RVDV Deal Unlikely, de Jong Injured, Espinoza Sits, and More

Catching up on some news from the past day or so that I've brought up on Twitter, but I'll mention further here.

RVDV Deal Unlikely

Sports Illustrated writer Grant Wahl was present at Yankee Stadium on Saturday night for Sporting KC's game against New York City FC. Around half time, Wahl provided an update on the rumored move by KC to acquire Rafael van der Vaart, who has been told he won't be offered a new contract at Hamburg. For those that were excited about the potential signing, it looks like they're going to be disappointed. Wahl is reporting now that a deal for the Dutchman is looking unlikely and that Kansas City is going in a different direction.

Wahl reports that KC is still looking at additions for this summer, and has two players in mind, one of which is a South American.

De Jong Injured

Sporting has already lost Graham Zusi for this weekend (most likely) after picking up a hamstring injury in the win over NYCFC. They also could be without Jimmy Medranda, who also left the game with an injury. And now they have a third player who has picked up a knock. Tonight in Canada's 3-0 win in an international friendly against Puerto Rico, KC left back, Marcel de Jong started for Canada but only played 34 minutes before being subbed out. De Jong picked up an injury in the 33rd minute and tried to continue playing, but was quickly taken out and replaced by Karl Ouimette in the 34th.

Of all the positions that KC could suffer an injury, left back might be the easiest position for KC to recover from. With Seth Sinovic also available, KC should be fine should de Jong not be able to play this weekend. Still it'd be a blow for KC, while Sinovic may be a bit better defensively in KC's system, de Jong offers KC much more going forward with his crossing and also with the set pieces as he showed against Portland.

Espinoza Sits as Honduras Qualify

The Honduran national team filled out the final team in this summer's Gold Cup and will play the United States in each team's first game in Group A. After suffering an embarrassing 3-1 loss in the first leg in French Guiana, Honduras came out and scored three goals in the first half in the return leg in San Pedro Sula on Sunday with former DC United midfielder Andy Najar scoring two.

For Roger Espinoza though, he had no place in the team and was on the bench for the game after being subbed out in the 65th minute of the first leg in French Guiana. Still, Espinoza will likely have a role to play this summer for Honduras and could be missing more time for KC with Honduras qualified now.

Copa America Centenario Submitted

On behalf of @VisitKC, @SportKC, @KCChiefs, @SportingKC, & entire @KCMO metro, #CopaAmetica2016 bid submitted! pic.twitter.com/7kXr5I4IM1
— David Ficklin (@davidficklin) March 30, 2015

While KC was already on the short list to be a potential host for the 2016 Copa America Centenario which will feature teams from CONMEBOL and CONCACAF, today it became official. The above tweet from Dave Ficklin confirms that KC has officially submitted their bid to host games in next summer's tournament. A tournament that could bring some of the best players in the world like Lionel Messi and Argentina or Neymar and Brazil to Kansas City. Certainly something that would be quite exciting as a fan of soccer to watch.

Kansas City on List to Potentially Host Copa America Centenario

Kansas City could be hosting the premier national team competition in the Western Hemisphere in 2016. The Copa America will be hosted in the US in 2016 as the Copa Centenario. It will include the nations of CONMEBOL as well as six teams from the CONCACAF region, including the USA and Mexico.

CONMEBOL is apparently eying 23 cities in the US as potential hosting cities for the tournament according to Globo in Brazil. One of those cities is Kansas City.

The list apparently came up in a CONMEBOL Exective Committee meeting. The map has two different colors for cities listed, but no explanation of those colors. Kansas City is grouped a number of favorites to host the tournament like Los Angeles, New York, Boston, Chicago, etc. Whether that means anything or not is unknown. But it'd certainly  be fun to have the tournament in Kansas City.

Sporting Park in Running to Host College Cup

Sporting Park could be a future host of the NCAA men's and women's college cup. Kansas City is bidding for 13 NCAA division 1 and 2 championships in the coming years. Sporting Park would be the host site of three of those potential finals. Not only that, Sporting's training facility at the expanded Swope Park could host two finals as well.

