It’s time to move the Kansas City Wizards

By: Bob | November 6th, 2007

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the home of the Kansas City Wizards for the next couple of seasons. Nothing screams major league quite like playing soccer games in a minor league baseball stadium that has a maximum capacity of 10,000 (wahoo, grass berm seating!). What did Kansas City fans do to deserve this? For years they’ve had to put up with playing in a monstrous football stadium with zilch in the way of atmosphere. Now they must watch their team play in a stadium that is home to a minor league baseball team named the T-Bones. Brutal. I guess that is what you get for having consistently abysmal attendance figures.

How is this move being sold? As an opportunity to combine two passions: soccer and shopping.

Part of the number one tourist attraction in the state of Kansas, CommunityAmerica Ballpark will let the Wizards build partnerships with the Legends at Village West, a destination shopping center directly east of the stadium. During the 2007 season, the Wizards participated in multiple events at the Legends, including player appearances and post-game festivities.

“Soccer is more than a spectator sport. It is experiential,” Executive Vice President Greg Cotton said. “Our fans’ gameday experience should include both pre-game and post-game festivities. With the Legends right next door, we have a unique opportunity to introduce our fans to this extended experience.”

Good luck with that.

As Major League Soccer continues to make strides in the right direction, it is disappointing to see the league holding on to the notion that it can make things work in Kansas City. The city has had plenty of time to show that it cares about having an MLS team and the reality is that it does not. There is, of course, talk about about building the club a proper stadium in time for the 2010 season, but that is still very much up in the air. I guess if they hang around long enough it might happen, but by then will anyone in the area even care? Does anyone in the area even care now?

With so many cities interested in landing an expansion team and at least looking into the possibility of building a soccer specific stadium, don’t you think that it is time to move the Wizards? They’ve had more than a decade to succeed and at least off the field they have not. There must be at least a half dozen cities in the US and Canada where an MLS team would draw more than 10,000 fans per game even if their stadiums are not located next to a shopping mall.

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Category: MLS, World Football

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mccscratch

Being someone that grew up in KC and now lives in Atlanta... If you think that soccer is not a passion in KC then you are mistaken. They have some of the best youth clubs in the country there. I am not happy about the stadium situation at all but if they could build a 16-20K soccer specific stadium in the right part of town I beleive that the Wizards will become a team in the black. They need to look somewhere in the Olathe, Blue Valley area, even if the land cost is double. With all due respect to Wyandott county.. it will always have the same stigma that KCMO has. The stadium needs to be in the white-upper middle class burbs.
George

Is there something I missed out on. How do you play soccer on a baseball field?
Shane

Hey, now every game will be a sellout. The mistake with us sports are the expected attendances. 20k for hockey, a bit more for basketball, 40k for baseball and 65k for football. If only 5-10k are attending an MLS teams games then build a stadium that only holds that much. Make it harder to get tickets. Who wrote that a 20k seater is necessary?
Mike

tmc, who's going to move the team? Cause OnGoal certainly isn't going to right now, and they're the ones with the power to move it.
jrauz

Being a Kansas City-ite and knowing the terrain, I see this move as brilliant marketing. The Legends area is becoming an entertainment hub and a soccer game every other weekend would make a nice addition. Just think, games might start "selling out" in a 10k seat stadium which sounds and looks much better than a 10k crowd in a 80k nfl stadium. It is a bit daunting being a fan in a stadium only 1/8th full. Let's just let it play out for a season before we go bashing the idea to hell.
John

Wow. All of the people clamoring to move the team: feel free.. As long as you can promise what Kansas City has currently --- a committed ownership group and a plan for a soccer specific stadium. If you don't have either of these things than you can just shut the fuck up.
tmc

Lamar Hunt is the main reason the team has stayed in KC. Though now he has passed on, so I'm in favor of moving this team out of the area. However, if they put in plans for a new soccer specific stadium, the trend will be the league keeping the team there, unfortunately.
M

Actually Mike, it's not mind boggling at all, considering it's NOT THE LEAGUES CALL. It's OnGoals call on whether or not they want to move the team. And as long as they continue to pay their league fees, then the league isn't going to do anything about it.
Mike C.

experiential, is that even a word?

How Garber and his cronies hold onto KC, considering: Philly, Seattle, Portland, Charlotte, Cleveland, Milwaukee...St. Louis, for pete's sake all deserve teams is mind boggling.
Sam

Everything about Kansas City sucks. They're painful to watch (and Sean Wheelock is hands down the worst announcer in the league! I don't need to be reminded of the time as I can see top of my screen every two minutes), they've got a shitty name, they play in a city in which no one cares about soccer, and now this? Get the fuck out of there, MLS!
Nick

The saddest part being the potential MLS champs playing in a minor league baseball stadium! Hardly a good pr move for the league. More so to see Beckham playing in a minor league baseball stadium. Err...
Tavis

"it is disappointing to see the league holding on to the notion that it can make things work in Kansas City"

Yeah, it's really disappointing for this league to have a team with committed owners who just bought the team, have increased the total number of employees and put forth a marketing effort.

There was a preliminary vote today, another vote tomorrow, and one more in a few weeks I believe in order to build their own stadium. If that doesn't happen, THEN I agree that KC should be moved. They have committed owners and are in the process of trying to get a stadium done, what more do you want?
Lucas

Remember when that Superliga game at Home Depot Center was only half-sold because of parking issues with the university there? Remember how big a joke that was? How huge an embarrassment it was for MLS?

This is like that.