Okay, not having a lot of knowledge about all the ins and outs involved, please forgive me if this is a ridiculous thought. The Wizards just entered a marketing agreement with the soccer associations of NE, KS, and IA, right? Wouldn't these associations rather have a top level pro team within reasonable driving distance of their location than just PDL and A-League teams? I'm not sure if there's any money available for such a thing within the state associations, but I guess my thought is why not present it to the surrounding state soccer powers that be and show them why they would benefit from the Wizards staying in KC. At the very least, those people at the top of these associations would likely know movers and shakers who could help make something happen in the event of a group investment. Sorry if that's not a good idea, but there's only so much I can do after a full day of class and studying... I just want the Wizards to stay in KC. KC's been my sports town since I've been born (godfather lives in Blue Springs), and soccer was my first sports love. I was there for the Wizards first game ever, and although I haven't made too many in recent years, it would still hurt to lose them. I can only imagine what you Cauldron regulars must be feeling. FIGHT ON.
i dont have the link to the article, but remember reading that lamar is making 20-30 million in profit a year from the chiefs. i hate the fact that the entire mls is losing money and lamar is to troubled to give a little back to the community that enables him to earn that money from the nfl. maybe he should threaten to move the chiefs unless they build him a stadium because he needs more money from luxury boxes to support a contending team. im going to be turned against anything lamar owns if he does this. hmmmm greedy owners, not in KC.
Re: Help Save the Wizards Campaign The Dunn's live in Kansas City. Bill Dunn, Terry, ?....are all here and active in the community. Don't know of their soccer involvement levels, etc.... But I like that idea.... Big Pat
welcome to the "MLS and our investors don't give a crap about our organization" club! Us SJ fans really aren't THAT bad, once you get to know us....come on in, we can become friends! Sorry, I don't mean to joke, I know this isn't much of a laughing matter. We have been going through this for the past year now, almost. I'll tell you right now- there is no way that anything is going to work unless you all are in it together. Look at us....we have horrid numbers when it comes to fan-base, and we have accomplished a lot. You guys need to stick together as one strong KC supporters unit, and have no mercy. It CAN be done....we are oh so close, (and yet so far, too ) In all sincerity, good luck, and I'm sorry that you all have to be bothered with this kinda crap, too.
anyone who hasnt had to build SSSs in 2 other cities in the past 10 years. and who gets his bank statements in scientific notation.
we need to determine how big a radius from downtown kc constitues kc. overland park is kc, but is wichita? st. joseph? springfield? and then get a list going of cities within that radius, research them, CONTACT them and rate them as to their likelihood's of being a stadium site. ive got some website experience, can offer that. im overseas so cant do face-to-face or rallies (can we get players at the rallies? guys like guti or preki?) but can give lots of man hours and maybe a few $100, i dont know. im broke but can scrape. we need to sell season tickets. a list of companies who could buy them at group rates and sell them to employees cheap is a good place to start (the crusaders might have that already), then go to those companies (their HR departments handle this, i think), and hard sell the "this may be your last chance to see pro soccer in kc" angle. not sure what help the local chambers of commerce will be on that. anyone know anyone who works at a radio station? give em tickets from yr season ticket package you cant use, they can give those away with a crappy pop cd to their tenth called. doesnt put $10million in anyones pocket, but it makes some noise. i think we really have two major objectives: 1) find an owner 2) find a place for a stadium and those objectives should be pursued with a mix of independence and acknowldgement of where they overlap. im gonna go see about putting some software on my website thatll help us organize... techincal docs all weekend. but we can do this, guys.
Players to enlist for help who love this city: Diego Tony (yes, i know he's leaving... but he's a huge KC guy now) Klein? Preki? KZ? (same as tony) any other suggestions? Jackie? (st. louis guy? keep a team in the area?)
savethewizards.com (available) savethewizards.net (available) savethewizards.org (available) savethewizards.biz (available) savethewizards.info (available) savethewizards.us (available) any preferences?
http://www.feedle.net/services/free.shtml if we qualify as "community activists" (we dont have npo status) in their eyes then thisll get us mailman and wikifarm, which are both better organizing tools than bigsoccer forums. i cant call chris in LA bc im not in the states. will keep looking.
with regards to stock, ie the wizards going public and a group of people buying it (or a group of people making a company, that company going public and buying the wizards), if a public game needs money itll hit its investors up for it. theres a name for the process, but basically they let you know theyre broke and need $5 ante from you for every share you own. so if you own 10,000 shares you gotta come up with $50,000.
