More Stadium News

Yesterday we heard new news on the Wizards potential stadium site out at the Legends. Today thanks to a poster on Bigsoccer, we have a little more news that makes it seem like the Legends complex is very close to happening. The link is to a Contract and Bid Opportunities blog talking about the fact that Wizards are accepting bids for the stadium project out in Kansas City, Kansas. According to the post, they are accepting bids for drilled piers and concrete foundation. The bidding is open until the 18th. And while this bidding does not mean the project is finalized, it certainly seems a lot closer now with this news. It means that the Wizards feel confident enough in this site to start working towards getting the construction lined up.

Down the Byline on Twitter

I've finally given in and joined the Twitter craze. You can now follow Down the Byline on twitter at http://twitter.com/downthebyline so feel free to follow me there as well. Cut me some slack to start as I learn what's the best way for me to use it.

It's Called Football Show

So as I mentioned earlier, I was a phone in guest on the Toronto based It's Called Football Show today on thatchannel.com. Well one of the hosts, Duane Rollins has the podcast of the episode up on his blog, The 24th Minute. Go ahead and take a listen to the show.

And if you don't want to go to the link, you can watch the show below.

Click To Play

New Hillcrest Road

The Wizards blog, Hillcrest Road has received a major face lift today. The new site in my opinion is fantastic and gives it a new great look.

Follow the Juniors at Nationals

I had been planning on getting my brother to help blog about the Wizards Juniors trip to nationals this week, and he still might. But the Wizards look to have someone stepping up to blog on the team down in Arkansas this week. The team has set up a KC Wizards Juniors blog, which as the little blurb about the blog says, "This is the online home of news and information for the KCW Juniors, the official youth development arm of the Kansas City Wizards. Owned and operated by OnGoal, LLC, the KCW Juniors are overseen by Wizards Technical Director Peter Vermes and Director of Coaching Jon Parry".

I look forward to getting their opinion on how the team played along with family that will be down at the tournament.

New Wizards Blog

There's another new Wizards blog out there on the net. KC Futbol, done by Andrew Wiebe, who also writes for American Soccer Daily.

The blog is now in the blog roll on the left, so check it out.

Update Your Bookmarks

Over the past year plus that I've been doing this blog, I have seen the readership increase probably 10 fold over that time. With that in mind, I've decided it's time to take this blog to the next level. I have purchased the rights to the website www.downthebyline.com through blogger. It may be a small thing, but to me this is a huge step in the life of this blog. The current link, downthebyline.blogspot.com should continue to work for you, but if you have linked this blog on your blog or anywhere else, please look to update your links. The transition should be completed in the next few days.

Thank you to all of you, the readers for making this blog what it is.

Anyone Getting Goosebumps?

I'm already loving the new Hillcrest Road blog the team has put together. Late last night, we got our first write up from Wizards president, Robb Heineman. The post is all about the new stadium and some of the stuff that is going on right now. He's meeting today with Architecture 360 today to discuss the seating bowl and some suites. They also should have 6 bids on the roof of the stadium that they have to decide on. Once that's done, they'll be releasing renderings. Personally all this has me pumped up to see them.

Heineman then discusses the Cauldron and it's potential location on the south side of the stadium, where they're looking to create a "cave-like" structure to help create more sound from the Cauldron. That sounds just amazing, and I can't wait to be a part of it. Finally, Heineman talks about the plans developing for an English pub just south of the stadium, that I assume will want to be the pre and post game hangout location of the Cauldron along with all other fans. It's about time KC got a really good English pub. One that will open early on Saturday's and Sunday's to allow for people to come in and view EPL games. A place willing to drop the money on PPV for big time European qualifying games, and for things like the FA Cup Final. The Embassy Bistro is great, and McCoy's looks to be wanting to come along, but I would hope that this place would become just THE place to watch soccer on TV.

All these ideas starting to come together just have me incredibly psyched for this thing to be built.

New Official Wizards Blog

The Wizards have a new official team blog, Hillcrest Road. You can find it in my blogroll on the right. This will hopefully be a great thing for the team and the fans to get more information on the team as a whole.

Here are some of the features the blog will have on the team:

• Regular updates from practices and road trips
• Regular posts from Team President and owner Robb Heineman
• Updates on the Wizards permanent stadium project
• Guest blogs from other members of the organization including players
• Fun features displaying the players’ off-the-field lives
• Regular posts concerning the Wizards efforts in the community

I'm looking forward to the information that will be on the blog.

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.

Jimmy Conrad Blog

Just got home from the rally to support the Bannister Mall redevelopment. I'll have more on that here shortly, but wanted to comment on this first.

Our wonderful captain, Jimmy Conrad now has his own blog. Not only will we be able to read his words of wisdom on ESPN, but we'll also be able to get it here. In the first entry he gives us a wonderful visual of national team camp. The blog has been added to my blog roll.

New Wizards Blog

The Wizards have a new blog out here on the world wide web, Oz City. The creator of Oz City is trying to get the Wizards an independent source on the team, like FC Dallas has with 3rd Degree. The blog has been added to my blog roll below, so check it out.

Yours truly has also been asked to contribute to the site, which I will do, usually by double posting my posts that I put up here. Although I will still do unique stuff here and possibly there as well.