KC Wizards get another 'no' vote on soccer stadium
Last Tuesday the voters of Johnson County voted down a ballot proposal to fund a 300-acre youth soccer complex. Although none of the money from that proposal went to the Kansas City Wizards' new stadium, the team pretty much said that no youth fields meant no stadium.
Still, the club went to the Overland Park City Council to see if they would be willing to support using a tax incentive to pay for the new stadium. Overland Park is a city within Johnson County that makes up about half the population of the county.
Anyway, the City Council gave the Wizards a unanimous 'no' vote with a few members saying they are against the stadium even if the financing changes.
This pretty much kills off any hope the team had of placing a new stadium in Overland Park. Talk now turns to Overland's neighbor, the city of Olathe.
Olathe was in the running before the team picked Overland Park. Seeing as Olathe is part of Johnson County, I'm not sure the Wizards will find much more love there.
All and all, it's a bad situation for the team from Kansas City. They need a stadium to make money, but without a deal anywhere near being in place, the best they could hope for is a new home by 2010. That's a long time to be waiting.
Still, the club went to the Overland Park City Council to see if they would be willing to support using a tax incentive to pay for the new stadium. Overland Park is a city within Johnson County that makes up about half the population of the county.
Anyway, the City Council gave the Wizards a unanimous 'no' vote with a few members saying they are against the stadium even if the financing changes.
This pretty much kills off any hope the team had of placing a new stadium in Overland Park. Talk now turns to Overland's neighbor, the city of Olathe.
Olathe was in the running before the team picked Overland Park. Seeing as Olathe is part of Johnson County, I'm not sure the Wizards will find much more love there.
All and all, it's a bad situation for the team from Kansas City. They need a stadium to make money, but without a deal anywhere near being in place, the best they could hope for is a new home by 2010. That's a long time to be waiting.
Labels: Kansas City Wizards, MLS
posted by Mike H at 9:46 PM
4 Comments:
Why do soccer stadiums always seem to want to attach a large number of soccer fields for "youth soccer"? Isn't just getting a stadium good enough? A stadium, without youth fields in a city center for any team would be great. In my opinion location is much more important than whatever you get by having 10 extra fields for some youth tounaments and camps. No other sport has this hang up. I would rather see stadium developers concentrate on roofs so that we can get the MLS on the Aug. - May calendar and host other events in cold weather months.
I agree with you VT. I think a covered stadium in a downtown setting would really connect the team with the city. There has been talk of the Revolution building a stadium in Boston, but we'll see if it happens.
As far as youth fields, I think they are attached for a few reasons. First, it is good to have the fields to build a connection to the youth leagues, which is one of MLS's biggest markets. Also, having tournaments hosted by a team is a way to earn good will with future players. However, I also think they fields are used to make the community feel okay with giving the land or money or whatever else to the team.
That said, I don't know why the fields need to be around the stadium. Why not build a stadium in the city and have a 'KC Wizards youth park' in the suburbs? It could serve the same purpose, it just wouldn't have a big stadium in the center.
I like your idea about the field located elsewhere or in the suburbs. Perhaps in close proximity to the Youth Academy.
I realise this is not quite conected to the topic but.........
For those of you planning to visit South Africa in 2010.
I am a South African born and bred (1960) and I have had to recently emigrate because of the horrific crime situation. I narrowly escaped death a number of times. The South Africa of today is a nightmare of robbery, murder and rape. The violence used in these criminal acts is terrifying and done with real racist hatred of whites. If you come to the 2010 world cup in South Africa there is a real chance of your wife or daughter being raped in front of you and then having your throat slit.
My friends have all immigrated to Australia, NZ, Canada or like me to UK. There is an ethnic cleansing of whites taking place in SA, over one million whites have been forced out since Mandela came to power in 1994. The international media is uncomfortable in exposing these atrocities in this country because it is black on white hate crime and this causes tension in the USA and Europe, SA is the hidden killing field of the world. Unspeakable atrocities are being committed against whites by blacks. South African blacks have the highest standard of living in Africa and the rest of Africa is trying to get over the borders yet the blacks in SA have a racist hatred of whites. Big financial institutions and the government control the South African media and they want to protect the investments of the big financiers of Europe and America.
The government has launched a massive bulls**t campaign for 2010.
They have massive wealth behind them to fund the lies and spin, and this will result in many deaths. Have a look at these videos.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=uO4_kVlHjOE
STAY OUT FOR YOUR OWN GOOD
If you don’t believe me go ahead and find out the hard way.
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