Lamar Hunt, Jr.

Lamar Hunt Jr.’s Loretto Sports acquires Missouri Mavericks:  Loretto Sports Ventures, LLC, a company owned by Lamar Hunt, Jr., has announced that it purchased the Kansas City Mavericks of the East Coast Hockey League and that Lamar Hunt, Jr. had been approved for ownership status by the ECHL Board Of Directors.  The ECHL is considered the premier AA professional hockey league, and the Mavs play their home games at the Independence Events Center in Independence, Missouri.

At the press conference, Lamar said that “today is an exciting day for the Kansas City Mavericks and our great fans.  Since 2009, the Mavericks have been an exemplary hockey franchise.  I have seen firsthand how the team and staff come together to create a competitive product on the ice, as well as an exhilarating game day experience at Independence Events Center. We are pleased to have the opportunity to build upon the foundation of success the team has established and can’t wait to get started.”

The Kansas City Mavericks entered a new era for the 2014-15 season after a historic move to the ECHL.  Last October, the Mavericks, along with six other teams of the former Central Hockey League (CHL), were formally accepted as expansion member teams into the ECHL.  The Mavs have made the playoffs in each of their… Continue reading →

Anyone watching the Super Bowl in February of 2013 (not the most recent blow-out of the Broncos by the Seahawks) witnessed a critical change in momentum in the direction of the game when the lights went out. Until that point, the Baltimore Ravens had dominated the game but, shortly after halftime, when the lights went out, the 49ers regrouped and came storming back to almost win in the final seconds. In like manner, the momentum in our culture has shifted to life or pro-life. The abortion industry has relied heavily on countering a “pro-life” position with a “pro-choice” position. In the past pro-choice has rung true for many people because everyone likes to have choices. However, the term pro-choice objectively means that one supports the legalized killing of unborn babies. It's a harsh characterization, but it's true. It cannot be rationalized in any other way. Those who support abortion have now shifted to characterizing a pro-life position as one of waging a war on women. But the pro-life position is truly pro-woman – not anti-woman.  The pro-abortion movement is struggling to find a new marketing message but somehow they cannot get away from what they are actually advocating – which is to be able to legally kill unborn babies. An unborn baby is a human being with potential, not a potential human being.

So how… Continue reading →

My wife Rita and I get many invitations to help with events in the greater Kansas City community and, of course, we can’t say “yes” to every request. When we do take on an obligation, we try to share the good news about that organization with the hope that others may want to get involved, even if only in a small way. One thing we’ve taken on this spring is to be the Honorary Chairs for Operation Breakthrough’s 16^th Annual Fundraiser, “Recipe for Success”, on April 25^th, 2014 from 5:30-10:00pm at the Downtown Marriott/Muelbach Tower.

For those of you that do not know about Operation Breakthrough and what they do, let me fill you in.  We’ve all heard the phrase “children-at-risk” and that is the population that Operation Breakthrough focuses on – children-at-risk and their parents. Located at 3039 Troost in Kansas City Missouri, Operation Breakthrough was founded in 1971 by Sister Corita Bussanmas and Sister Berta Sailer in response to requests from center-city residents for quality child care for children from working-poor families. It is the largest nationally-accredited, single-site childcare center in the state of Missouri.  They care for 450 children every day and 85% of enrolled children are from families living below the poverty level, often making less than $14,000 per year. Besides providing early-childhood education, Operation Breakthrough also provides… Continue reading →

Recently author and actor (and maybe good old-fashioned philosopher) Ben Stein wrote an article about a very close friend taking his own life. He was a man that Mr. Stein had respected and been in his circle of close friends since early childhood. Apparently this gentleman was alone and dejected about his health and though once wealthy, he had found himself deeply in debt with no means of making a living. He saw his only options as poverty or death, or so he thought. Mr. Stein said, “The suicide of this man has burned through my brain like a brush fire that never goes out.”

Mr. Stein went on to reflect that he had given money to this man on various occasions before he died but regretted that he had not done more for him. Mr. Stein, with his usual disarming candor, admitted that because he had be burned (or taken) in the past for loaning money to relatives, he was leery about this man. However he reflects that “I should have been willing to take the gamble that I would get ripped off another time.”

The second thought that Mr. Stein revealed was that this man maybe could have made arrangements to live more modestly including looking into a small apartment or even Section 8 housing and spent more time in the public library… Continue reading →

This past November I traveled to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as a guest of the UAE Ambassador of to the United States, His Excellency Yousef Al Otaiba. The primary purpose of the trip was to attend the Abu Dhabi Formula I Grand Prix race and finalize details for Major League Soccer club FC Dallas to do some pre-season training in the UAE at the Al Jazira Soccer Club facility. The Al Jazira Soccer Club (the name “Al Jazira” means “The Islands”) is owned by His Highness Sheikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Hahyan who might be better recognized as the principal owner of Manchester City of the English Premier League (EPL). Sheikh Mansour is also the newest investor in the latest franchise in MLS (the New York FC franchise) and has partnered with the New York Yankees on this investment. New York FC is scheduled to begin MLS play in 2015 and will play their home games at Yankee Stadium until a site (preferably in Manhattan) is developed exclusively for the team.

The Abu Dhabi Formula I Grand Prix, and the surrounding activities, is an event on the level of the Super Bowl in the UAE. There were remarkable dinners with entertainment (including budding opera star Vittorio Grigolo) and, for those of us who were not familiar with the UAE, sightseeing.… Continue reading →