Olathe/OP grab the Wizards and build them a Stadium

Discussion about new sports facilities in Kansas City
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Re: Olathe/OP grab the Wizards and build them a Stadium

Post by kcmetro »

im2kull wrote: Basically:
1. Why use another building and add alot of cost to everything if we are just going to want a bigger place in a few years...screw how everyone says the TSC lacks soccer atmosphere...the people that attend could give it the atmosphere...they choose not to.  I'm going to laugh my arse off when in 5 years the wizards are locked into agreement on a multimillion dollar field that is packed every night and has 50 dollar ticket prices, and a LACK of atmosphere when every other team in the league is using huge stadiums, and we had a great chance to use the TSC permanently but failed to do so..because of an invisible thing..the perception of the sport atmosphere...we will draw alot of people..its a given...someday..and then were screwed.
What makes you so certain soccer is going to be that popular in 5 years? People were saying the same thing in the 1970's about soccer and look what happened.....nothing. That sport will always be a 2nd class sport in this country. Americans, for the most part, do not enjoy watching guys kick a ball around for 2 hours with only a few goals the whole game. It will never reach what football, baseball, and basketball currently are in this country.
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Re: Olathe/OP grab the Wizards and build them a Stadium

Post by KCMax »

Sandstone's location does suck.

I wouldn't blame Wizards fans for not making the atmosphere. Have you been to a game? The fans are great. They chant, bring horns. It just sucks when you have 40,000 empty seats. There's no amount of energy that can overcome that.
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Re: Olathe/OP grab the Wizards and build them a Stadium

Post by im2kull »

KCMax wrote: Sandstone's location does suck.

I wouldn't blame Wizards fans for not making the atmosphere. Have you been to a game? The fans are great. They chant, bring horns. It just sucks when you have 40,000 empty seats. There's no amount of energy that can overcome that.
ive been to quite a few games, and i think the atmosphere is fine..which is why im all wtf about this...the outdoor parking area atmosphere sucks...but inside is alright..and if we draw even 25k to a single game because of beckham..imagine how that would be? 

And im not certain, im just sayin "what if" it does become big, after we've spent millions on another field, and are locked into an agreement..then what?  We miss out on everything that the rest of the league has...great job kc...history does repeat
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Re: Olathe/OP grab the Wizards and build them a Stadium

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im2kull wrote: We miss out on everything that the rest of the league has...great job kc...history does repeat
What else does the league have?
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Re: Olathe/OP grab the Wizards and build them a Stadium

Post by Maitre D »

im2kull wrote: 2. Why does everyone say the TSC sucks..location wise....ITS AN ILLUSION within our minds....
example: Sandstone, verizon wireless, the proposed soccer stadium surrounded by fields and miles of parking, Kansas Speedway when it was built, etc....whats so incredibly great about those..why dont I hear how much their locations suck?  At least the TSC has SOME stuff around it...its got 100 times more density than those other places.
B/c nobody cares if a race track used a couple times/yr is out in a gigantic field.  IN fact, it's probably preferable to do it that way.

But people sure care about a ballpark used 81 nites, bringing 1.5M-2M people to an area, being in a field.
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Re: Olathe/OP grab the Wizards and build them a Stadium

Post by KCFutbol »

Kard wrote: What else does the league have?
The new Wizards stadium will be 18-20,000, not 10,000. The key to a successful franchise is to control the revenue streams, when you are renting a large football stadium the numbers don't work nearly as well.

All of the other MLS teams are either already in, are building, or soon will be building 18-30,000 seat soccer specific stadiums. Right now Columbus, Chicago, LA, Dallas, Toronto, and Colorado have them.

As big a soccer supporter as I am I don't think soccer will ever be the most popular sport in the US. If it passes the NBA I'd be happy. The league is growing steadily and so far has avoided the same mistakes made by the NASL.
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Re: Olathe/OP grab the Wizards and build them a Stadium

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KCFutbol wrote: The new Wizards stadium will be 18-20,000, not 10,000. The key to a successful franchise is to control the revenue streams, when you are renting a large football stadium the numbers don't work nearly as well.

All of the other MLS teams are either already in, are building, or soon will be building 18-30,000 seat soccer specific stadiums. Right now Columbus, Chicago, LA, Dallas, Toronto, and Colorado have them.

As big a soccer supporter as I am I don't think soccer will ever be the most popular sport in the US. If it passes the NBA I'd be happy. The league is growing steadily and so far has avoided the same mistakes made by the NASL.
The reason I asked that was in response to im2kull.  I took his words to imply KC would be getting a lesser stadium situation compared to what other teams have in the league.  I don't think that's the case yet--no one knows what's being developed here yet.
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Re: Olathe/OP grab the Wizards and build them a Stadium

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Kard wrote: The reason I asked that was in response to im2kull.  I took his words to imply KC would be getting a lesser stadium situation compared to what other teams have in the league.  I don't think that's the case yet--no one knows what's being developed here yet.
If anything, the KC stadium design will blow the others away.
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Re: Olathe/OP grab the Wizards and build them a Stadium

Post by valcour »

Johnson County just got back into this stadium race in a big way this week.  As noted in the Star, the Kansas Senate approved some changes to STAR Bonds that may allow private ownership of sports stadiums.  The article mostly focused on Olathe and its attempts to get the changes, but a small item tucked away in the article got my attention.  The Senate also OK'd using STAR bonds for parking garages associated with the stadiums.

It was parking that torpedo'ed Overland Park's arena project a year or so ago.  The developer and the city could not agree on who paid for it, and it was not covered by STAR bonds.  Now that parking will be covered by STAR bonds, I predict that OP will dust off their arena plans; convert them to stadium plans; and come up with a very interesting offer for the Wizards in the area of the OP convention center. 

I live in Olathe, and would like to see the Wizards stadium there, but think that the Wizards will be more interested in putting their stadium in that area where Metcalf crosses I-435.  In that area, you have the convention center; a lot of corporate sponsors; a lot of money, period.
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Re: Olathe/OP grab the Wizards and build them a Stadium

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valcour wrote: ...in that area where Metcalf crosses I-435.  In that area, you have the convention center; a lot of corporate sponsors; a lot of money, period.
There isn't room for a stadium there.  They blew that land on Quintiles, and Sprint / OP recently announced some kind of retail thingy along Nall.
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Re: Olathe/OP grab the Wizards and build them a Stadium

Post by KCMax »

Ugly side of enacting laws

A  case in point is Senate Bill 316, which could help Olathe build a professional soccer stadium. The bill, approved last week by the Senate Commerce Committee, was supposed to be debated by the full Senate on Thursday, but something strange happened on the way to the Senate floor.

Sen. Tim Huelskamp, a Fowler Republican, started reading the bill and discovered something that disturbed him — a possible loophole in an eminent domain law that prohibits taking private property for commercial business purposes.

He found a section that might provide an exception in that law for blighted property. And, “of course, we really haven’t come up with a good definition for blighted areas, so it could be anything,” said Sen. Phil Journey, a Haysville Republican.

Huelskamp confronted leaders of the Commerce Committee about the blight section, and they didn’t seem to know anything about it.

After a brief moment of embarrassment, Senate leaders decided to pull the bill from the debate calendar. Sen. Karin Brownlee, an Olathe Republican and the committee’s co-chairwoman, said she wasn’t certain the bill created that loophole but added that she would investigate Huelskamp’s concerns.
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