#TBT The Renderings on the Way to Sporting Park

On Tuesday of this past week was the anniversary of the first game played at Sporting Park between Sporting KC and the Chicago Fire. In honor of that for this week's Throw Back Thursday I'm going to share some renderings of KC's stadium history that I either have gotten over the years, or that can be found online.

We'll start way back in 2006 and the attempts to get a stadium built down near 69 Highway and 159th Street in Overland Park. The stadium didn't get built because of the failure of Question 1 that November. The sunken stadium bowl had one roof that curved and wrapped around half the stadium.

From there came the Bannister site and the 3 Trails development that went on for a couple years getting as far as tearing down the old Bannister Mall and plenty of renderings of the stadium. The first kept a form of the curved roof, but on both sides of the stadium in this sky view of the stadium.

From there, the Bannister site changed as plans changed, and the new updated look of the stadium got rid of the curved roof and instead went with a more square look with what would best be described as an English stand .

 Along with the square look, we eventually got some more close up views of this design of the stadium, including the walk into the stadium and a much more neighborhood feel to the stadium, where you could walk right up to it. Almost like if the stadium had been built now at one end of the Legends, where you could walk through the Legends shopping area right up to the stadium. In the photos you also see the beginnings of the idea of a "Cauldron bar" for supporters to hang out in before and after the game.

Without the backing of the TIF money, bonds, and recession, the Bannister stadium plan ended up getting shelved as did the entire redevelopment there. Sporting worked out a deal with the Unified Government of Wyandotte County to utilize STAR Bonds that were used to build the Legends in the first place. With that came a permanent move to the Kansas side as the club had been playing at Community America Ballpark after leaving Arrowhead.

One of the first looks fans got of the new stadium designs was at a season ticket holder gathering in September of 2009 ahead of a friendly between Chivas Guadalajara and Club America at Arrowhead. Fans got to ask questions of KC staff at the gathering and a number of questions about the move away from Bannister. We also got some renderings and in them you can see the basic shape of the stadium really starting to come into place, although thankfully we didn't get the wavy roof.

That basic design would continue to evolve as the process continued to move forward. The next rendering really was close to the final result except for a few big things like the roof, and the absence of the Victory Suite in the northwest corner of the stadium.

The final design for the stadium except for minor changes came out in 2010. And it looks like the stadium we've come to love, minus the buildings in the Sprint Plaza.

There it is, one of the "crown jewels of American soccer."

Thankfully, the stadium itself helped us forget a rather forgetful game against the Chicago Fire, and this moment when Michael Kennedy introduced himself to a whole new set of KC fans after the performance in 2004.

Sporting KC Endorsing Sly James

Today the KC Star had a story about the fund raising in the current mayoral race in Kansas City, Missouri between Sly James and Mike Burke. Normally that's something that's not really talked about on this blog. But the interesting thing was that the Star listed some of the people/organizations that contributed the maximum to James' campaign. Listed in that group that contributed $3,000 was Sporting Kansas City. I was a little surprised to see them on the list considering the fact that the stadium is out on the other side of the state line. But looking through some of the other names I have an idea why. Another of the top contributors was Three Trails Redevelopment, and with OnGoal still being involved in the redevelopment of the Bannister Mall area and maybe James is more likely to help them get that redevelopment done. Still an interesting aspect to see in the information for the campaign.

Stadium Coming Along Nicely

Photo courtesy of James Starritt

For those that haven't been out at the stadium site for a while, you're missing a lot. The stadium site is moving along incredibly fast. Yesterday, James over at KCWFans.com was out at the stadium site and got some fantastic photos of how the stadium is coming along, including the above photo. It's absolutely fantastic how the stadium is coming along, it's going up so quickly. He also informed us via Twitter that there will be a second webcam inside the stadium coming soon. It's especially nice to see how it's coming along considering it's only been just over a year since the Wizards announced the move from the Bannister Mall site to the site out at the Legends. So to think that we're just over 9 months from the first event is just beyond exciting.

We Will Break Ground this Year

That's what Wizards President Robb Heineman posted tonight over on Bigsoccer. Heineman said that "Unless the world falls apart, we will break ground this year." So while news hasn't really been forth coming in regards to what's going on with either the Legends deal or a potential deal on the Missouri side, it appears that things are definitely very close.

