Posted on Thu, Dec. 13, 2007
Wizards season-ticket holders pick seats at new ballpark



By BOB LUDER
The Kansas City Star A stinging, cold wind blew on another gray morning Thursday as an unfamiliar sight emerged at CommunityAmerica Ballpark.

As snow and ice melted, it slowly gave way to a large Wizards logo painted where the T-Bones’ left-center field wall was three months ago.

A transition is in place. And though it’s been months and many degrees Fahrenheit since the place was bustling with minor-league baseball fans, there was plenty of activity Thursday.

The Wizards are allowing season ticket-holders to walk around the ballpark and visualize what the place will look like a little more than four months from now, when the Wizards open their 2008 Major League Soccer regular season March 29.

All week, Wizards ticket account executives have asked ticket-holders to visualize the northwest corner of the stadium, where about 700 permanent seats will be placed for the “Cauldron,” the Wizards’ rabid and vocal fan club and cheering section. They’ve imagined the bleachers that will be placed around the corner on the north side, above what now is the left-field wall. And the party decks on the northeast and southeast corners.

The Wizards also let those season ticket-holders select their seats for the upcoming season, which as of Thursday morning — and despite poor weather conditions canceling activities Tuesday — hundreds had taken advantage of.

That included Mike Kuhn of Lee’s Summit, a season ticket-holder since 2006. As a loyal member of the Cauldron, Kuhn already knew where he’d be sitting. But he came out Thursday to secure good seats, in Section 111, for his wife and parents.

“I was with (Wizards customer relations manager Sam Pierron) when we were trying to figure out where the Cauldron was going to be,” Kuhn said. “I think this is going to work out well … as well as it can in a baseball stadium.
“I’m looking forward to the greater intimacy of it.”
Kuhn said he was especially happy with where the Cauldron was placed, jutting right up to the west end line, just behind one of the goals.
“It’s right there,” he said. “It gives us a chance to get in a keeper’s head, things like that.”

Raymond Daniel, also a season ticket-holder the last two years, said he couldn’t wait for the construction of a soccer stadium where Bannister Mall now sits, a redevelopment plan that was approved unanimously by the City Council later Thursday afternoon.

Until then, he said CommunityAmerica would be just fine, especially as it’s right down the highway from his Parkville home.
“It’ll be better for soccer to have a soccer-specific stadium,” said Daniel, who claimed two seats in Row 3 of Section 111. “But this location is great. It’s close to plenty of eating places and recreation. There’s a lot for families to do.”

Kim Rice of Kansas City received Wizards season tickets from her husband as a Christmas present three years ago and said, “It was the best Christmas gift I’ve ever gotten.”

Thursday morning, she ventured out to the Village West area of Kansas City, Kan., to select two seats, 1 and 2, in Row 3 of Section 109.
“I think this is a great move until they get into a permanent stadium,” Rice said.

She said she wasn’t concerned that the largest block of seating will be facing at an angle from the sideline.
“It’ll be different, but I’m excited about the setup,” she said. “You’ll always have those people who’ll say, ‘It’s not Arrowhead,’ they don’t like change. But I know the Wizards will do everything they can to make sure the fans are taken care of.”

Because of the biting cold, most folks slipped outside and selected their seats quickly.
But not all.

“On Wednesday morning, I spent 45 minutes with a gentleman out there,” said Wizards account executive Hazel Soto. “Because of the ice, we weren’t supposed to let people walk down the steps, but he insisted on coming down and sat in each chair in Section 109. He finally picked four seats after 30 minutes. Then, he changed his mind and went to the other side.

“He just wanted to make sure he got the seats he wanted. But when we got up (to the suite), we realized we didn’t have available the seats he wanted.”
The solution?
“He just took the seats a row up,” Soto said, laughing. “I guess he didn’t want to send me back out into the cold.”

Reopen Benjamin Stables so they can fertilize the fields and have something for the little ones to do while big bro/sis play soccer.

Benjamin Stables is open now. They do a lot of corporate outings, birthdays etc.

The restauraunt is fantastic. Old school biscuits and gravy.

http://primebuzz.kcstar.com/?q=node/9122

'Save the Bannister Mall Group' to try to block Three Trails project

UPDATED 5:09 p.m.
The Save the Bannister Mall Group Inc. is attempting to block the soccer-oriented redevelopment plan approved by the Kansas City Council earlier this month for the Bannister Mall area.

Richard Tolbert, who is secretary of the group, on Sunday filed with the Kansas City Clerk’s office a notice of intent to circulate a referendum petition to stop the redevelopment ordinance from taking effect, City Clerk Millie Crossland said Wednesday.

