Six cities want Kansas City Wizards stadium

Today finds some more good news for fans of the Kansas City Wizards. Major League Soccer asked for "Request For Information" forms from various communities in the KC area regarding building a new home for the team and the response was large.

Six cities submitted the forms, which included a total of 16 possible locations for a new complex. These six cities are believed to be Overland Park, Olathe, Lenexa, Leawood, Gardner and De Soto (click on map for a larger view of their location).

Johnson County commissioner Dave Lindstrom said of the large number of applications, "That’s very good, and MLS and the Hunt Sports Group, those representatives were very, very pleased and excited about the prospects of those submittals.”

Officials from the area recently visited FC Dallas's field to see what such a facility could look like. They were very impressed with what they saw.

“The thing that I really liked about it was it had a major-league feel about it,” Lindstrom said. “Before the game, when we were touring the field and the facility it had a feel of almost like it feels at Arrowhead Stadium before a game. It had that big-league feel to it.”

The fact that they also got to watch the US national team beat Guatemala during their visit probably added to the excitement.

As far as a new Wizards stadium is concerned, this is excellent news. The more cities competing to make this a reality, the better. There are still a huge amount of details that will need to be worked out with any of these suitors, but negotiations always seem to go a little easier when there is more then one person asking you to dance.