Sporting Park is named as the host site for the NCAA division 1 men's and women's soccer finals and could also play host to the NCAA division 2 football final. Swope could play host to the division 2 men's and women's finals. I'd love the soccer finals to be here in KC, the college cup is always a good opportunity to see future MLS players and some good soccer as well. The division 2 finals would be a bonus and would be a great way to show off the Swope Park facility.

The football final I don't care much about but could be big in KC with the likes of Pittsburg State and Northwest MO State around and consistently good in the division. If KC does host, hopefully by then KC has their field issues under control, even though the final would be in January and the field would likely have time to recover by the time the MLS season starts.

Soccer Capital of America?

The advertisements for the all star game coming up on Wednesday have been advertising Kansas City as the "Soccer Capital of America." Over the last three years, Kansas City has turned from an afterthought in the soccer community to one of the centers of attention when it comes to MLS and the US national team. Kansas City will be one of only two cities (Columbus the other one) to host games in both rounds of World Cup qualifying for the 2014 World Cup. But is KC really the "capital?"

Just 4 years ago, the then Wizards were averaging 10,287 people per game at Community America Ballpark and were averaging just under 11,000 per game for their entire 15 year history.  Then came the opening of Sporting Park. Since then, KC is averaging just under 19,000 a game.  A long way to come in not even three full years of being at the stadium.And while that turnaround is impressive, does it really make KC the capital of American soccer?

There are a number of cities that could make the claim to being the capital right now though.  Columbus could make the claim for having the first soccer specific stadium in MLS, and continuing to prove that it can provide a solid home field advantage for the US national team at Crew Stadium. Seattle as well could make the claim.  For all the stick people (myself included) give Seattle for an elitist attitude and the "Seattle invented it" jokes, Seattle has proven to have a strong fan base, that supports their team.  And proved in the US qualifier against Panama that they'll come out to support the US as well, and up the bar for everyone with a fantastic performance. Portland also could have a claim to the title with fantastic support that has been great since they were in the USL. Portland though tends to go with the Soccer City USA nickname. Even St. Louis could make a claim as the capital.  Although they don't have a team now, St. Louis was the center of US soccer for a while and was "America's first soccer capital." But while they've done well to sell out games with big name European teams, the lack of a professional outdoor team in the city hurts any claim it has to the title now.

So is Kansas City the "Soccer Capital of America"? Robb Heineman certainly believes so. "...we really feel that way, whether it’s our team, our stadium, the project that we’re working on here with U.S. Soccer around the training center that will advance over the course of this fall, whether it’s our youth development. We want to be what soccer really is in America, with the ultimate aim of that to have the U.S. win the World Cup" Heineman told the Star this week ahead of the game.

Personally I'm not ready to give KC that crown quite yet. KC has shown it can support Sporting KC when it's leading the East and making the playoffs, but let's see what happens when KC has a down year or two.  The true "Soccer Capital of America" will still be showing up when KC is struggling a bit.  I won't make much comment on the support for the US, cause even when the Wizards were drawing flies at Arrowhead, the US still drew 37,319 for a midweek World Cup qualifier against Costa Rica back in 2001.  A record for a midweek qualifier that stood for 12 years until Seattle drew 40,847. So KC has proven that it'll support the US.

While I don't believe that I'm ready to give KC the crown yet, I think KC could well be on its way to getting the crown. I've said before, Sporting KC has come in during a perfect storm in KC sports. The Royals continue to struggle in the standings and the Chiefs haven't won a playoff game since I was 11. The stadium created a buzz for the team and the team has run with it.  They've done a much better job of marketing the team and getting the name out there.  And winning helps a lot as well.

I do completely agree with one of Heineman's main points.  I want, and believe that KC can be what soccer really is in America. I think KC as a whole has the mindset that can make it a place that can be looked at as the "stereotypical" US soccer city in the US.  They're well on their way, now they need to keep it up and not fall back into old habits or get complacent with their place.

Sporting KC News

Here's some news for you today regarding Sporting KC.

Sporting Pull Out of Swope Park Project

This actually happened last week, but with all the news regarding player announcements I keep forgetting to post about it.  The project that the city of Kansas City supports to turn the area around Sporting's training facility into a soccer complex that could rival the Overland Park Complex.  The plan was to use funds left over from the Winchester Center TIF to help fund the project.  The plan for the project immediately came under fire because the unused portion of the TIF funds was supposed to go to the Raytown School District and Mid-Continent Public Library.  In the long run Sporting probably made the smart move so as to avoid be looked at as attempting to take money away from a school.

