You may have heard rumblings occasionally about a new outdoor music venue coming to the Kansas City area. Well, it's coming, and there's a good chance outdoor shed concerts in Kansas City will have a different look next year. The City of Riverside and Live Nation are building a 15,000-seat amphitheater in Riverside, just north of the City and close to the Kansas border. Yet, is it necessary?

First, I read in some news report—I can't remember where—that the amphitheater will be larger than Azura, formerly the old Sandstone in Bonner Springs and the Starlight Theatre. That's probably a plus for those artists who could use the extra capacity but might not need to book a show at the T-Mobile Center and don't need a stadium like Arrowhead. Second, they say 12,000 people will be covered by a canopy, making it more comfortable for most during a rainy evening.

At first, my cynical thought was that Live Nation wanted its own venue in Kansas City and didn't want to deal with venues it didn't manage or own. They're developing the land and will control the Riverside venue. Yet, I found a few interesting things when I looked into the matter.

Live Nation books the concert part of Starlight's season, and Starlight's capacity is just under 8,000 people. So, while part of Live Nation's motivation might be to have its own venue in Kansas City, the 8,000-seat capacity at Starlight is small for an outdoor shed venue. For example, Live Nation's Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre in St. Louis has a capacity of 20,000. That may explain why some shed shows are playing Live Nation venues, such as Chicago and St. Louis, but not Kansas City.

Chris Fritz's New West Presentations book The Azura Amphitheatre. Since Live Nation consolidated much of the concert industry, promoters like New West and Chicago's Jam Productions have gone from being the big dog promoters in their market to figuring out how to coexist and create a niche competing with Live Nation.

New West has done an excellent job bringing a mix of alternative acts, outlaw country artists, and festivals like the very successful Country Stampede and Kelce Jam to the venue. Azura also has a slightly larger capacity than the new venue, so I'm not sure a new venue changes all that much for New West.

After considering all this, is a new venue needed? Considering how many concerts Live Nation brings to Kansas City at Starlight with a small capacity, I'd say YES. However, I don't know enough about Kansas City's concert scene or history to speculate why they couldn't or wouldn't want to use Azura Amphitheater for at least some shows where Starlight's capacity is insufficient.

Mostly, though, if I'm disappointed in anything, it's the location. I'd like NOT to go north of Kansas City to see a show. That's a haul for anyone in West Central Missouri. It's a long ride from Sedalia, and while not as bad from Warrensburg, it's still not what I'd call an easy drive. Yet, for those in Sedalia, it's still a marginally better drive than going to a show in St. Louis.

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That said, I get it. After seeing Styx at Cable Dahmer Arena a few weeks ago, I think it's safe to say that if they had built an outdoor venue in Lee's Summit, Independence, or Blue Springs, they would not have had a problem drawing an audience, and it would have made it easier for us here in West Central Missouri.

Yet, the area around Riverside and North Kansas City is not a bad drive for most in the Kansas City area on either side of the state line. If I'm building a 15,000-seat anything, I'd be more interested in being in the middle of it than the outskirts of the burbs near rural Missouri.

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