That Wizards soccer team’s new stadium project has picked Wyandotte County as there new home. The Wizards soccer team was originally on the Missouri side of Kansas City, and recently has been playing at the Community America Ballpark at Village West on the Kansas side. The new stadium plans are just part of the development progress made in Wyandotte County.
The Kansas Speedway area has emerged as the new choice for a long-sought Wizards soccer stadium in a sweeping proposal that would include at least 4,000 new Cerner Corp. jobs.
The developer working for OnGoal LLC, the owner of the Kansas City Wizards, has prepared a stadium plan for a site owned by Nebraska Furniture Mart. The developer is asking state and county officials to use revenues from the existing sales tax revenue bonds, also known as STAR bonds, issued for the Village West retail district to help finance the project.
To sweeten its proposal, OnGoal, whose ownership group includes Neal Patterson and Cliff Illig, co-founders of Cerner, has included a 600,000-square-foot office project that Wyandotte County officials confirmed would house new Cerner employees.
An amateur sports complex with at least a dozen athletic fields also is part of the plan, bringing the total estimated investment to $400 million.
The Unified Government of Wyandotte County has called a special session for 5 p.m. this evening where the commission is expected to consider the project, which would clear the way for the State to consider it. Kansas City, KS Mayor Joe Reardon is excited for the opportunity and is working diligently to make this project a reality. While speaking to Reardon’s office this morning they expressed the importance of the development and the creation of 8,000 new jobs that this project would bring to Kansas.
Dennis Hays (WYCO County Administrator) said county officials supported the STAR bond proposal being proposed by the developer.
“The economic benefit of 8,000 new jobs in our community far outweighs any investment of sales taxes,” he said. “We’ve had discussions with state officials and will continue to work with them on this.”
Hays said the county had been told the jobs would be new positions expected to be created by Cerner, not existing jobs from other parts of the metropolitan area. Besides North Kansas City, Cerner has a growing presence in the former Marion labs complex. This would mark the firm’s first expansion into Kansas.
Mayor Joe Reardon said the additional development opportunity would be a boom to employment opportunities in Kansas City, Kansas.
“The job creation is phenomenal and would be transformative to a community like mine.” he said.
Quotes from The Kansas City Star
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