Have You Heard?

Wink Hartman

WICHITA — A new company is going to manage the 4-year-old, 7,200-seat Hartman Arena in Park City.

Wink Hartman Sr. has hired Iowa-based VenuWorks, which will book events and handle food and beverage services among other things

Previously, Hartman and his staff have been running the arena.

“I was not doing a very good job,” Hartman says.

“We need to book more events. You know, more concerts, more local events, and I just felt like it was a time for a change in management to try to meet our objectives.”

VenuWorks president Steven Peters started the company 16 years ago to manage arenas with 5,000 to 10,000 seats.

The company manages United Wireless Arena in Dodge City and the Topeka Performing Arts Center.

Peters says his goal with Hartman Arena is clear.

“One word: events. We’ve got to bring more events.”

Hartman Arena has been averaging close to 50 events a year, including soccer games with Hartman’s Wichita Wings and football games with his Wichita Wild.

“Most of our arenas, we try to do 90 a year,” Peters says.

Being the smaller arena to the larger Intrust Bank Arena isn’t a negative, he says.

“That can be the really enviable place to be.”

Peters says there are more shows to fill 6,000 seats than 12,000.

Read More »

WICHITA — After much soul searching, John Whitmer has decided not to buy Mort’s Martini and Cigar Bar, which his late brother, Frank, owned.

Frank Whitmer, who died last month, left the popular Old Town bar to his mother.

“The number one thing was, if my mother was going to sell it, the most important thing was to make sure she got the most bang for the buck,” John Whitmer says. “She’s not going to sell it to me just because.”

He wanted to make sure if he bought it, he was buying it for the right reason.

“I really was struggling with the concept,” says Whitmer, who is general manager of Hartmoor Concessions at Hartman Arena.

“Am I really doing this because of trying to maintain a connection with my brother      . . . or is this really what I want to do?”

He decided against it and is happy that his brother’s close friends Morrie and Matt Sheets have purchased it instead.

“They’ll do a fantastic job,” Whitmer says. “Better than I.”

Morrie Sheets was the original owner of Mort’s and later sold it to Frank Whitmer.

John Whitmer says it was important to his family to sell the bar to the right person to carry it on as Mort’s.

He says the question was, “Who do we sell it to that isn’t going to turn it into a Subway sandwich shop or demolish it and turn it into parking?”

Whitmer says his No. 1 reason for not buying the bar is he’s almost certain he’s going to run for the state House of Representatives next year.

“Mort’s is a prestigious bar in Old Town,” Whitmer says. “Even as a Republican, owning a bar is not that big a deal.”

However, he says it’s not his calling.

“My path lies in a different direction,” Whitmer says. “One of the last conversations that (Frank) and I had, he told me how proud he was of the stuff I’ve been doing lately and how I was getting into politics.”

He gets emotional when he says, “My brother told me he’d vote for me.”

Whitmer says that was powerful for him to hear since his brother was 14 years older.

“I think I spent a lot of my life trying to impress him and get his approval, and I think maybe that’s why I wanted to buy Mort’s in the first place.”