The Kansas City Star from Kansas City, Missouri • B1

SUNDAY FEBRUARY 10 2019 1BFACEBOOK.COM/KANSASCITYSTAR TWITTER.COM/KCSTARKANSASCITY.COM Sports THE LES MILES SAY SEASONTICKET SALES SOARING WITH NEW COACH, 2B KANSAS FOOTBALL SPRING TRAINING PLAY BALL! Get ready for the start of spring training with preview in eEdition. Before the 32 teams became the billion-dollar en- terprises they are today, the Kansas City Chiefs were a break-even business with lots of overhead. Or so the Chiefs portrayed themselves. an expensive the chairman and chief executive, the late Jack Stead- man, told The Star in 1992 after a rare trove of financial docu- ments emerged in a lawsuit titled McNeil vs the NFL. The records showed that the league as a whole and the Chiefs in particular do all that well in the 1980s.

just not that much money to be Steadman said. Big television contracts changed all that across the league. By 2010, the Chiefs were very much a moneymaker, according to the tax returns from that year, which were recently obtained by The Star. Those returns show: AThere is little correlation between the on-field performance and how much money it makes. AThat year, the grown chil- dren of team founder Lamar Hunt split nearly $40 million in gross operating income.

A team executive said they reinvested more than half of it in the team. A Some of the costs fans grumble about the most, such as parking, amount to a tiny fraction of the overall revenues. The Star examined three years of the state and federal tax returns, the only ones that were available from a public database. The team had fought hard to keep those re- cords private and they were subsequently sealed on orders of a state official. As of Jan.

30, they were no longer open for public view. While the dollar figures in the tax returns are dated, the fi- nancial information within their 381 pages are instructive as NFL Kansas City tax returns provide rare look inside the business of pro football BY MIKE HENDRICKS AND STEVE VOCKRODT SEE CHIEFS, 6B Silvio De Sousa is suspended two years for a rules violation that investigators agree he did not know about or benefit from. That is patently unfair and at different points in NCAA history would not have been punished. The bigger story here, though, is that many in and around col- lege sports believe this is merely the first step in a bigger play against the Kansas bas- ketball program and Hall of Fame coach Bill Self. De Sousa, in that way, may simply be collateral damage in a bigger power move.

think that very much is the said Don Jackson, a law- yer with extensive experience representing coaches and ath- letes against the NCAA. KU counsel and a spokesperson for the NCAA would not comment, but this column is informed by sources familiar with the case, in and around KU athletics, and with experience on the side. Those with NCAA back- grounds disagreed with the assumption that De suspension was the beginning of a broader and more serious case against the university. One pointed out the difference be- tween an eligibility case and infractions, though the former can lead to the latter. Either way, worth noting that the perception exists and not just inside athletic department.

NCAA wants to prove something and the way been for a said a Division I coach. or wrong, been smoke (around KU basketball) but they COMMENTARY RICH SUGG With its punishment of Silvio De Sousa, the NCAA could be laying a foundation for a bigger move against Kansas basketball and Bill Self because of the Adidas investigation. De Sousa suspension could be just the beginning for Kansas BY SAMMELLINGER SEE MELLINGER, 4B WACO, TEXAS After getting outplayed for much of the game, the Kansas State basketball team flexed its muscles in crunch time against Baylor and pulled away for a 70-63 victory on Saturday at Ferrell Center. It was easily one of the Wild- hardest-fought wins of the season. What seemed like an easy opportunity for the Kansas State Wildcats to pull ahead in the Big 12 basketball race turned out to be anything but simple against the short-handed Bears.

Missing starting guards King McClure and Makai Mason did little to hinder Baylor, as the active players on the roster pulled together without them and led by seven midway through sec- ond half. But K-State prevailed in the end with a mixture of timely shots, toughness and an in- credible assist from Cartier Diarra. The Wildcats (18-5, 8-2 Big 12) fought back from a 48-41 hole to take a 54-53 lead with 6:11 remaining when Diarra drained a deep three-pointer. And they never looked back. Kamau Stokes added to the lead with another three-pointer, Dean Wade hit a pair of free throws and Barry Brown made a three of his own to make it 62- 53.

As Baylor tried to fight back, Diarra crushed the come- back hopes with an amazing K-STATE BASKETBALL Wildcats in position to win Big 12 after victory over Baylor BY KELLIS ROBINETT SEE K-STATE, 5B massive reset of the organiza- the crutch of the word now is prohibited in team talk. The term, after all, implies a pre-set excuse for failure and a lowered bar for expectations, neither of which is conducive to maximizing performance in a game that hinges so much on state of mind not to mention in its appeal to fans. league players are paid to win baseball Entering the second year of what Royals general manager Dayton Moore in 2018 called Moore said in his office recent- ly. going to expect this team to play well and win a lot of baseball games, so that hope- fully in July pressure on us as a front office to really improve the team for the final two months of the season. lot of people say the Roy- als ready to take this step.

But not going to put limitations on this team. (Roy- als owner David Glass) says it all the time: Expectations drive results. Our expectations are to win our With pitchers and catchers reporting on Tuesday for spring training in Surprise, few others expect anything of the sort out of a franchise that plummeted to 58-104 last year. Sure, a dip was inevitable in the aftermath of an exodus of stars such as Eric Hosmer and Lorenzo Cain when their con- tracts came due and a minor- league system exposed as too depleted to furnish much im- mediate help. While they were sensible moves at the time, the sense of flux was more com- pounded than stabilized by the temporary re-enlistments of Mike Moustakas and Alcides Escobar and fleeting stop-gap signings of Lucas Duda and Jon Jay.

With no discernible identity and no traction, the Royals were worse than anyone might JOHN SLEEZER Royals general manager Dayton Moore (left) and owner David Glass use the word to describe the upcoming season. COMMENTARY Moore says Royals expect to win division, but what should fans expect? SEE GREGORIAN, 3B BY VAHE GREGORIAN.