The question now is which location. Is it going to be the Legends location right across the street from Nebraska Furniture Mart, or potentially moving back to the Bannister Mall location? Hopefully we'll find out soon, and soon after all Wizards fans will be gathering out at the location clapping and cheering as the ceremonial first shovels dig up the first bits of dirt.

Take It Or Leave It

That's the message from Kansas Governor, Mark Parkinson, to the Wizards and OnGoal in regards to the STAR Bond deal the state offered the team. If the Wizards are going to be building at the location out at the Legends, it'll be using the $230 million package that the state of Kansas has presented. Parkinson announced today that the deal they offered to the Wizards was final. And while some Kansas lawmakers are saying the state should do everything they can to complete this deal, the deal isn't going to change.

It's now completely down to the team to make this deal now with it looking unlikely that the state will budge on the deal. Although the rumors still swirl about the Missouri side of the state line (particularly Bannister) stepping back up and pushing to get this project and the Cerner jobs over to KCMO. It certainly is looking like these rumors have more legs than originally thought.

In the end, this project is more about the Cerner jobs than the Wizards stadium. It may sting some Wizards fans, but it's true. KCMO and the Unified Government are chasing the jobs and the boost to their economy those jobs would bring. The stadium is a bonus to the project. Hopefully we'll be hearing soon from either side of the state line that a deal is done and that ground breaking will take place soon.

Wednesday News Catch Up

So tonight was the big game out at Arrowhead between Chivas and Club America. First I want to touch on a few other things.

Before the game tonight, the Wizards held a Season Ticket Holder Event out at the training facility that included dinner and a Q&A session with Robb Heineman about the new stadium plan out at the Legends as well as the plan out at Bannister. Here are a few highlights of the event.

• They had more renderings of the stadium tonight, see the picture above, for the full album and some pictures of the game tonight, see here.
• I hope they are old renderings, I really hate the wavy roof.
• The Cauldron end, which I would guess is under the scoreboard is smaller and doesn't appear to have much of a roof in those renderings.
• OnGoal has currently put $33 million into the development out at Bannister.
• They did sign an agreement with the Unified Government meaning they will not negotiate with KCMO for 30 days basically and the state of KS has 30 days from last week to approve the STAR Bonds.
• They'd been talking with places like Walmart, Lowes, Target, etc about building at Bannister, but those places are not looking to build new stores right now, and probably won't be til 2011-2012.
• With that in mind it'd probably be until 2013-2015 before the stadium at Bannister would be done.

Those were the main highlights of Heineman's Q&A tonight.

Onto other MLS news. The league announced today that they will take a break for a portion of the World Cup this next year. MLS will not play during the group phase of next summer's World Cup. I like this move, you don't want to have to compete with the biggest sporting event in the world, at least not all of it. Once the games become a little more spread out after the group phase, MLS will start back up again. The break will last 15 days, from June 11th to the 25th. It's a smart move by MLS to accommodate their fans who want to watch the World Cup.

Finally, onto tonight's game between Chivas and Club America. A great atmosphere tonight out at Arrowhead, where there was a decent crowd (not the 35,000 Robb predicted at the Q&A but a good number). Both team's started the game with their starters and after a scoreless first half, Club America grabbed the lead in the second. Chivas had an equalizer called back before scoring 2 unanswered to win 2-1. Again I have a few pictures here, as well as a short video on youtube.

New Stadium Site for Wizards

It's been a while since Wizards fans have heard anything about what was going on out at the old Bannister Mall site. The last we heard was that the project had stalled due to the state of the economy. It had also been a while since we'd heard from team president, Robb Heineman. Well now we hear about and from both at the same time. Heineman returned to post on Bigsoccer tonight with an update on the stadium situation. For those (like myself) who were fans of the Baninster location, it's not the best news, as it appears that the Bannister location is now moving to the back burner.

Instead, it looks like the Wizards and OnGoal have been working with the Unified Government and the State of Kansas on a potential stadium site, likely out in the Legends area (which has been a rumor making the rounds lately). It's good to see that the team is not just sitting around waiting for the economy to pick back up, but it sucks that a site more centrally located to the metro is now taking a back seat.

