06-21-2008 KANSAS CITY TAKES SOME HITS IN SI Kansas City folks picking up the current issue of Sports Illustrated (6/23) might become a little depressed as the nation's leading sports publication disses not just local professional sports teams, but even one of the city's leading architectural firms, HOK Sport. In a "Players" column titled "Shake Me Down at the Ball Game" written by Josh Levin, he initially lauds HOK Sports for its wonderful design of Baltimore's Camden Yards. (By next spring HOK will have designed 15 major league parks in 18 years.) However, after the initial compliments, Levin says HOK ballparks today are not being designed so much as to be fan-friendly, but more capitalist friendly. According to Levin, "HOK ballparks have the look and feel of a mall food court. Come to Detroit's Comerica Park for the 50-foot Ferris wheel, stay for the Mike's Hard Lemonade Upper Deck Lounge. "There's an Outback Steakhouse at Pittsburgh's PNC Park, and Cincinnati has the Machine Room Grille, with what the team calls a "blue-collar feel." Nationals Park, like four other HOK stadiums, has an in-stadium Build-a-Bear Workshop. There's also the Sony PlayStation Pavilion, now featuring Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock."
In the section labeled "Who's Hot/Who's Not" Kansas City is again featured in the "Not" category:
"They've got the last-place Royals; they've got the last-place MLS Wizards ("The league is too good," griped coach Curt Onalfo, after a mistake-filled loss); and they've got the Brigade. The AFLers are 3--12 after blowing an 11-point, second-half lead to L.A. on Sunday. That puts new QB Quincy Carter (above, remember him, Cowboys fans?) at 0--2 since coming on board."
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