By LESLIE COLLINS
Northeast News
July 25, 2012

Although the All-Star billboards and decals have been removed, Kansas City is still abuzz over Major League Baseball’s All-Star week.

“How could you not be proud of Kansas City over the last week?” said Stacy Bartlett, vice president of destination services for the Kansas City Convention & Visitors Association. “Kansas City can handle these kinds of events. We can hang with the best of them.”

For the All-Star Game, 27.7 million viewers tuned in, up 7 percent from last year and matching the largest increase in total viewership since 1998. Attendance for FanFest totaled 119,092, the fourth highest in MLB history and a 7.5% increase from last year’s total.

Two-hundred twenty countries watched the All-Star Game, which was broadcast in 15 different languages.

“We were definitely a global event,” said Kimiko Gilmore, assistant to the city manager. “People will be back in Kansas City. We are not going to be a flyover city anymore.”

During the All-Star Game week, 150,000 out-of-town folks visited Kansas City. A typical convention attracts three to five thousand people, City Council member Jim Glover said.

“Kansas City really knows what it’s doing,” City Council member Scott Wagner said. “When it came time to show up, we showed up and showed the rest of the country what to do. It’s time to aggressively go after more events. We can do them. We’ve proven that.”

Hotels in the Kansas City metro upped their prices by 30 percent during All-Star week, and the Convention & Visitors Association estimates hotels garnered $3 million on both July 9 and 10.

All-Star Public Safety

For more than a year, Kansas City strategically planned for All-Star week. Kansas City’s Emergency Operations Center (EOC) partnered with a number of city departments like the police department, fire department and public works, along with regional and federal entities.

Significant events during All-Star week included a small hazmat incident near a railroad yard, a visit from the vice president of the United States and a suspicious package, said Gene Shepherd, emergency manager of the EOC. Kansas City Police Department (KCPD) determined the suspicious package was a box of brochures that had been delivered overnight.

KCPD also conducted 23 routine bomb sweeps and the fire department conducted overnight radiation sweeps of Bartle Hall and Kauffman Stadium in addition to monitoring radiation during the day at stadium gates. During the week, an additional 300 police officers were on the streets.

Shepherd said the All-Star crowd was well behaved and that very few arrests were made.

“All in all, everything went well and we had a lot of positive feedback,” he said. “We knew we could make it go off without a hitch.”

Museum record attendance

Near 18^th and Vine, another entity benefited from the hype of All-Star week.

Negro Leagues Baseball Museum’s President Bob Kendrick said the museum tallied record attendance for the month of July. Last July, the museum hosted 5,400 visitors and by July 14, 2012, the museum had already tallied more than 5,000 visitors.

In addition, the museum received national spotlight through the game itself, a profile by USA Today, the Associated Press and other media, he said.

“I think you can already tell the immediate impact this has had on the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum,” Kendrick said. “The residual impact of this game on the museum will be felt for years to come.”

City council members praised the amount of seamless collaboration for All-Star week and the fact that 6,000 people volunteered to help with All-Star activities.

“The buzz around Kansas City and the look and feel of Kansas City was just wonderful,” City Council member Jan Marcason said. “Everyone has a sense of pride and I hope we extend that for many, many months.”