Boeing, Boeing, gone.

The people of Wichita are grumbling about this week’s announcement by Boeing, that will pull its 2.160 jobs, and all work out of their sprawling compound in southeast Wichita.

Kansas Governor Sam Brownback

Union members are bitter. Not long ago, they signed a new contract that gave them hope, if not promises of continued jobs in Wichita. Politicians are just as upset, because they’re the ones who were really made to look foolish. Governor Sam Brownback is disappointed, as is Senator Pat Roberts. State Representative Mike Pompeo is pissed. Former Representative Todd Tiahrt is silent, for the most part.

Boeing Wichita

Brownback, Roberts and then Representative Todd Tiahrt used an amazing amount of influence on Capitol Hill over the past decade, to get the Air Force Tanker project awarded to Boeing. The surely felt they had bought Boeing’s commitment to stay in Kansas, but there was no bill of sale.

You see, if  Brownback, Roberts, Tiahrt and Pompeo had a signed document promising jobs for the tanker deal, Boeing would have been accused of buying their way into a $35 billion Air Force contract to supply aerial refueling tankers. That’s not to say that would have been the first time Boeing had been accused of using their clout to swing a Capitol Hill vote.

But the politicians have been forced to admit that all they had was a wink and a nod, and maybe an under-the-table handshake from Boeing to cement the jobs-for-contract deal. Pompeo is still stomping up and down, hoping to attract enough attention to Boeing’s shady practice of getting the girl, then leaving town before the marriage to cause the company embarrassment. Good luck, Mike.

Boeing will vacate their hangers, offices and plants by the end of 2013, although the layoffs will start early in the 3rd quarter of this year. Some of the workers will be allowed to transfer and follow the work to other cities and states, but not all. Boeing’s evacuation from Wichita will sting, a lot, for a long time. But economists predict that back-fill from other aviation jobs will offset the losses, in time.

The lesson learned from this set of events should be that agreements between government and business need to be reduced to writing. If a deal could be embarrassing, or illegal and you don’t want to put it in writing, then don’t do the deal! That’s transparent government. And good business.

Tags: Boeing, Brownback, Pompeo, Wichita

Cabela’s is bluffing.

Cabela’s doesn’t need a Community Improvement District (CID) from the City of Wichita to justify building a store in this market. I can’t imagine that this company hasn’t done its’ due diligence prior to announcing plans to build a store in northeast Wichita.

Companies like Cabela’s invest thousands upon thousands of dollars researching market demographics and spending habits. They see enough Wichita zip codes at the cash registers in their closest store in Kansas City, Kansas to know that if they build it, we will come.

If they didn’t want, or NEED to build here, they wouldn’t. Cabela’s wants to expand, and Wichita is the only logical place in the Midwest/Southwest with the population to support it. And let’s not forget, Cabela’s is the consolation prize, and not the Bass Pro that everyone wanted in the first place. This isn’t a convenience store in a blighted neighborhood, or a hotel chain looking to reduce the cost of an antique rehab job in the downtown core area. Cabela’s will not be a destination location like the one next to the Kansas Speedway in Kansas City, and it will not draw shoppers to Wichita that weren’t coming already. And you must realize that the jobs they create will be largely be part-time, paying minimum wage salaries.

Cabela’s can afford to build here without a CID. They know it. The City Council knows it. And now, you know it too. The Wichita City Council should treat them like we do any other developer, making them pay special assessments for services like access roads, sewer and water service. It’s time for Wichita to stop “giving away the farm”, instead of falling for this sportsman’s paradise excuses “hook, line and sinker”.

Hidden costs part of business at Intrust Bank Arena

Today, the Wichita Eagle ran a story about ticket prices at the Intrust Bank Arena, in an attempt to educate their readers about the extra fees levied on some ticket purchases. While the article gave some understanding of what the charges were, I wish there was more information detailing how much of those extra charges were profits for the arena, SMG, and Sedgwick County. I would be surprised if the county didn’t receive at least a percentage of those extra profits, and I would have like to known what that percentage is. It wasn’t mentioned in the article.

Still, the convenience charges and delivery charges are not high enough to to make most of us take time off work to stand in a ticket line. The arenas, the ticket sellers and the promoters know this. Part of their job is to find as may ways to increase revenue as they can, just like my company does…just like your company does.

It’s a business, folks. If you don’t want to pay the extra fees (except for the $2/ticket facility fee, which probably goes straight to SMG as profit) you can buy your tickets at the venue’s box office. But it is not yours or my job to alter a legal business agreement that Sedgwick County commissioners had no choice, but to enter into. Commissioners Tim Norton or Karl Peterjohn can’t run the arena by themselves, any more than you or I could. That’s why we hire professional companies like SMG to do it for us.

Tags: fees, Intrust Bank Arena, profits, Sedgwick County, tickets