Notes from Robb Heineman

So for those of you that don't read bigsoccer, Robb Heinemann, the Kansas City Wizards president, has been posting occasionally on bigsoccer, asking the Wizards supporters on there about what the team can do better. That thread can be found here.

The reason I bring this up, is the fact that he has posted a response to many of the posts in that thread. You can read his response here.


Outside the normal rah-rah about the team and the stadium dealings, that you'd expect to get from the teams president, there are a few things that I want to touch on from his post.

Our South American scouting is developing rapidly. I think we started some really good relationships down there that are going to reap benefit for the club for years to come.

This is great news in my opinion, I look at what a team like DC has done with decent scounting systems in South and Central America, bringing them players like Chrisitian Gomez and Luciano Emilio, and I just hope that the Wizards can bring in players of that caliber to help improve this team.

Additionally, I'm pretty confident that we'll have a game exchange finished up in time for a game late this year - pending Arrowhead's availability. As a side note, I've heard you loud and clear and it's my goal to develop as many international and US soccer matches as possible in KC for years to come. Why wouldn't we.....

This is something I've touched on in the past, at the season ticket holder Christmas party, the team said they were working on a home-home series with a team, I'd love to have a friendly with a team from Argentina or Europe come to play the Wizards at Arrowhead, the last time the Wizards played an international game at home, was against Deportivo Saprissa back before the 2005 season. The last friendly was all the way back in 1997. I also love the second part of that post, I want the US National team back in KC for a game. KC showed it can have a good showing for a match, see the qualifier for the 2002 WC for proof of that. KC has not gotten a game since, and it's about time they did.

By the way - season ticket holders will be getting access to videos of our Boca Juniors and Riverplate matches. I'm not sure if it will be via the internet or on DVD - stay tuned.

This is something fairly cool that I'm looking forward to and glad they are doing, it woulda been great if they'd had it online for us to watch before the season so we could see how the team looked, but this is a huge step in the right direction.

On another front, we're going to announce a south-of-the-border relationship either this week or next, depending on some logistics. This is going to be a great thing for our club on a number of fronts: (i) player development, (ii) game exchange, and (iii) marketing. I hope you're all pleased with the info as it comes out.

More excellent news, as we're one of the few teams in the league that doesn't have a partnership of some kind with another club. I'm sure many people would have preferred a big name European team, but this is a great start and could turn out to be something huge for the team. If anyone wants to make a guess about who they think it will be, feel free to comment.