The Renderings look great, WAY cooler looking than the other SSS in the League, along the lines of the RedBullPark. It will be a soccer stadium, the largest building in the whole Legends. Its not going to seem like an Add-On at all. The Infrastructure is already there, huge latino population in the Dotte ,close to JOCO, sounds better than south kc any day. People there for shopping or other events might be intrigued into checking out all that noise coming from Stadium and go to a match. WAY better option all around. Kansas's first Major Pro Team? Bueller,?......Bueller......? Build the stadium and bring in a Mexican star.
PS: KC is broke, P+L is bleeding money, Sprint has no Teams. Sprint/P+L are in no way near the success of The Legends/Raceway, not even close.
Well I am not happy that we it will be @ legends. I was really hoping for KCMO to come through and revive the Bannister area. BUT, beggars can't be choosers. I drive 3 hrs to come to a home game now, this won't deter me from continueing. I just hope ticket prices don't increase (too much)!!!!
I would have preferred the stadium in SKC -it would have been a 10 minutes from my house; however, as Robb said in his post, the Wizards need a stadium by 2011 and if you have driven by the Bannister site over the last year, it 2011 really started looking like a pipe dream about 10 months ago - really, how long does it actually take to tear down a building for god sake. It just seems that MO and more specifically Kansas City has once again proven to be one of, if not the least, effective govt. body known to humankind. As far as the Legends is concerned? I work 10 minutes from the Legends so I also have biases towards improving the economy of WyCo and as others have posted, WyCo seems to be the govt. body that actually wants to get things done. The Renderings? Way Cool!
I like this plan B. I didn't really care for the Bannister location to be honest. Plus I thought plan B would end up being USL-1 at the legends. So MLS at the Legends is perfectly fine with me.
Again, I am very impressed and grateful that OnGoal has chosen for a third time to find the option that keeps the Wizards here. After all of their efforts on the JoCo site and Three Trails, I would not have blamed them one bit for moving or selling to move. I'm sure the league would be fine with that option. So all credit to them for supporting our city! And, for some reason, it sure feels like the Valley West option is the one that is going to work.
One other thing to consider is that Unified Govt. and KCATA are continuing the development of a third Metro Area BRT Line - my understanding is that the line would run up State Avenue and out to Village West. I guess my point is that the unified govt. appears to be really focused on development - which, of course, tends to be a good thing for all involved.
Rob - Thanks for coming to us first, however this move does not sit well with me. I have felt good about a team that was taking a leadership role in helping to redevelop and area that was struggling and show a great commitment to the city that appears on the front of your jersey. Although The Trails was never my idealistic vision of stadium development I was sold and fully supported you. If you are going to vacate the project why not locate the stadium some place like the plot of land across from Berkley River front park?. You could set up a shuttle to Power and Light for entertainment and retail experiences and be within walking distance for a growing population of 20 and 30 somethings living in downtown or the river market. Besides I believe there is 55 million dollars waiting to be used for development there from the EPA. I for one hate driving out to the Legends every game and implore you to find a central location to develop this project and figure out how to remain committed to the city and state that has been supporting you from the start.
You post that like someone is buying land to build a house. We are talking about building a stadium that holds around 20K people and cost over 100 million dollars. You cant just choose anywhere you want. I dont think any of us can probably even comprehend what all goes into finding a place to build something like that. When you want to build a structure like that, you are extremely limited. The fact that OnGoal has found a 3rd possible location to build it is pretty impressive.
You forgot a very key part of the puzzle. It's not like there is JUST a soccer stadium going in here.
For those of us not from the area, what would this change mean in terms of accessibility to the stadium?
20 minute drive to some 45 minute drive to others less attendance, more shopping food already in place
Putting aside provincial debates based on the suburb you're from.... Old Location -- Many routes to highways in the vicinity. New Location -- Not as many routes to highways in the vicinity.
I'm not a big fan of the new location, but how do you come to that line of thinking? Based on our attendance at CAB? Because we had similar attendance issues right down the road from the Bannister location at Arrowhead.
i've had the thought this season that we are getting less people at this location (even before the slump). seemed when the team was bought and people knew they were staying they came back out 12-15K at arrowhead then once at CAB dipped to barely selling out CAB at 10K the casual fan from your area, and further, is a lot less likely to come out. which is why i like the bannister location being more central.
Definitely disappointing. The location screams minor league to me. Far outside the urban core in a location desperate for development that they'll throw STAR bonds at it. KC can't compete with that. But in a time where the league has seen the success of stadiums close to the city, targeting traditional soccer demographics, and representing your club as a true major league team, the Wizards have gone the opposite direction.
Average attendance for the 2007 season (first full season under OnGoal) 11,586 Average attendance for the 2008 season (first season at CAB) 10,686 Not exactly that much better, especially when you consider that there were a few games last year (Chicago games and a few others) tht likely would have pulled in more people at a bigger facility. Attendance probably would have been pretty close to the same. No argument there, I prefer the Bannister location for the same reason, it's more central.
70,000 empty seats every game! At least at CAB when there are 10,000 fans, it is because there are only 10,000 seats. We should be able to sell out 18,500 at either location. Although I would worry about the "high crime" rep of Bannister, and the "free parking" of the stadium/retail combining into fans turned away because their cars are getting looted during games. I would think the Legends would require far less security to provide a good environment to catch a game.
In defense of the new plan: http://www.inkkc.com/blogs/charles-gooch/very-very-decent-proposal-wizards I don't understand the discussions about how difficult the drive is to get to The Legends. EVERYTHING in Kansas City is a drive to get to. In other cities, people wouldn't dream of going from Olathe to the Northland. In KC, it's not that rare. If you use downtown Kansas City as the middle of the metro, it's about the same distance to these two sites. Google Maps says 22 minutes to the Legends, 18 minutes to Bannister Mall. Both sites have two major highways close by. The Legends has the same two as the Truman Sports Complex. They were never going to build this stadium in your backyard, so I don't really buy the driving/distance argument.