Royal Treatment?

Wichita city staff revealed no new secrets as to what happened to make the U.S. Bowling Congress cancel its 2011 tournament during the City Council meeting today. City Attorney Gary Rebenstorf and City Manager George Kolb said the congress cited the same three reasons: failure to guarantee long-term maintenance of Century II, lack of binding arbitration and dealing with two entities. The two laid out the time line of contact with the USBC but said they didn't realize negotiations had reached logjam. They thought the remaining issues were small and could be resolved and told the USBC so. They said they are still mystified as to what happened. "There are still some unanswered questions," Kolb said. "But we can't talk to the USBC to answer them." To cut through some of the bowlers' objections, Kolb recommended that in the future that the Wichita Convention and Visitors Bureau, rather than city staff, handle all convention negotiations. That would allow a maintenance guarantee and would simplify negotiations. Members of the City Council asked pointed questions of Kolb and Rebenstorf. "At what point were you going to come to us?" Brewer asked. "When it became obvious that things had reached an impasse," Kolb said. "In our opinion, it had not got there yet." For more on this story, look in Wednesday's Eagle or come back to Kansas.com.