Plaza crowd estimates a tad high

What’s the expression, out of the mouths of babes…

KCTV weather wonk Katie Horner takes a lot of grief for cutting into Channel 5’s programming to save us from storms. And while she no doubt understands meteorology, question is can she count? For that matter can anybody at Channel 5 count?

That after the station that prides itself on news that’s live, late-breaking and investigative stunned viewers by reporting that “hundreds of thousands” of people attended last week’s Plaza Lighting Ceremony.

“Katie was standing by herself reporting that there was a crowd of 500,000 people there,” says Beena Rajalekshimi, owner of Jardine’s on the Plaza.

Hold it right there…

Flash back to 2003, when Waldo businessman Gary Evert and UMKC statistics prof Yong Zeng teamed to actually count the Lighting Ceremony crowd. The three-team task force unmasked unsubstantiated claims by the Plaza and sponsor KCP&L that between 250,000 and 300,000 people were in attendance, coming up with an average count of 32,605 people. The Plaza folded like a tent, admitting a count had never been made and alluding to past police estimates. However police went on record as having no training or expertise in crowd counting and confirmed that no such estimates had been made. KCP&L declined to comment but subsequent to the count ceased making claims that 300,000 people attended the event.

Professor Zeng’s take on KCTV’s crowd estimates: “Well, I mean they obviously are somewhat exaggerating. Obviously it doesn’t make sense.”

The odds of half a million people jamming into the Plaza last Thursday?

“Oh well, I don’t have a model but intuitively it’s impossible,” Zeng says. “It’s obviously not correct.”

To put it somewhat in perspective, Arrowhead Stadium – which on a good day can draw upwards of 80,000 people to a Chiefs game – has 22,000-plus parking spaces for cars in addition to the grass areas. According to Highwoods Properties, the Plaza’s owner, it has 7,100 parking spaces.

The $64 million question: how on earth could the Plaza accommodate three to six times the attendance of a sold-out Chiefs game with less than one-third of the parking?

Even “Modern Family” star Eric Stonestreet – in town for Kansas City’s Mayor’s Christmas Tress lighting and who attended the Plaza lights bash, was taken aback at KCTV guesstimates as high as 500,000 people.

“No way, is that what they said?” Stonestreet said with a laugh. “That’s hilarious. We were talking about that last night actually.”

Evert’s take on the odds of KCTV digits being accurate?

“About the same as the odds of Katie Horner being replaced by a crawl,” Evert quips.

KCTV declined to comment.

Now it can be told

At long last, the behind-the-scenes on actor Sacha Baron Cohen’s R-rated ambush of staffers at downtown KC’s Hotel Phillips is revealed on the just-released DVD of his movie “Brüno.”

Funniest part: After hotel manager Blain Proctor summons police to arrest a bondage-attired Cohen and the actor he was shackled to, they beat it down the hotel’s outdoor fire escape. However the stairs only descend to the hotel’s second story and Cohen and company can’t find the release mechanism to lower it to the ground.

“I said, ‘What do we do?’ to our guide and he said, ‘Jump!’ ” Cohen says on the DVD. “And I can see the getaway car is there driven by my assistant and there’s also like two hotel workers just having a cigarette. And basically out of nowhere, in front of them, I arrive from the sky – this semi-naked guy just jumps from the sky.”

For more Hearne, check out KC Confidential online at kcconfidential.com.

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