Still the thing that continues to bug me with regards to this situation is the fact that the TIF went into effect before the team was even originally founded and nothing has been done with the left over TIF money for years.  But when another use for the project funds is found, people get up in arms over the situation. 

New Byline to the Back Post

A new From the Byline to the Back Post is up for your listening pleasure.  This week Thad and I discuss all the moves that had taken place through Wednesday evening, including Benny Feilhaber, Matt Besler, and Ike Opara.  We also discuss the Comets, FC KC, and more.  Enjoy through Posterous and iTunes.

Re-Entry Draft Stage 2 Tomorrow

The second stage of the re-entry draft takes place tomorrow.  After seeing only one player taken in the first stage, the second stage of the draft is usually much more active.  With Sporting KC making a number of moves after the first stage of the draft, including picking up Opara in a trade with San Jose.  KC took a similar method last year, trading for Bobby Convey instead of waiting for the draft.  After that trade Sporting sat out the second stage of the re-entry draft making no movement.  I wouldn't be surprised for KC to once again not make a selection now that they've picked up Opara.  There's no one on the list that immediately jumps out at this point that I would think KC would take.

Former Junior Trialing Abroad

Whether you want to consider this a missed opportunity by Sporting or not, this is pretty cool.  Former Juniors player, Badr Seyam, a 13  year old, is currently working his way around Europe, trialing for the youth teams of some of the biggest clubs in the world.  Including Arsenal and Hamburg, he's apparently also heard from Manchester City as well.  It's amazing that a kid from Sporting's youth system could reach these heights so quickly.  I wish the kid nothing but luck for his future

Soccer City KC. Can KC Support Soccer 5 Teams?

Starting next year in Kansas City, there will now be 5 professional and semi-professional teams playing in the metropolitan area.  While across the state of Missouri, St. Louis is considered one of the hot beds of soccer and Portland has the nickname of Soccer City USA, Kansas City is making a name for themselves as well in the soccer community.  Next year, in Kansas City, soccer fans will get to choose from the existing Sporting KC, Missouri Comets, and KC Brass along with new comers FC Kansas City and the Kansas City Shock. 

As you can see that's a lot of soccer to support, and the question is whether KC can support all those teams or not.  Of the existing teams, all 3 would on the surface appear to be able to survive.  Sporting KC is probably the safest of all 5 of the teams, with Livestrong Sporting Park existing and it being a facility where Sporting can control the revenue.  They're also the best attended of the existing teams, averaging 19,404 in the 2012 season. 

The Comets would likely be considered safe as well heading into this year, mainly because they're in the market all by themselves during the majority of their season as the other four teams play a spring/fall schedule.  The Comets are also doing a good job of filling the Independence Events Center, which at this time is the perfect size for the indoor game.  Last year, the Comets finished 3rd in attendance in the league, averaging 4,092 per game in the 5,800 seat IEC.  Last year the Comets had to go head to head with another indoor team, the PASL Kansas Magic, who folded after one season last year.

Of the existing teams in Kansas City, the third team, the KC Brass is the second oldest existing team in KC, starting a year after Sporting KC started as the KC Wiz.  They also had the lowest attendance of the teams.  In their 7 games that attendance was reported last year, the Brass averaged 340 per game at the Overland Park Soccer Complex.  At the facility the Brass though don't charge for attendance, so there's no revenue coming in from ticket sales for the Brass.  In their history they've played on both sides of the state line and north and south sides of the city, moving from BVDAC to William Jewell and into the OP Soccer Complex.  Really though attendance isn't that big of a deal for the Brass, the non-profit that owns the club is they're mainly to help develop players for the pro game and seem content at this time to continue doing that.

From there we have the two new women's team.  First, the "oldest" of the two teams, the KC Shock.  The Shock are setting themselves to be the same type of team that the Brass, looking to develop local players to contribute at the next level.  At this time the Shock haven't finalized a venue yet.

