Webinar Recap: Behind the Scene of the Kansas City Sports Commission & Foundation with Kathy Nelson

Thursday, March 12, 2020, should have been a great day for Kathy Nelson. A full day of Big 12 basketball awaited her along with thousands of rabid fans from throughout the conference who were supposed to cram into the Power & Light District from then until Sunday, awash in school colors, with Jayhawks, Cyclones, Longhorns and Wildcats united in their love of basketball.

Instead, as the president and CEO of the Kansas City Sports Commission and Foundation stood in a hallway at the T-Mobile Center looking at players from the men’s team of the University of Texas, her heart was breaking. Texas players and coaches were crying. She was crying. Big 12 Conference officials were crying. The media was in shock trying not to cry and trying to work. Moments before the first game of the day, the league announced that the tournament would be cancelled. COVID-19 had taken away the event she and her staff plan years in advance to pull off.

Since then, Nelson has been working at breakneck pace on several fronts: keeping the lights on at the Sports Commission, picking up the pieces of a lost spring, summer and probably fall, and figuring out a way forward for her and her staff.

Nelson shared her insights into the new world of event planning during COVID-19 at the August ACG Kansas City virtual breakfast event.

Nelson has learned a lot since March, she said. About herself, her team and what’s possible when you are faced with a seemingly impossible task. This year, obviously, wasn’t supposed to be this way.

“2020 actually started off busier than usual,” she said.

There were the 28 bids for NCAA championships her team sent in the day before the Super Bowl so they could enjoy the game. Then there was the victory parade and, just two days later, the annual Win for KC luncheon. After that week the team was in full-on basketball mode with the MIAA men’s basketball tournament, the  Big 12 Basketball Tournament (made even crazier this year since the women’s tournament was returning to run concurrently), the NAIA Men’s Basketball Tournament and a planned meeting with FIFA in late March to talk about Kansas City hosting part of soccer’s World Cup.

But after the day the basketball tournament stopped, Nelson sent her team of 20 full-time employees and interns home. She thought it would be for a couple of weeks. Early August was the next time they would be in the office together.

“It was one of those times when life and work blur,” she said. “It was one of the heaviest weeks in my professional life.”

The Sports Commission has three primary focuses:

1. Increasing the amount of people in the metropolitan area who participate in sports;
2. Increase the numbers of people watching live sporting events; and,
3. Celebrating our sporting achievements, i.e. planning and executing World Series a Super Bowl victory parades.

Each of those areas is also supposed to generate revenue for the Commission, not to mention the adjacent restaurants, hotels, retail stores, etc., who benefit from events. When COVID-19 hit, it was time to reimagine how those goals could be reached. Nelson said there have been many positives to come out of the last few months.

“We transitioned all of our sporting events to virtual events, and that’s been a great success,” she said. “We moved the KC Triathalon from May to August a now we’ve made it a virtual event with people nationally and internationally signing up.”

The international reach of the Sports Commission is a definite COVID-19 positive, she said. Turning the Garmin Kansas City Marathon into a virtual event has attracted participants from around the world. Being virtual with everything also opened up the ages in all the events.

The Commission’s team worked diligently this summer to partner with Operation Breakthrough and Big Brothers and Big Sisters to provide a summer camp experience for kids at those organizations. She and her team are working on a unique pre-game/COVID-19 safe event for opening night of the NFL season when the Kansas City Chiefs host the Houston Texans.

Nelson is also excited about the Esports world the Commission is delving into. There’s a new Kansas City Esports Coalition that’s working on improving fiber connectivity, creating events and attracting existing large-scale Esports tournaments.

“According to national people, Kansas City is already a step ahead in the country, so we need to continue creating opportunities for this.”

In addition to the Esports opportunities, Nelson said there is a lot to look forward to in the COVID-19 era of Kansas City sports.

“We would love to have some part of the World Cup – that would transform the city,” she said. “We’re scheduled for the NFL draft – that’s a ‘pinch me’ moment. And, we would love to get the NCAA Div. 1 Wrestling Championships here – it’s the next largest championship after men’s basketball.

“And we never take the Big 12 for granted.”