The new owners who purchased Major League Soccer's Kansas City Wizards from Lamar Hunt last summer may have to resort to placing the team in a far-flung high school stadium for the next couple of years while Arrowhead Stadium is closed for renovations...
The facilities at Skelly Stadium would be much superior to any stadium options the Wizards have in the Kansas City area...
Things that make you go... hmm.
Wizards talk to Ray-Pec about field
Soccer team has met with school district about using high school football stadium as interim home.
Tue, Dec. 12, 2006
By DONALD BRADLEY and BOB LUDER
The Kansas City Star
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/sports/16218450.htm
Wizards and Raymore-Peculiar School District officials confirmed Monday that the two sides have discussed a plan for the Wizards to play at Panther Stadium until the team can find a permanent home.
No deal has been reached. The Wizards will only say that Raymore-Peculiar is now on a "short list" of possible playing sites. But the school district's superintendent already has inquired to Missouri education officials what must be done to sell beer at a high school football stadium.
The Wizards averaged 11,083 fans for 16 games last season at 79,451-seat Arrowhead Stadium, which will be unavailable the next two summers because of renovations. Panther Stadium is built for 4,800 — but could be expanded to seat twice that many with additional bleachers.
Besides capacity, another issue is Ray-Pec's location. The high school is about 30 miles south of Arrowhead.
Wizards defender Jimmy Conrad said Monday that he didn't even know where Raymore-Peculiar was.
"These next couple of years, until we get a stadium built, are going to be a struggle no matter where we play," Conrad said. "We just have to ask the fans to stick it out with us for the next couple years while we go through this transition."
Keven O'Grady, a Prairie Village attorney and longtime season-ticket holder, said he didn't know how many fans would travel to Ray-Pec, but he knew he and his family would be willing.
"We have 11 years invested," O'Grady said. "A year or two of being a little farther from a stadium isn't going to deter us at all. I don't think it'll affect any of the die-hards. People up north it might affect. But I don't think it'll affect people down south at all.
"But it'd be nice to have a little better idea of where (a permanent stadium) would be in the future."
In November, Overland Park officials pulled support for special tax incentives to build a Wizards stadium near 159th Street and U.S. 69. Since then, the team has been looking to find a place to play for the 2007 season, which starts in April. But the Wizards' home opener wouldn't be until mid-May at the earliest — the team currently is scheduled to start the season with three road games.
OnGoal LLC, the Wizards' current owners, bought the team from Lamar Hunt on Aug. 31. When the sale was announced, the group said it hoped to announce a temporary playing site by mid-October and have a soccer-only Wizards stadium ready by spring 2009.
Greg Cotton, Wizards vice president and general counsel, would not comment on the Wizards' search for a permanent stadium site. But when asked how long that process could continue before spring 2009 is not a possibility for a stadium opening, Cotton said, "It's a legitimate concern."
Recently, three members of the Wizards' management, including interim team president Robb Heineman, toured Panther Stadium, which is just off the Peculiar exit from U.S. 71, about 5 miles south of Belton.
If Raymore-Peculiar is the interim choice, some issues would have to be addressed immediately: the football field, "crowned" for draining purposes, must be leveled and widened for professional soccer. And, of course, there is the matter of selling beer at a public high school.
Raymore-Peculiar superintendent Jeff Kyle said Monday that, currently, selling beer would be a "direct violation of four board policies and a city ordinance." But he has made inquiries with state and city officials and has been told that rules could be amended.
According to Kyle, the Wizards approached the district about two weeks ago and asked about the availability of the field. It had certain amenities the team needed: natural grass, adequate parking and a north-south field (for TV lighting).
Kyle would not comment on any financial discussions with the team, but he indicated that the district probably would seek a deal in which the Wizards would participate in a "cost-sharing" arrangement for upgrades to the stadium, track and locker rooms.
Kyle emphasized, too, that any arrangement with the Wizards would in no way compromise school activities.
Nick Garcia, Wizards defender, added that the team will practice for the foreseeable future at their old Swope Park facility and that there are plans to build three new fields and a locker room for the team.