Ron Holt Quotations

The point, I think, is that Camden Yards really fits into that neighborhood but it has the 'wow' factor. A great new building that excites people but doesn't take away from the neighborhood.

What we're asking for is a professional opinion on what it would take to have a feasibility assessment for this project. The commissioners are asking us about it and we really have no basis to evaluate it. From a personal standpoint, it appears to me that this idea would cost much more than what we're talking about downtown, but we're going to ask our experts about that.

What we need is to get six or eight months of receipts before we get some feel for whether we have a problem,

Basically, the idea is that the arena needs to be near an existing district rather than rely on creating its own district,

Because of the impact of this project on our community, not only for now but for 30 to 40 years in the future, having the compelling information about what that other site offers, it felt prudent to bring it before the public,

Because this is a project that's going to be around for 30 years, and because we are going to do more research on those sites, we felt it was important to do that,

We talked about the needs of children. After several meetings it was clear the group had a shared dream and common vision, ... In this neighborhood, test scores are low, crime rate is high. We need to develop children who grow into healthy and thoughtful adults.

We're not worried about the size meeting the needs now and well into the future.

We had a long discussion about that, ... The idea was that urban planners came to us and thought they wouldn't be completing their obligations to a 30- to 40-year project unless they offered up another site that was obvious to them should be considered. Rather than shut that off, the commissioners thought it might as well be on the table for further discussion.

Those who are not in those areas will know that they're not going to be affected by the arena. Some of the property owners that are in those areas may yet still be unaffected, but we won't know until we do more study.

There is a tremendous amount of detail to be looked after, and of course, that's why we have the experts to help us do the design but we really want the lay people, if you will, to look at it from a fan experience. It absolutely makes a difference to sit in the seats, sit shoulder to shoulder.

We want to benefit from their own experience, as well as the conversations they can have with their friends and neighbors, to make sure that the county is listening and responsive to the public in this process.

We will have space that will be unfinished for more suites if the market demands that and or that space might be used for other kind of seating but it's not for a large expansion, just a different use of the space inside the arena walls if you will.

We're talking about functionality, how the place will be used, the kind of events, the circulation inside the building.

We've had a fairly conservative, yet well-thought out approach to this, ... But again, we'll just have to wait and see the actual impact.

It may be idealistic, ... but that's our plan.

It's for people who love business. There are people who love sports, sailing fishing and whatever. Then there are people like me who love anything related to business, whether it be talking about ideas, trying to help others improve their business or just talking about things that are happening around the nation.

In our research what we found was that Wichita is a 13,500-seat arena town. What we also found, though, was that the move to 15,000 seats for basketball had a negligible effect on the price of the building. Go beyond that, though, and the costs go up.