The Kansas City Wizards are a professional soccer club based in Kansas City, Kansas that participates in Major League Soccer. The Wizards won the MLS Cup in 2000 and the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup in 2004. The name "Wizards" is an allusion to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, as the main character is from Kansas, although the club was actually located in Missouri at the time of its founding. The team colors are blue and white.
The team's official supporters' group is referred to by the name of their seating area, "The Cauldron". They are accompanied in this section by another supporters' group, "Sudakas", who come from supporters of the Argentinean Club Atlético Boca Juniors. The two groups are nearly synonymous within the Cauldron and have a good relationship.
The Wizards were known as the Kansas City Wiz during the 1996 season but changed names due to a copyright dispute. From 1995 until 2006, they were owned by Lamar Hunt, who also owned the Kansas City Chiefs, FC Dallas and the Columbus Crew.
In the 2000 season, the Wizards captured both the MLS Supporters' Shield and the MLS Cup. In the previous two seasons, they had failed to make the playoffs.
On July 19, 2006, head coach Bob Gansler resigned and general manager Curt Johnson selected assistant coach Brian Bliss as the new interim head coach. Curt Onalfo was announced the new permanent head coach after the end of the 2006 season.
On December 9, 2004, Lamar Hunt announced that he was looking to sell the team after the 2005 MLS season. On August 31, 2006, the Wizards held a press conference to announce the sale of the team to a local ownership group consisting of Cerner co-founders Neal Patterson and Cliff Illig, Rock Island Capital’s Robb Heineman, Greg Maday and David French, and Pat Curran, founder of C3 Holdings.
Recently the Wizards acquired Argentine Claudio Lopez who has participated in 2 world cups for South American powerhouse Argentina. Lopez signed a 1 year deal with the Wizards on terms that are not yet available. The Wizards were in need of a proven goal scorer after the departure of Eddie Johnson who went to Fulham after the 2007 season. Claudio "Piojo" Lopez is an international super star in Argentina. He has racked up 58 caps (international appearances) and 10 goals in his international appearances. He has played for over seven clubs throughout the world. Kansas City fans hope he can lead them to a championship title this season.
The Wizards used to play their home games in Arrowhead Stadium, the American football stadium mainly used by the Kansas City Chiefs. Wizard’s management kept the west end of Arrowhead tarped off for the first 10 years of play, limiting seating near the field. In 2006, fans could sit all the way around the field, but in 2007 seating was only available along the sidelines.
The Wizards entered an agreement with the Kansas City T-Bones to use their home stadium, CommunityAmerica Ballpark, during the 2008 and 2009 seasons. The stadium, located across the state line in Kansas City, Kansas, will have its capacity approximately doubled in order to accommodate the Wizards and seat nearly 12,000. This move will make the Wizards the second MLS team to share their home ground with a baseball team, after D.C. United who had been sharing RFK Stadium with Major League Baseball's Washington Nationals in Washington, D. C., before the latter's move into Nationals Park
The Wizards have been seeking sites for a soccer-specific stadium, initially targeting possible locations in Johnson County, Kansas. The Wizards' new ownership identified a site at 159th Street and U.S. Route 69 in south Overland Park, Kansas as its preferred location for a stadium, but this plan was met with numerous difficulties, namely the decision of the town's mayor to pull his support for the financing of the stadium after the failure of a vote that would have built youth fields on the site as well.
Due to renovations of Arrowhead Stadium, the Wizards were expected to play at a temporary stadium beginning in 2007, while planning and awaiting the construction of a new facility. Yet on January 31, 2007, it was announced the Wizards would continue to play in Arrowhead in the 2007 season.
The reasons given for the return to Arrowhead were the difficulties in expanding other facilities in the area (the KC Wizards played an exhibition in the beginning of the 2007 season at the District Activities Center owned and operated by the Blue Valley School District in Overland Park, Kansas) and the delay in the Arrowhead renovation plan.
On July 27, 2007, the Kansas City Star reported that Lane4 Property Group, a developer hired by the Wizards, was moving closer to making plans final for a massive redevelopment of now-vacant Bannister Mall that will probably include a new 20,000- to 22,000-seat stadium for the Wizards and 12 to 18 tournament soccer fields. Under Lane4’s plan, the Bannister Mall and Benjamin Plaza shopping centers and the adjoining Benjamin Ranch property would be demolished and replaced with a mixed-use project with retail, office and residential components in addition to a possible Wizards stadium. According to MLS.net on December 14, 2007, the Wizards plans for a new stadium were approved by the Kansas City council. The current target date for completion of construction for a new facility has been stated as the beginning of the 2010 MLS season. Team owners are currently collaborating with architecture firm 360 Architecture on the design of the new stadium.
Wizards matches are broadcast on Metro Sports (except for nationally broadcast matches), with Sean Wheelock doing play-by-play and former national team coach Bruce Arena as the color commentator. Local Radio coverage is broadcasted live in English using the Metro Sports Television feed on KCZZ 1480AM, Spanish broadcasting can be found on KDTD 1340AM
In 2007, Kansas City based rock band Blackpool Lights song “Ain’t Nobody Gonna Stop Us Now” was chosen as the official team anthem.
