The nation's second most-played rivalry game between Missouri and Kansas will have a new home in 2007 and 2008. This year's game originally set for November 24 at Memorial Stadium in Lawrence, will now be played at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City. The 2008 game will then be played at Arrowhead instead of Columbia, Missouri. For their efforts, the schools are guaranteed to receive at least $1 million from the game in each of the next two years.
While this isn't the first Big 12 game to be moved to Arrowhead – previously Nebraska played Oklahoma State in 1998 and in 2005 Kansas met Oklahoma at the NFL stadium – switching rivalry games to off-campus sites is a disturbing trend. At some point it becomes a question of how willing a school should be to trade a home-field advantage for a bigger payday. As one Kansas fan notes:
"KU has been great against Missouri at home in the last four years," he said. "We've had their number every time. We've killed them. I'd hate to see that momentum go away just because we want to play at Arrowhead."
But fans aren't the only ones disturbed by the move. Business owners in Lawrence are also upset and a recent economic study concluded the move will cost Kansas, Douglas County and the city of Lawrence a combined $713,000.
(via The Wizard of Odds)

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
4-03-2007 @ 1:47PM
thehogblogger.com said...
Hey, January called. It wants its story back. I slay me.
Reply
4-03-2007 @ 3:47PM
educ8tor said...
It may be a January story, but who was paying attention then?
Reply