The final team is the women's professional team, FC Kansas City, owned by the same owners as the Missouri Comets.  Like the Shock, the Blues are entering their first season and as yet, KC has not announced their venue yet.  They've got their list limited down, and are looking for a site that will allow them at least 5,000.  Livestrong is apparently still one of the options for them to play in.  They have the backing of US Soccer as well as the Canadian and Mexican federations as those three federations will be providing the funding for a number of players on the roster, which will certainly help with the team's bottom line and the cost of player salaries. 

As a whole I think that Sporting and the Brass are on solid footing.  I think the fate of the Comets and FC Kansas City will be tied together with the two teams being owned by the same group.  Not that it will happen, but there could be a potential situation similar to St. Louis where one team gets sacrificed for the survival of the other, or both end up in financial trouble. 

I like the guys that are doing the set up for the Shock, but I do wonder if they might be the "low man on the totem pole."  They were unlucky with the establishment of their club a few months before a professional women's team was announced for the city as well.  They're doing a good job on the social media scene, but they'll be battling to establish their place in a market while at the same time having to "fight" with a team that has the backing of US Soccer, that's going to be a tough task to face.

Overall, it's going to be a full summer when it comes to soccer with 4 teams playing in Kansas City.  That's certainly going to stretch the entertainment dollars (not just ticket prices but gas, concessions, etc.) of soccer fans in the city.  Each team finding their niche is what is going to be key for all 5 teams to survive here.  If one fails to find it's own niche it's not going to survive long with all the other soccer options around at this time.

KC Part of New Women's League?

This coming spring, US Soccer is set to launch another women's professional soccer league in the United States, the previous two, the WUSA, and the WPS both folded after 3 seasons.  This third attempt looks to be working more directly with US Soccer as the national governing body.  Word out today is that the league will contain 8 teams, 4 former teams from the WPS, the Boston Breakers, Chicago Red Stars, Western New York Flash, and Sky Blue FC and 4 new teams in DC, Portland, Seattle, and Kansas City.

Yes, that's right, according to the rumor from Soccer Wire, Kansas City is one of the team's on the list to get a women's professional soccer team in the new league.  None of the details have been announced regarding the league and the potential window to start the 2013 season is getting smaller. 

I know plenty of people have been wanting a women's team in Kansas City to cheer for alongside Sporting KC.  There is no news on the ownership of the potential women's team, but one could guess that it could be Sporting Club, as another potential team under the Sporting umbrella along with Sporting and the KC Blues rugby team as suggested here. 

The interesting thing if this rumor is true, is that it would give Kansas City two women's soccer teams in the city.  The second being the Kansas City Shock, who are getting ready to join the existing WPSL league.  Two women's teams could definitely make for a potentially crowded soccer landscape in Kansas City with two women's teams, Sporting, the Brass, and the Comets, all fighting for entertainment dollars of fans.

Practice Facility Expansion on Hold

The city of Kansas City has a plan to expand the soccer complex in Swope Park that includes the Sporting KC training facility, but that plan has run into some trouble because of the funding.  The city is behind a proposed $23.1 million plan that would add fields and amenities to the area at 63rd St and Lewis Road in Kansas City, Missouri.

The plan calls for the expansion of the training facility, including the grounds of the facility, office space and adding an auditorium and classrooms in the facility according to this layout.   It also calls for 7 fields with lights as well as some synthetic surface fields along with grass.  It'll take the entire area around the Sporting training facility and turn all of it into a soccer complex that could host larger tournaments. 

As I said above though, the plan has run into some funding issues.  The money that the city wants to use is from the Winchester Center TIF Plan.  That TIF plan saw the building of the DST Systems, KMBC TV studio, and Time Warner offices all to the East of Sporting's training complex.  The reason for the funding issue is because other jurisdictions believe the funds should be returned to them since the belief is that this is outside the scope of the original TIF.  In a way that is true, as the Winchester Center TIF Plan was placed well before the team was even founded.  The $11.1 million that the city wants to use has been in the TIF account since 1991, 5 years before the then KC Wiz even played their first game.

I understand the argument from the side of the Raytown Public Schools and Mid-Continent Public library, two of the other jurisdictions calling for the return of the funds.  There is certainly a lot that those two could do with the $11.1 million.  On the other hand, that money has been there for 21 years now and only now when it seems that the city has found another use for the funds are they really stepping forward about the funds. 