If at least 100 of the 191 signatures Tolbert turned in are certified as valid by election officials, Tolbert would then have until Jan. 22 to collect 8,475 valid signatures to force an election, Crossland said
The Three Trails redevelopment plan calls for demolishing Bannister Mall, Benjamin Plaza and a former Wal-Mart. That would make room for an 18,500-seat soccer stadium for the Kansas City Wizards, a soccer tournament complex and hotel as well as retail and office space.

Tolbert, who is a member of the Metropolitan Community College Board of Trustees, said his group objects to the destruction of a valuable community asset to make way for a project that will not produce revenue for several years.

Since when is an empty mall a valuable community assett?

They must not be getting a big enough cut under the table.

LMAO... valuable community asset... yeah bannister mall and all that other vacant retail stuff is really adding to the community...

These are the folks that still had a flea market going on the upper level of the old Jacques Penniegh space. A roof that leaks like a sieve, a dozen tenants in the outer mall (before it closed)...

And now they want to hang on to that giant pile of concrete? :shake:

What was even there at the end? I hadn't been there for 10+ years probably when it closed

This is one case where there is a chance for it to be different. If they leave some fields as open fields on the weekends, they have the potential to tap into a HUGE Saturday night/all day Sunday Latino market. Every weekend at Blue River Park in the Grandview Triangle there are thousands of Mexicans/Latinos playing soccer. And when I say thousands, I am not exagerating. They are all hungry and all thirsty, and the only businesses around to cater to them are a couple of chromed out trailers selling homemade tamales. If they can tap into the Latino market and setup lighted night games and Sunday games it could really work out to bring business to the area.

Of course I am not sure Mexicans improve an areas "Hill" placement much more than blacks do, so it might not do anything for it's "down hill" status. I am wondering how long we have until the new Walmart on the Blue Ridge Mall site becomes "dangerous". All of the busline criminals and lower income blacks that made the hypermart dangerous are now shopping at the Blue Ridge Walmart, but I haven't heard it officially declared as unsafe yet.

I stopped at the Shell station right across from the Bannister Mall site late at night last week. I generally wouldn't do that, but I was out of gas and I didn't want to drive home in the snow and stuff with a low tank, in case I got stuck in traffic or whatever.

While I didn't think it was "unsafe" for me to be there, I didn't have an urge to hang out very long. I mean, nobody said anything to me, but there were a bunch of people inside the store just hanging out, and outside there were people who looked like ne'er-do-wells hanging out there in the parking lot and on the curb toward the side of the store, even for as cold as it was.

It's not even the looks that you get if you're the minority someplace. It's that... well, who hangs out at a gas station at 1:30 in the morning or so? And they weren't kids, they were older than high school age. It's natural to think that people hanging out in a gas station parking lot that late might be up to no good.

They had a security guard inside the store as well, which never really entices me as a consumer to make frequent stops there.

Did you see a guy in a hockey jersey? I was there looking at mags after work that night

Article on Tolbert: http://www.pitch.com/2006-08-17/news/the-blight-king

New from the Star:

http://www.chiefsplanet.com/BB/showt...ight=bannister

Group opposing Bannister Mall redevelopment passes first test

A group seeking to stop redevelopment efforts at Bannister Mall has crossed the first hurdle toward forcing an election but now faces a steeper hill.

The Save the Bannister Mall Group Inc. turned in 148 valid signatures, according to election officials, in its intent to force a referendum. It needed 100. Now the group is allowed to try to gather 8,475 signatures by Jan. 22. Until then, the ordinance passed unanimously last month by the City Council allowing the redevelopment project is on hold.

The Three Trails redevelopment plan calls for demolishing Bannister Mall, Benjamin Plaza and a former Wal-Mart. That would make room for an 18,500-seat soccer stadium for the Kansas City Wizards, a soccer tournament complex and hotel, as well as retail and office space.

Proponents say it is a much-needed project to revitalize an economically depressed area.

Richard Tolbert, secretary of the opposing group, says it is wrong to destroy an asset that could be valuable to the black community.

I think that this is an area ripe for revitalization. I know there have been problems with the demographics, but a lot of this 'blight' has extended around the corner down 71 and on to Truman Corners as the market waited for the GV Triangle to get itself sorted out. Now that the triangle redesign is nearing completion, it's time to take advantage of the improved traffic flow. This area is still the outpost of 'the city' for points southward, which is why Bannister Mall used to thrive, with all the shoppers from Belton, Peculiar, Raymore, Harrisonville, having this as their closest major mall. The triangle project took out a good deal of outdated businesses. Now it's time to replace them along the corridor, starting with some new convenience stores around the park and ride at Red Bridge, and hopefully finally renovating the former Crest Drive-in property that presently has that first of the failed new era of hardware stores [what was it called, Home-something, before Home Depo and before Lowes].

LOL That's such bullshit.