Ink

When you ask a kid what he wants to be when he or she grows up, they almost never say "loan processor," "telemarketer" or "sales associate for a big-box retailer."

No. They say "president," "astronaut" or "rocket scientist."

Kids go big. They dream. They shoot the moon. At that age, they've got the whole world ahead of them and why should they settle for anything less than their ideal dream?

I think this is the phase the Wizards and OnGoal are entering with their plan to build a new soccer-specific stadium on a 13-acre site at The Legends. This isn't to say the executives in charge of Kansas City's Major League Soccer team are naive dreamers shooting for the stars. No, I use this analogy to say: "We have no idea what this stadium they are planning is going to look like when it grows up." So, why not enjoy the dream-big phase and see what develops.

Because, as is the case with kids, given the proper environment, education and circumstances, the stadium might grow up to reach its lofty goals.

And, boy, are they lofty: 2.5 million annual visitors, 9,000 jobs created over a five-year construction plan (including Cerner's office complex) that will effectively create the mecca for soccer in the Midwest by drawing events from high school soccer to World Cup qualifiers and just about everything in between.

Tim Weaver, an associate with the project's developer Lane4 Property Group, said they plan on building a stadium "unlike anything in North America." A soccer-specific stadium capable of handling any sport or concert you can hold on a rectangle patch of grass with it's own entertainment district attached to the side.

OnGoal chief executive officer Rob Heineman, speaking on The Jimmy Conrad Show on Wednesday night, described the plan as a "Power and Light-like district slammed into the side" of the stadium.*

*As an aside, if you didn't hear this information, you probably also missed the tidbit that the stadium won't open until mid-season 2011 instead of preseason 2011. This makes sense if you consider that the project will stretch across two of the notoriously unruly KC winters. July 2011 is our new expectation date. As Mike over at downthebyline.com points out, this probably means we'll have a backloaded home schedule that season to maximize our profits at the new park.

Within this district they expect the kind of amenities/activities you'd usually think of: sports bars, restaurants, concerts, festivals, farmer's markets and merchandise shops. These could run concurrently with Wizards games or happen on non-gamedays. Essentially the same stuff/relationship that the Power and Light District and Sprint Center have. Except for two key differences.

• According to Weaver, they see this plaza as a multi-sport venue capable of holding basketball and tennis tournaments (using removable courts in both cases), outdoor boxing matches and extreme sports. Plus it would be an ideal destination for a festival, like, maybe the Warped Tour. (While the soccer capacity is 18,500, the concert/festival capacity is 25,000.)
• The Wizards will own the district and the arena. Instead of relying on the surrounding entertainment at The Legends or having someone else run the entertainment, the Wizards plan would pull these things together under the same roof, literally and financially. All the events hosted there would be a potential revenue stream for the team.*

*Don't underestimate how important it is for the Wizards to have a stadium that draws revenue instead of the current leasing arrangement AND to have a district that attracts a non-soccer crowd. It will significantly strengthen the bottom line and financial stability of the club as a whole. This means more money to spend on players and facilities in the future.

The plan, as you may well know, also includes building 24 tournament-quality soccer fields just west of The Legends. They anticipate that the Wizards games plus concerts plus tournaments at the soccer fields plus high-school/college/women's pro soccer games plus the chance to host international soccer games and sports like rugby will equal 800 annual events and 2.5 million visitors per year.*

*This report was, according to Weaver, a conservative estimate by Conventions, Sports and Leisure International, an advisory and planning firm.

Those numbers made me gasp. Even half of that is still pretty stunning.

This reminds me of something Heineman said at a season-ticket holder event on Sept 16 when discussing the stadium at a Q&A. He said something along the lines of CommunityAmerica Ballpark right now is just an attraction inside of a destination (The Legends at Village West). The Wizards wanted to build this new stadium and have it be another destination inside of that destination.

Which would then relegate the Wizards just one of the "attractions" inside of the "destination," right?

Well, not quite. While the focus so far is on the surrounding entertainment options and the prospect of 9,000 jobs, a $422 million budget for the project and a 5-year construction window, that's only because those are the factors that they think will drive the state of Kansas to approve the tentative deal between the Wizards and the Unified Government of Wyandotte County.*

*Which, btw, the exclusive deal they agreed to expires tonight. I fully expect they'll reach a deal with Kansas and something will be announced maybe as early as Monday. Weaver said they are "ready to employ the minute the state approves the deal."

That makes sense. Not only because MLS teams need to take advantage of every possible avenue they can to lure people to the parks, but because Weaver said the surrounding features are part of "360 degrees of entertainment." The stadium and the team are the axis around that whole thing spins.

The stadium plan (currently based on the water-color rendering show above and released last month) is focusing almost exclusively on making the fan experience the best they possibly can. Which is in line with everything Heineman has said so far to this point. They want to reward the fans with an experience they can't get on TV or at any other stadium near here. Lip service maybe, but the group seems to go out of their way to discuss details and options. (Just go to BigSoccer.com and check out Robb and David Ficklin's posts in the Stadium Update thread.)

The pitch itself will be scooped out of the ground, meaning the seating and stadium will create a natural amphitheater, with a roof designed to bounce the sound of the crowd back onto the pitch.* (So, yeah, the roof is functional and not just decorative.) This also puts the fans right on top of the field, instead of pulledy back and up like they are at Arrowhead. The buzz-word that I keep hearing is "intimacy."

*As a season ticket holder in the Cauldron, I'm actually kind of super-psyched about the Cauldron Club and our location directly behind the goal and under the scoreboard.

Weaver said Populous (who knows a thing or two or three or four about building stadiums) is exploring the combination of a building upon a traditional European design (Weaver specifically mentioned the Olympic stadium in Berlin) while mixing in cutting-edge technology (like what we saw at the Beijing Olympics).* A traditional high-def stadium if you will.

*Weaver did talk about wireless connectivity, specialized cameras and the enhanced viewer options you might find on TV and Internet at the stadium. The video screen, no matter what, will be a massive improvement from the "microscreen" at the CAB. But he offered nothing really concrete about any of this. I expect this is because the specifics on what "cutting-edge" means will get fleshed out as the contracts and the technology develop.

I guess my initial reaction -- based on promises made in this project already at the Bannister site and with other development slowdowns in this economic climate -- should be skepticism. "Yeah, it'd be nice to have this and that, but in reality we'll just get this."

But I'd rather let the brass dream big at this stage. Explore the big ideas and work out the finances and develop the full options before people like me try to crush the idea with speculation and cynicism. Especially before we even start to see shovels digging out dirt at the site.

Because, who knows, maybe the stadium will grow up and be an astronaut. Er, the most unique stadium/entertainment complex in North America.