The argument for the complex continues to be the lack of not just soccer fields, but quality soccer fields.  Since the building of the Overland Park Soccer Complex, it has been booked full basically every weekend and on week nights with leagues, tournaments, and practices, bringing a lot of money into the surrounding economy as parents have to buy dinner or find a hotel on tournament weekends.  And complaints about the overcrowding of the facility are fairly well spread.  There is definitely room for another high quality facility, especially on the Missouri side.  The most competitive club teams in the KC area play on the Kansas side of the state line (save the Sporting KC developmental academy teams that play at Swope currently), forcing Missouri teams to go across state lines.  It's been this way ever since I started playing club ball about 20 years ago now.  While facilities like Legacy Park in Lee's Summit have tried to fill the gap, there's still a lack of quality fields on the Missouri side. 

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.

Something Kind of Cool

I was looking around Facebook tonight and came across a post from the Major League Soccer fan page. Basically Chicago is hosting a Sister Cities International Cup in Chicago in late May. Along with the Fire, 3 teams from Europe will compete in the tournament as well, all 3 are from sister cities of Chicago. There's Legia Warsaw, Paris Saint-Germain, and Red Star Belgrade. Personally I think this is a pretty interesting idea to bring in teams affiliated as sister cities with the home city for a small tournament. True the timing may not be the best, but I like the overall idea.

If there was something KC were to do, there are plenty of cities to choose from for sister city teams. Kansas City, MO has plenty of sister cities that have teams that could be invited to such a tournament. A tournament in KC could contain clubs like Sevilla FC, Hannover 96, FC Metz, or even a team that is already a sister club, Atlas. Even if the team was interested in using KCK, the Kansas City on the other side of the state line also has their own sister cities (although their clubs aren't as glamorous. If you used KCK, you could have LASK Linza in Austira, NK Karlovac in Croatia, Limerick FC in Ireland. Overall, it's a good concept Chicago has with this tournament and it'll be interesting to see how the tournament turns out. I personally think the concept around the tournament is pretty cool by bringing in teams from the clubs from the sister city of the team. Whether KC does some sort of local tournament isn't know, there had been talk a few years ago about a similar tournament, although that never came to be. Still it's nice to think about the likes of Sevilla and Hannover coming to KC.

KC Named to World Cup Bid 18

Today the US Bid Committee for the World Cup Bid for 2018 and 2022 announced the cities that had been named to the final 18, paring the number down from 27. Kansas City made the cut and is one of the final 18 cities left in consideration should the US win the bid for either World Cup. The surprise non-selection has to be the city of Chicago. Soldier Field hosted games during the 1994 World Cup, but lost out this time, which is a bit of a surprise considering it's one of the largest cities in the US. Still, the lack of Chicago and St. Louis on the bid list would appear to help the KC bid as the city helps fill a gap in the country that would be otherwise left with a long distance to travel to see potential games.

KC World Cup Bid Press Conference Tomorrow

photo courtesy of Thad Bell

Tomorrow at Arrowhead Stadium, the KC World Cup bid committee and Kansas City mayor, Mark Funkhouser will be hosting a press conference. Funkhouser is set to make "a major statement" about the city's bid to host the World Cup in Kansas City. Since the announcement of the press conference was made earlier today, I've been trying to figure out what the "major statement" by the mayor will be. Since the mayor is there, it definitely has to be something involving the city itself. This means it's unlikely to be anything about the World Cup itself or the cities that will be named in the USA's bid, although the USSF is going to be narrowing the bids down to their final 18 in December(slide 6).

I've been doing some research into what it could be, and I found this in my search. What this is, is the Host City Agreement that cities need to sign to be part of the bid process. It breaks down the hosting responsibilities of the city for the World Cup, everything from the selection of the cities, to posters advertising the event, to public transit, to even the base camps for the team (the link above from Hillcrest Road provides a ton of information about KC's bid). It needs to be signed by the city for the city to be considered in the final hosting for the country biding for the World Cup.

I've been able to confirm from a source that this is indeed what the announcement is supposed to be tomorrow, the fact that the city of Kansas City has signed the Host City Agreement. This is a big step for the city and the bid committee in their work to get the city of Kansas City to be one of the final 12 cities that will hopefully host either the 2018 or the 2022 World Cup.

