The Beer Belts BBQ team cooks up some delectables at American Royal’s largest fundraiser, the World Series of Barbecue, that was held Oct. 26-30 at the Kansas Speedway.
The nonprofit American Royal Association in Kansas City, whose mission is to impact the future of agriculture, will continue doing so in Kansas City, only it will be in the state of Kansas instead of Missouri.
The announcement was made last week that after headquartering near downtown Kansas City at Kemper Arena in the West Bottoms area since 1899, the association will break ground in 2017 for a new $160-million complex across the state line and near the Kansas Speedway. The move is bittersweet as the good news of required extra space is needed for events while at the same time saying goodbye to a place that has been home for so long.
“We have one arena with a 3,000-seat capacity and exposition space,” said Lynn Parman, president and CEO of the American Royal Association. “We are somewhat limited in our ability to house more ag events and to accommodate more animals as well as to bundle some of the events together like a lot of the stock shows. We simply don’t have the footprint here to accommodate our growth and realize our vision for the future.”
Parman said that the new location will allow the association to have the room and the ability to realize that vision. There will be a 5,000-seat arena plus a smaller one at the new location as well as 300,000 square feet of exposition space to accommodate the growth projections for the animals and shows.
“We will also, for the first time, have an ag education center,” Parman said. “This will be something that will be a national draw for those that are coming in for the events from around the region and Midwest. It will be a national facility and an agriculture and education center. We are very excited about the new campus.”
Plans are now starting in the purpose design phase. Parman said that the association is working with its constituencies including the horse show community, rodeo community and livestock community.
“We will build the facility with a purpose and really understand what is needed to allow our shows to thrive and to grow them,” she said.
This year’s rodeo sold more tickets than in the last five years with standing-room capacity for a Saturday evening performance. Clearly, the extra space will be welcome.
The American Royal Association provides more than 50 scholarships a year to reward academic excellence and to promote education for those going into agricultural career paths. It also has a curriculum in third grade classrooms in four Kansas City regional elementary schools, a unique partnership that allows the association to teach kids about where their food comes from and to expose them to agriculture.
“We also have our school tours program, so this September we welcomed 5,600 kids into our complex,” Parman said. “Some of them saw animals for the first time. They learned about agriculture. They learned about where their food comes. With our new agriculture center we can have school tours year-round. We will truly become a tourist destination to teach children about agriculture and really just to celebrate and promote agriculture.”
As dawn breaks at Kansas Speedway, Kansas City, Kan., crews prepare for the days events. American Royal will relocate to this site.
The new complex is tentatively expected to be completed by 2019. The exact land tract is still being finalized. Parman said that there will be 50-plus events throughout the year. The project is a partnership with the state of Kansas and will be largely financed through the state’s sales tax revenue, or STAR bonds.
“That is a financing incentive program throughout the state of Kansas and one that we just started on for the public approval processes,” Parman said. “We hope to wrap that up before the end of the year. The remaining part will be private sector fundraising.”
After leading the Kansas City Area Development Council team that formed the KC Animal Health Corridor to promote the concentration of animal health businesses, Parman is excited about moving this newest project forward.
“From my experience, I definitely see first-hand partnerships and corroboration and what they can be for this project,” she said.
The American Royal’s largest fundraiser is its World Series of Barbecue that was held Oct. 26-30 at the Kansas Speedway. This year’s event only heightened the anticipation for the move.
“First, it is the largest barbecue competition in the world,” Parman said. “We hosted close to 50,000 people at the Kansas Speedway and had 568 teams from around the world that competed in our barbecue contest. Twenty of those were international teams representing 11 different countries. It was a spectacular weekend filled with activities for families and unique experiences for anyone that came to the event.”
The Kansas Speedway was only too happy to welcome its soon-to-be neighbors.
“The American Royal is a long-time Kansas City tradition and this was the first year that the barbecue contest has been held at Kansas Speedway,” said Kelly Hale, director of public relations for the venue. “This was a great opportunity to showcase the Kansas Speedway to national and international guests that attended or participated in the contest. We host 200 nonracing events a year and we were very excited to host the World Series of Barbecue.”
Parman noted that the barbecue has been held for 37 years and that three people were inducted into the association’s Barbecue Hall of Fame.
“It is definitely an event that celebrates barbecue, which was really born in Kansas City,” she said.
Interviewed for this article: Lynn Parman, (816) 569-4040; Kelly Hale, (913) 328-3300