Two large panes of glass that make up the outer wall of the Kansas City Sprint Center broke today, as the Big 12 men’s basketball tournament was set to begin.
The two panes broke on the curving southern side of the arena downtown that faces Interstate 670, the south side of the downtown freeway loop.
A repair team from the original installer is working to stabilize the breakage and attempting to learn what caused it. An engineer with Architectural Wall Systems of Des Moines, who asked not to be named, said gusty winds were not a factor and that vandalism broke both outer panes, described as 3/8 to 5/16 inches thick.
Media reports say the panes weighed as many as 2 thousand pounds apiece but the company says they weigh less.
No one was hurt in the breakage. Police did not take a report.
It isn’t known what sort of vandalism might have occurred. Three times this year windows have been shot out on the glass façade of the Kansas City Star press building, south and across Interstate 670 from the Sprint Center. A company executive was quoted earlier as saying the shots had all come from a small caliber gun and replacement cost $7000 per window.