Local KC Players in the NCAA

The NCAA men's tournament is down to their final 8 teams, and one of those teams has gotten a big hand from plenty of local KC area players. The Drake Bulldogs came from behind to beat Boston College 6-4 yesterday in Boston to clinch a spot in the Elite Eight against UNC. Five of Drake's 6 goals were scored by 4 Kansas City players. The four KC players, Kevin Shrout, Garrett Webb, Luke Gorczyca, and Matt Kuhn are just 4 of 7 KC players on Drake's roster. This is a great showing for Kansas City itself that a team this far into the NCAA tournament is so reliant on players from the Kansas City area. Congratulations to the team and good luck to the team against the Tar Heels. And for those interested in seeing Drake's come from behind victory, check out the highlights here.

KC's World Cup Bid

Last night the Wizards hosted a presentation on their World Cup bid for the 2018 or 2022 World Cup for members of the "new media" aka blogs. Due to other commitments, I was unable to attend the event, but Thad over at The Back Post did attend and has TONS of great information about the bid over on his blog. I'm not going to repost all the stats and facts, but check out his blog for tons of information about the Wizards bid.

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.

Arrowhead Still in Running for World Cup

The USSF once again cut down the list of potential sites to host the World Cup should the US win the 2018 or the 2022 bid to host. Kansas City and Arrowhead Stadium have made the cut for the next round along with 26 other cities. The committee will name 18 sites for the final bid that the US will put forward. Also still on the list, is the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis. The bid has to be in to FIFA by May of 2010. Hopefully by that time KC is still on the list and we can hopefully look forward to World Cup soccer in Kansas City.

I'm told that the bid put forth for by the committee in KC is most definitely a serious one and are willing to make the changes needed to Arrowhead to make sure that it meets FIFA requirements. So there's hope for those that are skeptical because of the size of the field at Arrowhead. Also, due to the large parking lot at the Truman Sports Complex, it gives plenty of space for Fanfest stuff. If you haven't already signed the petition, do so. I remember going to a game in Dallas in 1994 and it was amazing, I would love to have that atmosphere here in KC when the World Cup returns.

New KC Blog

There's another new Kansas City area blog. The Kansas City Soccer Review. It's being done by both George Hanson and George Shook. The blog is set to replace Hanson's daily email news blast about the Wizards and Kansas City soccer. The G's Squared will be bringing news on the sport for all of Kansas City.

What is and What Will Be

Today after I got off of work, I made a trip over to Bannister Mall to take a look at the area as it is now, and how I remember it as a kid (except busier back then). I brought my camera along to get some pictures of what the place is like now and wanted to compare them to how the area will be once the 3 Trails Development takes place. Apologies in advance for the very long post, it's mostly due to the pictures.

Starting on the north side of the project, you have the Days Inn and the Super 8 Motel in that area.


Those hotels will be torn down, and in their place 2 hotels, with a combined 240 rooms, and some retails buildings will be built.
To the East of that, you have what is now Benjamin Stables. The ranch will be torn down, which in my opinion is the real sad part of this development.

In it's place, there will only be parking and a few office complexes.
From there we move to the spot where I'll be spending the majority of my time out at this complex, and that's the soccer specific stadium for the Wizards. The stadium will be going in north of where the mall currently stands, taking out some of the buildings for Benjamin Plaza, including the old Toys R' Us and Just for Feet. This picture is taken from across Hillcrest looking back towards where the stadium will be.
Along with the stadium, there will be a 7 story hotel, likely the hotel that will be used by visiting teams when they come to play at the new stadium.
Across Hillcrest from the stadium, where the old Hypermart currently sits, will be an office complex made up of 3 to 4 story office buildings. This picture is taken from where the soccer fields will be just south of the office complex. As well as a picture taken from just south of where the stadium will be.
And here's a general idea of what the complex will look like when the entire project is completed.
Moving just to the south of the offices, are the 12 tournament quality soccer fields that will be put in. They'll be built on the site of the rest of the Benjamin Plaza shopping area and the restaurants closer to Hillcrest. This picture is taken looking south at where the fields will be. Followed by what the fields will look like when the project is finished.

Then we have the main shopping part of the district, where the mall currently stands in all it's empty, plywood covered, weed infested parking lot glory. With pictures both looking south from where the stadium will be, and west from across Hillcrest.

