Wizards Stadium at Bannister Mall

[geeman68]

Best scenario now is to pour money to rehabbing the neighborhoods adjacent to it and building some excellent pedestrian and bicycle connections into the development.  There are a lot of people already living very close, unlike the Legends.

One of the reasons the Wizards and this development was being sought after in this area was due to the large population numbers that had access to the area within a 15 minute radius. 

[ComandanteCero]

there's also the idiotic youth soccer fields requirement.

there is an interesting article on the cnnsi website about the future of MLS, and they discuss the issue of stadiums and their locations.

[note: it's pretty interesting that when I copy and pasted this, the last line ("Read More:  www....etc etc) was automatically created, was that something the forum did or cnnsi?)]

Location, location

Chicago, Colorado and Dallas built their stadiums in the suburbs partly to lure the youth soccer crowd -- in the case of Colorado and Dallas, the facilities serve the needs of youth players locally and nationally with vast complexes of playing fields -- but politics and economics also played a vital role.

.....

While attendance has slipped at Chicago's suburban Toyota Park and the outlying stadiums in Colorado and Dallas, MLS has found success elsewhere. The stadium formula has been tweaked somewhat by the success of downtown facilities of Toronto and Seattle, and presumably Portland, which starts play in 2011. Vancouver is contracted to play downtown in B.C. Place until plans for a waterfront stadium come to fruition.

......

"Our fan base is kind of changing," says Garber of luring more young professionals to MLS matches than in the past. "Early on in the league's existence, there was a real focus on the youth soccer community, and what has happened in a few markets is we've seen a real emergence in the young male and female soccer supporter demographic. They're from the game but they don't necessarily play the game.

"They represent a real opportunity for us because it's much easier to deliver to that audience when you're in a downtown setting rather than the suburbs, but I have to say, if any of our teams got the opportunity to build a Pizza Hut Park or Toyota Park, they would jump on it in a minute. It really speaks to the integration we want to focus on with the soccer community at large."

Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/w ... z0NT0KbWPP

It would suck to see the Bannister Mall plan fall through, but if a stadium could be built in the greater downtown area, integrating it with surrounding uses, i'd be for it in a heartbeat.

Or on the KS side, maybe that big empty pile of dirt just off Shawnee Mission Parkway............

[moderne]

Latest plan using commuter rail as centerpiece.

[kcmetro]

Latest plan using commuter rail as centerpiece.

Latest plan for what?