Still, it's good to see movement on this front. Also, it's my understanding that the deal at Bannister is not dead yet, and I wouldn't expect it to be after the time and money OnGoal has already put into it. In fact, an announcement on this deal could force the hand of the city of Kansas City and force some movement to try and keep the project at Banister alive. The team can't wait around forever for it, even if it is a more central location, as Heineman says, they need a stadium deal done fast.

UPDATE: The Star article about the project is up on the Star's website with more information on exactly where the stadium would go. It would be basically right across the street from Nebraska Furniture Mart, who actually were the ones to approach the team about the site out at the Legends. Like the plan out at Bannister, the new plan will include youth soccer fields as well as an office complex for Cerner. Basically it will become what the Bannister project was going to be, but with the commercial aspect already in place. The Star also had a preliminary drawing of what the new site will look like.

Bannister Stalled

Missed this a week ago, but there is currently a little trouble over at the Bannister Mall site. Due to the economy as a whole right now, which is scaring off banks from financing and businesses from expanding and moving, the entire project at the Bannister site is stalled, including the Wizards stadium. While the documentation for state tax credits that have been approved they have not been finalized. And Lane4 is talking with the city about how to move things along faster. The project isn't being shelved, and the plan is to still have the Wizards stadium there, but right now things are in a bit of a holding pattern.

KC city councilman, John Sharp makes a good point in the article saying that the Wizards stadium may have to be built first to help spur on the rest of the development as a whole. We'll see what happens, but I wouldn't start with the "Will the Wizards move?" talk just yet. This is going to be an issue anywhere in the US right now, places aren't wanting to spend money in this down economy and getting "fun" things built like stadiums aren't high on the priority list at the moment.

2009 Wishes Mid-Year Review

The year is over half over already, and that means time to look at my Wishes for 2009 and how they've done so far.

1. Ground breaking on the stadium - The mall is down now and we actually have some renderings, but we still have not seen an official ground breaking for the building of the stadium. Hopefully we see ground breaking soon, or 2011 is going to be a bigger stretch than it already is.

2. 10-15 goal scorer for the Wizards - The Wizards may actually pull this one off this year. Josh Wolff is the current team leader with 6 goals a little over half way through the season. Of course the majority of the Wizards goals have come from 3 players (Wolff 6, Davy Arnaud 5, Claudio Lopez 4). That's 15 of the Wizards 19 goals this season. Hopefully Wolff is able to hit the 10 goal mark, but hopefully the rest of the team picks up the scoring a little bit.

3. US qualifies for World Cup 2010 - The US is certainly in a good position to qualify. Currently in second place half way through the Hexagional with 10 points, the US definitely has an inside track to qualifying. Sixteen points will likely be enough for the US to be off to South Africa for the World Cup. That means in the US's remaining 5 games (@ Mexico, vs El Salvador, @ TnT, @ Honduras, vs Costa Rica) the US needs 2 wins to probably qualify for the World Cup. Not an easy task, but certainly doable, especially if the US play as they did in the last few games of the Confederations Cup.

4. US does well at the Confederations Cup - If you'd have told me at the beginning of the year that the US would finish second at the tournament, I would have been estatic. And while I am very happy with the performance in the second half of the tournament, seeing how the US finished second is disappointing. Sure it was Brazil in the final, but up 2-0 you would hope the US could hold on. Still, though, a big win over Spain in the semifinals, and a nice win over Egypt are two good things to take from the competition heading back into World Cup qualifying.

5. Some Silverware - The Wizards are out of SuperLiga and the US Open Cup, meaning their only chances for silverware is winning the Supporter's Shield or MLS Cup. Right now the Wizards don't look likely to win either of those, but hopefully the Wizards turn it around.

6. Lopez has a 2009 season like the end of the 2008 season - Maybe not exactly as I'd wanted. His stats have been decent enough, scoring 5 goals in all competitions and tied for the team lead in assists with 4. Still his actual play hasn't been the greatest. With the way the season is going, though, Lopez is on his way to 10 goals and 8 assits, which honestly wouldn't be a horrible season from the Argentine.

7. A blowout home win - Hasn't happened yet. We were close against New England at home earlier this season, when I honestly didn't feel like New England ever really threatened, especially after they went down a man. But I still want a blow out. I want to see at least a 3 goal win at home this season.

