KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Empty seats and stages continue to plague live performance theaters across the Kansas City metro as they deal with COVID-19 restrictions.
From the Madrid Theatre in Midtown to the Folly, Unicorn and Uptown theaters, no revenue has come in for the past couple of months.
"Unless we get some temporary money in here fast, a lot of these venues are going to go under," Uptown Theater owner Larry Sells told 41 Action News last week. "Once they go dark, that is the catalyst for entire neighborhoods and they're going to have problems."
But it's not just live performance theaters in the dark. Bartle Hall also is silent as conventions were brought to a halt.
Visit KC, along with other stakeholders such as the Kansas City, Missouri, Health Department, are creating what they call "KC Clean Commitment," a path to welcoming events back to Kansas City.
"Our customers aren't asking us to reduce our prices. What the customers are asking us (is) what is your community doing to prepare for our return?" Jason Fulvi, president and CEO of Visit KC, told a KCMO City Council committee on Wednesday.
Fulvi said part of the plan to reopen is having its facilities be accredited by a third-party resource called the Global Bio-risk Advisory Council and to let businesses sign the KC Clean Commitment pledge.
"Where businesses of all sizes can pledge to do some certain CDC guidelines: wearing masks, disinfecting, sanitizing and things like that," Fulvi said. "They take the pledge and ultimately what this will do is give our sales team the ability to be able to go back out to market and ensure our customers that we as a community are doing everything possible to provide them a safe, clean environment for their return."
It's one step to welcome fans back to the seats and performers back on the stages, while making everyone feel safe.
The plan heads for another round of voting on Thursday and the KCMO city manager will put together a plan moving forward.
