No, Kansas City’s OTHER Spanish-speaking Sister City…
By: Michael | April 2nd, 2007Since the beginning of the season, Wizards fans have been talking about the possibility of a partnership with another club, much like the Rapids recently sealed with Arsenal, for example. Someone on BigSoccer.com got the bright idea of checking out Kansas City’s sister cities, and the possibilities of a partnership with Sevilla were greatly discussed.
Later on BigSoccer, Robb Heineman announced (amongst a few other things) that the Wizards would be concentrating “south of the border” as far as partnerships go, something (correct me if I’m wrong) only Chivas USA and Dallas FC have experienced.
Fast foward to Friday. My internet goes down and the technician tells me it wont’ be back up until Monday afternoon. “No biggie,” I think to myself, “the chances of something newsworthy happening to the Wizards in the next to days are nill.” Imagine my angst when I found out that Kansas City announced its new partnership.
For at least the next two years, the Kansas City Wizards (Kansas City Star) will be in a strategic partnership with Guadalajara, Mexico’s lesser known first division club, FC Atlas AC (Atlas’ official page). The deal is extremely comprehensive as far as partnerships go:
- Free player loans (both from starting and reserve rosters) between the two clubs.
- A possible mutual soccer academy in Kansas City (which the Atlas website says will be called the “Wizards-Atlas Academy”).
- Two friendlies per season, one in each team’s stadium.
- Mutual merchandising (i.e. KC selling Atlas stuff and vice versa).
Awhile back in a fan forum, I raised this question: Which is more valuable, a partnership with a big name that will produce great business benefits but meager amounts of help on the field, or a partnership with a smaller club who would be willing to create a more intimate relationship, on that would have an impact on the actual play of the team? In my opinion, it is the latter for the Wizards, which is why I would like to applaud OnGoal, LLC for their decision. Atlas is a perfect pick for a partner team, one that the fans could not come up with (though close), but which the front office went through with and which will benefit the club greatly.
Some more positives I’ve gathered about FC Atlas AC:
- According to both Wikipedia and the testimonial of a Mexican league fan on BigSoccer, Atlas is an long-standing club known not for its championships (just one, in 1951), but for its propensity to train Mexico’s finest players and then sell them to bigger clubs. Raise your hand if you’d like to have some talented youth from Mexico come to Kansas City…
- They are from Guadalajara, Mexico, which is actually the area much of the Hispanic community of Kansas City originally comes from… what better way to attract a larger fan base?
- The bigger club from Guadalajara is Chivas, which may set up a great rivalry with Chivas USA.
More will come on this partnership (and other KC news) soon, but I wanted to get my initial thoughts onto the Offside as soon as possible… hey, I even beat MLSNet to the story with my internet being disabled as the deal was announced!
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Wildly off-topic but I went to a Chivas-Club America game in San Jose about a million years ago with some friends and, apart from the game which was kind of dull, this is what I remember:
*Flags and singing throughout the game from the packed house
*TOO MANY guys with their shirts off (I guess if I was a chick I wouldn’t feel there were too many, but still… cover up them hairy chests while I’m eating nachos, man!)
*Awesome vendor food (I can’t get enough garlic fries)
*The stench of cheap beer EVERYWHERE
*Several fights in the stands
*Two guys passed out in their seats (by seats I mean their section of the bench since we all sit on benches at Spartan Stadium)
*A 250 pound woman yelling and sloshing her beer all around the aisles as she marched up and down throughout the game, challenging people to fights until she collapsed in a heap about two rows in front of us and rolled down several stairs before coming to a squishy stop at the feet of a little boy. Who immediately started screaming.
What can I say? I LOVED every minute of it! If KC can get a rivalry going with Chivas USA that comes anywhere near what I was seeing in an exhibition match a decade ago, you’ll be over the moon.
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Interesting stuff. It seems there are a lot of teams who could be Chivas’ rivals now – there’s you, there’s the Galaxy, and there’s the Fire, given we’re now the home of Club America’s Blanco.
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United States -
I know what you mean, Tom… I hope there’s still room for some animosity against the Wizards when Chivas is done hating Beckham and the Pretty Boys next door and Blanco in Chicago. The Wizards could use a little more passion out of its fanbase! (And Clint, if I go to a Wizards game and see said 250 pound woman, I will indeed feel as though I got my money’s worth.)
Posted from
United States -
Ah…So you’re the Wizards beat. Here’s to a grand year of competition and battling for something higher than the basement.
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