I will up my pledge from $5000 to $20,000 hard cash right now if we could form a fan owned company to take over the wizards. Maybe Lamar will see the error of his ways and gift the team to us. I know I am not the only one thinking this. 810 radio had a few others on this morning that were thinking along the same lines. Village Idiot could be our lawyer, Sam, Andy, Roush all have experience with MLS how things are ran and media relations. Anyone else have a skill that would be usefull in the front office?
In reading the article in the KC Star today it was mostly a rehash of what we know but it did have some blurbs from Kevin Gray from the Sports Authority about his groups effort to find a local investor. Does anyone have experience with him?
I would love this nothing more than anyone else, and would pledge money as well. Reality is that (without sitting down and doing math), we'd need at least $50 million for the team+stadium, then a lot more for operations and covering MLS losses (as someone mentioned before). 75 mill / $10,000 = 7,500 people. Some will contribute more, some less, who knows. I know that our season ticket base is less than that and trying to convince someone who wouldn't buy season tickets to buy into a team with a far greater sum of money would be difficult at best. I'd love it though.
Not anything other than his interviews on the radio, which I love. Really neat guy. Another guy along the same lines that we should speak with at some point is Paul McGannon, NHL21 president. He's been courting NHL owners for years trying to get a team here.
Oh please! This was not a ploy by HSG to get a stadium. He is getting old and doesn't want to stick his family with a loss like the Wizards. Starting at forward for the Toronto Icebergs, Josh Wolff. And for those of you spreading negative rep points to me, please stop because I don't know what I'll do. Seeyakcwizards.com is available too.
It's the first salvo fired across the bow of KC taxpayers to get them to pony up $400-$500 million to renovate Arrowhead Stadium. If they don't want to play ball he can move the team to LA or somewhere else. Lamar doesn't want to spend his money on stadium improvements for his team.
I just want to wish you the best of luck in your attempts to save and keep the Wizards in KC. Just to let you know that even football fans the other side of the Atlantic are thinking of you during your fight. I know the situation is different over there from over here because of the MLS single entity and that the clubs are franchises etc. But to give you some further hope and encouragement my very own club LCFC faced extinction 3 years ago after 120 years of history, we were facing financial meltdown and the owner had given up. But we the fans fought long and hard to save our club and just over two years ago came back from the brink and the club is now owned and run by us, the fans!. So if we, a little League 2 club in England with a hardcore fan base of around 4,500 can come back from being £2million in debt, then I am sure with enough passion and drive you can save the Wizards. I wish you all the best LCFC
Its funny. The taxpayers spend the money and Lamar and the other owners get the money. There is something wrong with that. Anyway. Once we get the team away from Lamar, then he can't hold them over our heads. And Bilbo, i'm sure this was said to quite a lot yesterday, but i'll repeat it, since you obviously aren't getting the message. ******** off.
We appreciate the sentiment, but the two situations aren't even remotely comparable. The Wizards aren't "£2million in debt". To keep the Wizards in Kansas City, we're going to have to find someone willing to dedicate around £50million to the team and facilities.
From what we experienced out here in San Jose, I would stay away from those names. It's important that you create an organization with a name that covers the area. This will provide you the ability to remain a force in local soccer once you've saved them team and gotten a stadium built. SSV registered as a 501 (C) by the way.
The Green Bay Packers model doesn't apply to MLS. While a fan "investor group" could help, a single point-of-contact deep pocketed individual is going to have to come forward.
Yes he does. Can't remember which one, but was thinking it is Jay Wolfe? Is that right? Also, what about as potential investors, Nabil Haddad and George Brett? They both own a restaurant together. Haddad is a season ticket holder. Brett owns several minor league baseball teams with his brothers? Not sure they could flip the whole bill, unsure of their worth, but maybe as investors????
Maybe it is time to change the way MLS works! Maybe this single entity deep pocketed owners is not the only way to run a league. We have seen how effective a PLC or a fan owned group can run teams in England/Europe, why not here? Who decided that the only way to run a team in MLS is via the single entity/single owner model?