100-percent smoke free,” said Cynthia Hallett, executive director of the California-based American Nonsmokers’ Rights Foundation. “Hopefully (Kansas City) will begin to recognize they are a little behind the times.”
Organizers behind the ballot measure say it provides effective protection for the public, and that the teams or other citizen groups can tackle stadium smoking.
“We are trying to control secondhand smoke in indoor public places and workplaces,” said Dana Laiben, spokeswoman for Breathe Easy Kansas City. “With outdoor exposure, there is no risk.”
If it seems confusing, here’s a recap of how we got here.
Currently, the Royals ban smoking in the seating area and the restrooms, and place some restrictions on where people can smoke in concourses. On the upper and lower concourses, smokers are asked to move to the outer ledge or the ramps. Smoking is allowed throughout the outfield concourses, including the concession lines.
Arrowhead is one of just a handful of National Football League stadiums that allow smoking throughout concourses, including concession lines, The Star’s survey found.
But today, new rules go into effect.
The rules, passed by the City Council in January, eliminate smoking in the concourses although ramps are not covered by the ban. The rules also restrict smoking in bars and restaurants with liquor licenses to after 9 p.m.
Councilman Ed Ford, who pushed the measure, said he wanted to focus on places where children would be. In smoke-filled concourses, adults will hold cigarettes level with the heads of youngsters, he said.
The council’s action came in response to Breathe Easy’s ballot measure, which would ban smoking at all bars and restaurants but did not include any changes to Truman Sports Complex.
Westport property owner Bill Nigro opposes the ballot measure, saying it makes more sense to ban smoking at the stadium concourses where children are than bars where children are not.
Nigro, president of the Kansas City Business Rights Coalition, also pointed out that several Breathe Easy organizers, including Laiben, have ties to either the teams or the public authority that oversees the sports complex.
Laiben, a former administrative assistant for the sports authority, scoffed at the notion that any ties influenced Breathe Easy. She and others said the issue of a smoking ban at the stadiums is up to the council, the county, the teams or other citizens groups.
Councilwoman Cathy Jolly, a cancer survivor and co-chairwoman of the campaign to get the April 8 measure approved, said she would be willing to discuss further smoking restrictions at the stadiums.
But Ford disagreed. “I am reluctant to overturn the will of the people,” he said.
Jackson County, which owns the stadiums and thus could enact its own regulations, has chosen to stay out of the smoke-free debate. And neither the Chiefs nor Royals have expressed interest in going smoke-free on their own.
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To reach DeAnn Smith, call 816-234-4412 or send e-mail to dsmith@kcstar.com.
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