Another outdoor spot in Kansas City? Riverside Approves $120 Million for New Amphitheater | KCUR

Last week, the Riverside Board of Aldermen approved $120 million in bonds to build a new amphitheater along the Missouri River. The property will be owned, operated and maintained by global company Live Nation Entertainment.

The new amphitheater will accommodate 15,000 spectators, and its opening is scheduled for the 2026 concert season. It will also open in time to host spectator events for the six 2026 World Cup games to be held in the Kansas City area.

Riverside, Missouri City Administrator Brian Koral said the city has been working with Live Nation for seven years to develop the 135-acre site northwest of Horizons Parkway and Interstate 635. He said the new site will become a gathering place for Riverside residents.

“Having a place where families can enjoy an outdoor concert, a soccer game, using the trail system, all the things we’ve been working on for years,” Koral said, “it’s really exciting for the community to kind of see , how these things bear fruit.”

Koral also expects the concert venue to be a regional attraction.

“There is widespread excitement that a world-class concert hall will be built in our backyard,” Koral said. “It’s amazing, isn’t it?”

The amphitheater will include a parking lot with 5,200 parking spaces and an additional 200 spaces for rideshare drivers.

The site will have access to Missouri River Trailthat connects Riverside to the Line Creek Trail, and Koral said plans for the site accommodate all types of traffic, including pedestrians and cyclists.

“To be able to say, ‘I’m going to a concert,’ but instead of getting in my car and taking the subway, I’m going to hop on my bike and ride the trail,” Koral said, “that’s just really cool potential.”

Live Nation will cover $95 million of construction costs, which is the bulk of the funding for the project. The state of Missouri will provide $20 million to support public infrastructure such as roads and parking lots, and the city of Riverside will invest $5 million.

Live Nation will also save $15 million in tax incentives, including sales and use tax exemptions for construction materials and a 10-year property tax exemption.

According to Koral, the amphitheater is to be located in an industrial park near ul Kansas City Current football training complex and Argosy Casino and Hotelshould have minimal impact on neighbors, and project plans include residential areas on the bluff above the project.

“It’s really going to be designed to minimize the impact on neighbors,” Koral said. “From a residential perspective, sounds will travel away from residential areas.”

Expected impact on the music scene

Some in the Kansas City music scene wondered whether the subway could handle another large music venue.

Frank Hicks, owner of the popular Knuckleheads music venue in the East Bottoms, doesn’t expect his business to be affected, but said other, larger concert venues in the city may behave differently.

“I look at it as a city music lover and as a city music lover, I think it’s going to be good,” said Hicks, who has hosted bands at his 120-year-old railroad guesthouse since 1985.

“I think the people who will be affected more than anyone else are the old Sandstone (now Azura Amphitheater) and places like Stellar (Theatre),” Hicks said. “Starlight is half the size of this new place, but it will still compete with them in some ways.”

KCUR reached out to Azura Amphitheater and T-Mobile Center for comment on the project but did not hear back.

In a statement, Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas downplayed concerns about the Starlight, a 7,739-seat outdoor theater owned by the city.

“Starlight has been a tradition at Swope Park for Kansas City families since 1950,” he wrote. “New fads and new venues will come and go, but the quality, tradition and diversity of the performances and audiences at Starlight will remain.”

Protection of the facility against flooding

The development in tiny Riverside, on the north bank of the Missouri River just above its confluence with the Kansas River, has a long history with flooding.

According to the Kansas City Star: Stadium by the river held auto races on a quarter-mile dirt track in what is now the parking lot of the Riverside Red X grocery store, beginning in June 1951.

Next month historic flood of 1951 it completely obscured the race track, interrupting racing and causing $60,000 worth of repairs.

The track was demolished in the late 1980s and the area was designated for industrial development.

The Missouri River also caused havoc in Riverside during Great flood in 1993. Without a dam protecting the area, the Red X grocery store, located near the river on Northwest Platte Drive, was close to being flooded.

Koral said investments in flood protection since then should protect the city and the area where the amphitheater is located from a 500-year flood.

“After the 1993 flood, the city got involved and said we really need to be in a position where we can control our future destiny,” Koral said. “We worked with the (Army) Corps of Engineers and the city invested over $80 million in levee construction.”

Antitrust charges against Live Nation

Live Nation Entertainment, based in Beverly Hills, California, made news earlier this year when the U.S. Department of Justice and 30 state and district attorneys general filed a civil antitrust lawsuit against the company and Ticketmaster LLC. Kansas joined lawsuit in August.

At a press conference in May, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland accused the companies of unlawful, anticompetitive conduct and of exercising monopoly control over the country’s live events industry.

“As a result, fans pay more in fees, artists have fewer opportunities to play shows, smaller promoters are squeezed out and venues have fewer choices in ticketing,” Garland said. “It’s time to part ways with Live Nation-Ticketmaster.”

Living Nation responded to the lawsuit in a statementblaming high ticket prices on artists and illegal ticket sellers. Live Nation rejected the notion that the company exercises monopoly power and defended the ticket fees it charges as fair market rates for the services it provides.

According to Forbes, Live Nation does grossed over $23 billion revenue this year and amounted to $18 billion in 2023.

Koral said he doesn’t believe the lawsuit will impact the Riverside project.

“This dispute will take its own course, and the city is not a party to it,” Koral said. “The city is happy with the direction we are taking at this point.”

The official laying of the foundation stone for the amphitheater is planned in the next few weeks.