And here's an outline of how the area will look once the mall has been torn down and the new shopping has gone in.Unfortunately by this time, my camera batteries died, and without replacements I was unable to get photos of the redevelopment of the area south of the mall, including the K-Mart location.
I also missed getting pictures of what will become another office complex, south of where the fields are, in an area that is currently an open field.

Council Passes 3 Trails TIF

The KC City Council today unanimously passed Lane4 and the Wizards TIF plan for Bannister Mall today, 13-0. As I stated yesterday, the one doubt had been Mayor Funkhouser. Funkhouser again in the meeting today stated his stance on Super TIFs, but then stated that he realized for this redevelopment, a Super TIF was required for it to succeed.

Four members of the city council spoke publicly at the meeting, which was broadcasted live on Kansas City's website. John Sharp, the 6th district (the district the site is in) representative, Terry Riley of district 5, and at large members Cathy Jolly and Cindy Circo all spoke very highly of the project and the impact that it would have not only the district it's in, but the surrounding area.

All is not over yet, though, as the TIF has to get it's state funding. Although, as one Wizards staffer said on bigsoccer, the money is already in the state budget, earmarked for use by a major TIF in the city of KC.

Wizards fans can celebrate the great news tonight and look forward to attending the ground breaking some time next year.

And thanks to the gallery on the Wizards website, we have this great picture of the overlay of the project on the current area.

2006 average attendance

So, recently I went through all the games played this season that are up on MLS' website. I took the attendance for each game and came up with the average for each team this season as well as the average league attendance. These results, though, are not complete, as MLS' website is missing the attendance for 4 matches this season. Houston's game against Chicago on May 20th, Real Salt Lake at LA July 8th, and Chivas USA at Dallas August 16th. Not counting those 4 games, there were 189 games played this season. The league average attendance this season was 15,518. Which is an increase over last years number of 15,108. More info can be found here, although it appears he's found the elusive 3 games I was missing to complete the season. His numbers knock the season average down 16 people to 15502. This number also is higher then the average attendance for MLS history, which according to Kenn's site 15,058. The median attendance this past season was 14,175. Again higher then the median attendance average in MLS history which is 13,289.

Here is the list of teams in the order of average attendance, again these numbers are minus the games I am missing attendance figures for above.

1. LA - 21109
2. Chivas - 19839
3. Houston - 19147
4. DC - 18152
5. RSL - 16365
6. Dallas - 15299
7. New York - 14569
8. Chicago - 14088
9. Columbus - 13293
10. Colorado - 12055
11. New England - 11785
12. KC - 11082

So there are your average attendance numbers for each MLS team this past season.

This did get me thinking though looking through the attendance figures, New York had attendance's of 35793 and 52425, their next highest attendance number was 19780. The first two were a special event concert on open day, the second was a double header with Ecuador and Colombia. Without those 2 matches, that knocks NY's attendance all the way down to 10349, which would have had them at last place in all of MLS. I give the benefit of the doubt on the first game of the season, even though it was affliated with a concert and other events on that day. What I decided to do, was to see where the average attendance for teams were minus the big special event games, ie, double headers.

There were 4 double headers this past season, New England at Chivas USA which drew 92650 in a double header that invovled Chivas Guadalajara vs. Barcalona. The second double header, was LA at Houston which along with Barcalona vs. America drew 70550. The third match, was the afformentioned Ecuador-Colombia match which was played in conjuction with FC Dallas at New York. The final double header, was Chivas USA at Colorado combined with San Luis vs. Club America which drew 28215.

What does dropping these 4 double headers do to team and league average?

From 15518 that I got for the 189 games I found, the loss of the 4 double headers would drop the league average nearly 1000 fans, to 14536.

What about the teams?

1. LA - 21109
2. DC - 18152
3. RSL - 16365
4. Houston - 15476
5. Dallas - 15299
6. Chivas - 14985
7. Chicago - 14088
8. Columbus - 13293
9. New York - 12045
10. New England - 11785
11. KC - 11082
12. Colorado - 10978

Changes: Chivas is the biggest loser, losing almost 5000 fans, and falling from second to 6th. Houston loses 3600, but only falls from third to fourth. New York falls to 9th losing just over 2500 fans. And Colorada falls into 12th losing 1077 fans off their average.

Just some interesting stats for you on the season.