Welcome to Hillcrest Road

Hello and welcome to Hillcrest Road, BRAND NEW and official team blog of the Kansas City Wizards. Hillcrest Road? Why this name? Well, Hillcrest Road is a street in Southeastern Kansas City, Missouri that currently runs next to the vacant Bannister Mall and will run adjacent to our permanent stadium, scheduled to open in 2010 (see site-plan graphic below). In our opinion, Hillcrest Road will become a street synonymous with the Kansas City Wizards and soccer for years to come, so we decided to embrace that process now.

Sadly the graphic above, while beautiful (thanks Chad, graphic design guru), will be changing shortly. The image of the stadium, hotel and surrounding development (seen from Hillcrest Road itself in this rendering) will change as the stadium design process evolves. Our Vice President of Development David Ficklin (who you will hear from at Hillcrest Road throughout the duration of the stadium project for updates and inside info) has assured me and everyone else that we will play in the finest soccer-centric stadium in the country and one of the finest in the world. The goal of our stadium is to help grow the sport through the design of the facility. That’s a really cool concept. David will introduce himself shortly.

Hillcrest Road, the blog, will be about much more than the stadium, however. We will offer a wide breadth of information from post-game reports to exclusive player interviews and from community-outreach updates to YouTube clips worthy of laughs and “wows”. OnGoal and Wizards President Robb Heineman will post regularly regarding whatever he wants (He owns part of the team; he gets to). David will also offer regular posts once stadium construction begins. Erin Lawless, our Community Relations guru, will check in regularly with updates on the philanthropic arm of the organization. (I like the word “guru” a lot. It’s like the blogger’s term for expert. “Guru” will be applied to players as well: Jimmy Conrad is a defensive guru; Carlos Marinelli is a dribbling guru. You get the picture.)

We have some other fun things in the works, but we are not closed-minded. If there is anything you desperately need from the Wizards or something you’re dying to know, tell us. Comment below with your thoughts, ideas and opinions of the blog and tell us what you want to see. Hillcrest Road, the blog, is your direct path to the Wizards organization, much like Hillcrest Road, the street, will be the direct path to Wizards home matches starting in 2010.

Welcome to Hillcrest Road. Come back often.