KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Some arenas are so dear to our hearts that we would handcuff ourselves to the doors if the bulldozers threatened. The Palestra is one. Another is situated 50 miles west of this Midwestern city. There’s a reason Allen Fieldhouse still stands after all these years. You get goose bumps when you walk inside the home of the Kansas Jayhawks. You can feel the history.



But there are other buildings that do not hold such a soft spot in our hearts, and they fade from our memory. We’re cool letting them rot away.



Such a building sits in the West Bottoms of Kansas City.



Kemper Arena was once a point of pride in my city. When it was built in 1974, it was an architectural breakthrough, because it was one of the first arenas in the world with an exterior exoskeleton that supported the roof, allowing for no columns inside that would obstruct views. In 1988, it hosted one of the most memorable Final Fours ever when Danny Manning and the...