Despite being a big sports town with successful NFL and MLB franchises, Kansas City remains without an NBA or NHL team.
While the city boasts the T-Mobile Center, a modern arena capable of hosting professional teams, several key factors have kept the NHL and NBA at bay. According to Fox 4, for the NBA, market size and competition play a big role.
Kansas City has a strong basketball culture, with nearby teams like the Oklahoma City Thunder and Denver Nuggets. The league has also prioritized expansion in larger media markets like Las Vegas and Seattle.
According to the Kansas City Star, on the NHL side, Kansas City has flirted with teams before — most notably, the short-lived Kansas City Scouts in the 1970s.
However, the Kansas City Star reported that the city’s location in a traditionally non-hockey market, as well as concerns about long-term fan support, have kept it off the league’s shortlist for expansion or relocation.
There have been occasional rumors about bringing a team to Kansas City, especially when franchises like the Arizona Coyotes or Sacramento Kings have faced instability. Even NFL player Travis Kelce and his brother, former NFL player Jason Kelce, have shown a lot of interest in bringing an NHL team to Kansas City.
But for now, local sports fans will have to settle for hosting occasional preseason games and major tournaments at the T-Mobile Center while hoping for a future bid.
Benedictine Senior Davis McMullen has lived in Kansas City his whole life and has grown up loving Kansas City sports. McMullen said, “I think Kansas City is deserving of both an NHL and NBA team, and it’s disappointing that they don’t have one already, but I think it’s a matter of time before we get one of those organizations to expand to Kansas City.”
