Busy and Exciting Times on the Venue Front

Greetings Hillcrest Road readers, I’m David Ficklin, Vice President of Development. I oversee the Wizards operations team and issues related to venue design and development.

As promised, I will be posting stadium design and construction updates for the next couple of years. But in the meantime there are a lot of other exciting things happening on the venue side. These are indeed busy and exciting times for us!

Yesterday we broke ground on the permanent renovations to CommunityAmerica Ballpark. As many of you know, we are building three new bleacher seating sections where the left field grass berm had been located. For the next two seasons these sections will house the Cauldron in closer proximity to the field than any MLS supporters’ section has ever been.

View from the Cauldron

The Cauldron seating will consist of aluminum bleachers with back rests, attached to concrete treads and risers. This is the same system as found in the Home Depot Center and Dick’s Sporting Goods Park, to name two many of you have seen. This is a permanent upgrade to the stadium, which we will leave as a legacy to the T-Bones.

In the next two weeks we will be installing additional sports lighting poles. This is necessary to upgrade and balance the lighting to MLS broadcast standards. In March we will add 2 banks of temporary bleachers behind the Cauldron section (approx. 340 seats) and directly behind the left-field wall (approx. 1,200), which we have designed with a concourse under the bleachers so fans can continue to circulate around the entire park.

Out at CAB we will also have three hundred Fieldside Reserved seats, up from 80 in 2007. Demand was great for Fieldside Reserved seating last year, as we sold the section out the first week they were available. New for this year Fieldside Reserved ticket holders will have all-you-can-eat, in-seat food service. This allows us the opportunity to continue to develop best practices for serving this type of seat prior to opening our permanent home in 2010 with very similar seating options. One insight I can offer – when the permanent home opens at Hillcrest Road in 2010, Fieldside Reserved seating will be on the bench side of the field. We are working hard to develop premium seating options that are unique and include a higher level of service than people are used to experiencing.

Also, 10 months to the day after we broke ground on our Swope Park Training Center, we broke ground on Phase 2. We are rebuilding field 3 into a world-class lighted synthetic pitch. When completed in late March, field 3 will be home to:
· Kansas City Wizards practices and reserve games
· KCW Juniors practices and matches
· UMKC Men’s Soccer practices and matches
· Brookside Soccer Club practices and matches
· Community soccer programming

Our technical staff is very excited about field 3, as the team will now be able to train on the same type of pitch they will see in any stadium in MLS. Whether playing at BMO Field (FieldTurf), Pizza Hut Park (Bermuda) or TOYOTA Park (Bluegrass), our players will be able to get the feel of every surface without ever leaving our training center.

First clear day and the lights go in

Speaking of playing surfaces – as many of you may know, in November we sodded over the infield at CAB with Bluegrass to match the rest of the playing surface and ensure an all-grass field for Wizards matches. In mid-May, we will strip the Bluegrass and replace it with Bermuda that we anticipate playing on for the rest of our stay at CAB. The Bermuda will be better able to handle the daily wear of soccer and baseball during the months our seasons overlap.

Thank you all for your readership and support. Please feel free to ask questions below and I will try to answer them in future posts. As Robb mentioned earlier, we are getting close to unveiling the stadium design, and we can’t wait to show you your new home.

Until next time, go Wizards,
DF