Kansas City submits bids to keep Big 12 Tournament, land Copa America games
The bids assembled by the Kansas City Sports Commission are in.
Kansas City looks to continue at the home of the Big 12 men’s and women’s basketball tournaments at the Sprint Center through 2020, and to be one of the sites for Copa America, an international soccer event in 2016.
Kansas City’s Big 12 bid includes a website — Big12inKC.com — that kicks off with a 93-second spot that highlights the city’s embrace of the event.
It was filmed at the Big 12 Tournament last month. A championship game featuring the biggest draws, Iowa State and Kansas, a packed Power & Light District and chamber of commerce weather did not hurt the backdrop at all.
Dallas and Oklahoma City, which previously have held the men’s and women’s tournaments, are expected to be among other cities that bid for the Big 12 events, although it’s uncertain how many others would offer both the men and women in the same building for all four years.
Kansas City has been the site of the Big 12 men’s tournament in 14 of 19 years. An announcement on future tournament is expected from the Big 12 in late May.
The soccer tournament, Copa America Centenario USA 2016, will be held in cities across the United States in June 2016 and will mark the first time the event has been staged outside of South America in its 100-year history.
The Kansas City Sports Commission is teaming with the Chiefs, Sporting KC and Visit KC as partners in the bid process. Because of the 50,000-seat minimum seating capacity, Arrowhead Stadium will serve as the venue for the bid.
Eight to 13 stadiums are expected to be selected for the 16-team tournament, which features all 10 teams from South America’s CONMEBOL confederation and six CONCACF teams from North America, Central America and the Caribbean. The winning bids are expected to be announced sometime in May.
More than 38,000 attended Mexico’s 1-0 victory over Paraguay at Arrowhead on Tuesday.
To reach Blair Kerkhoff, call 816-234-4730 or send email to bkerkhoff@kcstar.com. Follow him on Twitter: @BlairKerkhoff.
This story was originally published April 1, 2015 at 12:31 PM with the headline "Kansas City submits bids to keep Big 12 Tournament, land Copa America games."