That's the message from Kansas Governor, Mark Parkinson, to the Wizards and OnGoal in regards to the STAR Bond deal the state offered the team. If the Wizards are going to be building at the location out at the Legends, it'll be using the $230 million package that the state of Kansas has presented. Parkinson announced today that the deal they offered to the Wizards was final. Click to continue reading...

From the KC Star comes word of new discussions regarding the location of a KC Wizards soccer specific stadium

The Kansas Speedway area has emerged as the new choice for a long-sought Wizards soccer stadium in a sweeping proposal that would include at least 4,000 new Cerner Corp. jobs.

The developer working for OnGoal LLC, the owner of the Kansas City Wizards, has prepared a stadium plan for a site owned by Nebraska Furniture Mart.

Click to continue reading...

From the KC Star comes word of new discussions regarding the location of a KC Wizards soccer specific stadium

The Kansas Speedway area has emerged as the new choice for a long-sought Wizards soccer stadium in a sweeping proposal that would include at least 4,000 new Cerner Corp. jobs.

The developer working for OnGoal LLC, the owner of the Kansas City Wizards, has prepared a stadium plan for a site owned by Nebraska Furniture Mart.

Click to continue reading...

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. Click to continue reading...

Thad over at The Back Post has the breaking news, with the press release coming soon, that Coach Onalfo has been dismissed by the Wizards. The move comes after the Wizards embarrassing 6-0 loss to Dallas on Sunday. Along with Onalfo being let go, assistant coach, Kris Kelderman was also let go. That leaves Kerry Zavagnin and John Pascarella as the two remaining coaches. Click to continue reading...

According to this article in the Kansas City Buisness Journal the stadium that was due to open in 2011 looks increasingly unlikely to open then:

A developer working on the $1 billion mixed-use redevelopment of the Bannister Mall area said hopes of getting the proposed $130 million Kansas City Wizards soccer stadium opened there by 2011 are growing dim.

Click to continue reading...

The Wizards and OnGoal a href="http://www.kansascity.com/sports/wizards/story/1115060.html"are featured today in the Star/a. The Star covers the Wizards continued work at the old Bannister Mall site to get the mall torn down to make room for the redevelopment. There's not a ton of information that hasn't already been stated here on this blog, but it's still nice to see that the paper of record in KC is giving the Wizards and their stadium construction some coverage. Click to continue reading...

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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. Click to continue reading...

The KC Star is reporting that a former employee of the Wizards and OnGoal is sueing the teams ownership group, executive vice president, Greg Cotton, and Robert Thomson Jr, who is general counsel for OnGoal.
Some of the claims brought against the ownership group include:

•Cotton and Thomson would review the Facebook and MySpace sites of prospective female employees to determine whether they were "hot enough" to be hired.

Click to continue reading...

OnGoal has been the owner of our beloved Kansas City Wizards for two years now. There have been many wonderful things done since they took over ownership: new stadium plans, a temporary home, and they are showing some signs of support towards the group of fans who stand in the Cauldron.

Their stated goal is to grow the Cauldron through a grassroots campaign. Click to continue reading...

When I was out at the Wizards practice today, I received the news that the Wizards and OnGoal have recieved an All Conditions Fields grant from the US Soccer Foundation for "field 3" out at the Wizards practice facility at Swope Park. Field 3 is the Wizards synthetic field surface out at their training facility, that is currently being completed. Click to continue reading...

Today the Wizards released their promotion for the first game of the season. This fact has caused quite a stir on bigsoccer, with many people not in favor of the idea. The team has come back with a response on their official blog, Hillcrest Road.
To me, the team completely misses the point of many of the people's arguments against it. Click to continue reading...

Last week, Robb Heineman was on Sports Radio 810 here in Kansas City, on Between the Lines with Kevin Kietzman. The Wizards have posted the interview on their website, you can listen to it here.
Overall the interview is really well done. Kietzman, who I'm normally not a fan of, asks some very informative questions to get more information out of Heineman about the project. Click to continue reading...

Over the past day or so I've seen an influx of the number of bloggers writing about the Kansas City Wizards. This has to do with the Wizards announcing their home for the 2008 and 2009 season, Community America Ballpark.
Much of the discussion in these blogs has had to do with the small facility compared to the larger facility that the team had been playing in, the pros and cons of moving from the 80,000 seat Arrowhead, to this 10 There are still the uninformed people out there though. Click to continue reading...

The TIF Commission of Kansas City has decided to hold a special meeting on Wednesday Nov. 7 to review the $943 million redevelopment proposal for Bannister Mall and surrounding area. My understanding is this does include what remains of Benjamin Stables. Aaron March, a lawyer with White Goss Bowers March Schulte & Weisenfels PC who is representing Three Trails Redevelopment LLC asked the commission to hear its request a week before the next regular TIF meeting. Click to continue reading...

Sam has posted comments for all to enjoy. So if I may I shall reply to his comments.
As all can see, Sam your first amendment right exists on this Blog. I have not and will not alter your comment in any way. If you would like to have a page to state your observations feel free to e-mail Baines Breath. It will get published. After all this is a collective. Click to continue reading...

When you write 3,000 words on a topic that you have a 1,000-word limiton, sometimes the original meaning isn't going to come through clearlyin the wash. Especially when discussing a topic that generates such passion.
After re-reading yesterday's missive, there seems to be a disconnect between the meaning of "nothing" in my head and the meaning of"nothing" as it may be interpreted from the final product on the page. Click to continue reading...

Lest the complaints be thrown around that the Baines Thought Collective is just a bunch of negativists, here are some kudos for OnGoal, LLC.
On Friday, Greg Cotton stopped by the tailgate with an odd gift for the Cauldron – 80 bottles of Kansas City's finest barley pop (Boulevard) – inspiring comparisons to Steve Pastorino (Real Salt Lake) and Stan Kroenke (Colorado Rapids), both of whom have made a regular effort to contribute to the respective supporters groups, as well as Peter Wilt, a man whose dedication to the fans is legendary within MLS circles. Click to continue reading...