The Mall is Gone

For those of you that missed Thad's post over at The Back Post yesterday, the last remaining wall at Bannister Mall came down yesterday. The mall is now completely gone. Over the next few weeks and months, they'll be cleaning up the site and breaking up the pad and in ground walls. Here's my album for this week of the nothingness that is left.

Almost Gone

Very little remains of Bannister Mall, there is only part of Sears left. What remains is basically a shell and then the garage portion of Sears in the southwest corner. Other than that, the roof is basically all off and walls are coming down. I'd expect the rest of the mall to be down by next week. Here are all the pictures from today.

Demolition Continues

With soccer fans not just in KC, but around the US now talking about the new stadium renderings for the Wizards, the facility seems more realistic now to some. For that all to get built, though, the buildings currently there need to come down. It looks like the mall itself could be down within the next two weeks or so. The crew has basically ripped out the entire inside of Sears and is working on the outside now. Here is the full album for this week.

The Mall is Almost Gone

Here's your weekly dose of pictures from the old Bannister Mall site. As the weeks go by, there is less and less of the mall. This week, as you'll see, the mall portion of the building is almost gone. There is a small ledge and a wall and that's about all that remains of the mall portion of Bannister Mall. There is only 1 remaining entrance to the mall portion still standing. Most of Sears is still there, but the roof has come off most of that part of the building. Here is the entire album for this week.

Demolition Pictures

Here's your weekly update on how the demolition of Bannister Mall is going. Demolition continues to move on, and they're getting closer and closer to Sears. Today while I was out there, they were working full force on getting parts of the building down. In fact, I got to see one of the beams pulled out causing part of the roof to collapse while I was driving from one spot to another. Below you can see some before and after pictures of that piece of demolition. Here's the full album.

Demoltion Continues

Despite the delays in financing that will likely keep the stadium from opening in time for the 2011 season, demolition continues to bring down Bannister Mall. There are now only 2 entrances to the actual mall still there, as all the rest have come down. There are also a lot more holes as the crews work on getting Sears cleared out completely so that it can be brought down too. Here is the full album.

Stadium Opening Delays

Things are not looking good at the moment for the Wizards stadium at Hillcrest Road opening up in time for the 2011 season. According to the Kansas City Business Journal, it looks like chances are starting to get very slim for an opening in 2011. Due to the current state of the economy it's hard for the developers to sign any retail or office tenants for the project. This means that the Wizards could be spending a fourth season at Community America, or possibly find a new location, potentially Arrowhead since renovations would be done there.

The article also brings the ugly idea of relocation back to the forefront saying that the Wizards occasionally get offers from other cities trying to lure a team there. The problem with the statement in the article is that it doesn't come from a person working for OnGoal or the Wizards, but someone working for Lane4Property Group, which makes the statement very odd. The other thing in the article that is disturbing is the lack of comment by Robb Heineman who is usually more than willing to give a quote on the project. Hopefully this is just a small bump in the road, but it's certainly not good for the team that they could be spending a fourth season without a permanent home.

Demolition this Week

Here are this week's demolition pictures from out at Bannister Mall. Looks like they've started clearing out the inside of Sears, the last part of the mall that hasn't been cleared out. There are multiple holes in the building where debris has been pushed out. The outside work continues to come along as they push further and further towards Sears.

5/8 Demolition

Not a lot of exterior work seems to have been done this past week out at the Bannister Mall site, but they appear to be moving along on getting the rest of the inside of the mall cleared out. In fact, all the walls appear to be down and you can now see clearly all the way to the Sear's entrance inside the mall now. Here is the full album.

More Demolition

Here's your weekly update on the demolition of Bannister Mall. I didn't expect a whole lot of demolition to be done this week due to the amount of wet weather that we've had, but they've moved along pretty well. Dillard's is all the way down, and they're now just cleaning up what is left in that part of the mall. Inside the mall part, it looks like they may have the entirety of the actually mall part cleared out. Meaning the walls for each of the individual stores are down. Enjoy the pictures, here is the full album.

Demolition Photos

Made it out to Bannister Mall today to get some photos of the continued process of tearing down the mall. The crew is moving fairly quickly, as they have gotten a lot of Dillard's down now, and seem to have a lot more of the mall gutted. The progress is amazing to go through from my first set of photos of the demolition to now. Here is this week's gallery.