Nothing good about a Wizard in the Dark

The Kansas City Star has an interesting article on the current state of the KC Wizards (reg. required).

The team has been up for sale since December, but no one has put together a group to purchase them. With current owner Lamar Hunt not giving GM Curt Johnson any indication on how to move forward, things are a little nutty.

The team has put a hold on 2006 season-ticket sales, but other then that, they have done very little.

Coach Bob Gansler is still going to practice till November 13th, but who knows where his team will be come next February (when pre-season practice begins).

The problem for the team is that even if they stay in KC, next year is going to be hard on them. Without some sort of PR push, which, the way it is looking, will not happen until the last possible moment, ticket sales will be down. With even fewer fans in Arrowhead Stadium, they will have even less revenue plus the players are going to suffer (who likes playing a pro game with no one there to watch).

If KC does move, then next year will be extremely hard. Getting a team organization up and running in less than six months is just not going to happen. Finding sites for games and practices, selling tickets, getting sponsors, finding homes for the players, coaches and other personal and doing all the other thousands of things that need to be done will leave the organization exhausted.

The last two months of the season saw KC go from challenging New England for the top spot in the East to missing the playoffs (a 0-4-4 run). I fear that next season is going to start right where this one ended.