¡Los Magos en Argentina… ¿y un ESTADIO?!

By: Michael | March 8th, 2007

First and Foremost:
Does anyone know a better Spanish translation of “Wizards” than “Magos”? I’m pretty sure magos is more like “magicians”.

Secondly:

Between finishing up in Florida and going off to Argentina, the Wizards had a productive few days back in the motherland of Missouri. Highlights:

- The groundbreaking ceremony on the Wizard’s new practice complex/University-level playing fields in Kansas City finally took place. Perhaps we had to wait for the ground to unthaw enough for a couple of men in suits to get some soil on their shovels:

- Word is that the ceremony featured the mayor of KC giving the tantilizingly vague promise of more good news in the future… does this mean a new stadium!? Wizard fans everywhere can only hope so.

- Additionally, an initial proposal for a KCWiz-KC partnership in creating a $36 million youth soccer extravaganza facility apparently went well… the facility would be a miniature version of the youth complex that would have gone next to the Wizard’s new stadium had voters approved a property tax hike awhile back.

- While we’re on the subject of a stadium: I noticed an interesting tidbit on the Kansas City Star’s website. Apparently the Missouri state senate is considering a bill that would allow the construction of the Wizard’s stadium funded by financing the city’s future sales tax revenue, if I understand the brief summary at the end of this article. I’m looking around to see if I can get any more details out there for everyone.

- The Wizards were very classy and had an official public appearance at a KC nightclub called “Fuel”.

- They then proceeded to play an exhibition double-header before going off to Argentina. One of the two teams they played were the USL’s Seattle Sounders, whom the Wiz will be playing again just a week before the regular season starts.

Third:

The Wizards are now training in Argentina. So far, there is no glitzy friendly against the Boca Juniors or any other team announced, and it is the general assumption that the Wiz will have a low profile in South America. The best thing about this trip for kcwizards.theoffside.com is that the Wizard’s MLSNet site has finally decided to do something other than regurgitating out of date news updates. Veteran GK Kevin Hartman, brought to KC in the off-season from the Galaxy, will be blogging about the trip. Huzzah!

So far Kevin (still out with a bruised elbow) has also regurgitated vague and out-of-date information, but this is truly a step up for kcwizards.com. ¡Olé!