New Gardner, KS Soccer Complex

Here's an early web site with information on the new indoor complex in Gardner that will enable players to simulate the outdoor game. The pictures show that there's still a long way to go before it's up and running in the fall.

Comets May be Latest (and Last) to Flee Kemper

April 2005 Prediction: The Comets are done (if not for good, at least at Kemper).

Their best player, Dino Delevski, all but announced in the Star this week that he's looking to jump to the outdoor game (with the MLS or to Europe).

The MISL itself is a mess. The Comets have been inflating attendance numbers like crazy all year. Last night's game drew what appeared to be about 2,500 to Kemper, but the announced figure was closer to 4,500.

The Outlaws had a nasty habit of this same practice....and look where that got them.

It's almost as if they have Diebold counting the crowds. Which may not be entirely a stretch........after all, Diebold does have a local office in Lenexa.

With the Outlaws gone, the Knights floating around somewhere in JoCo, the Comets will be the next out. This will leave only the announced Arena Football League team as Kemper's lone, sports tenant. Head over to the site now and name the team ("Subsidies" was submitted on behalf of KC Media as a tribute to the new arena).

Only in KC....

.......Can a man spit on a woman, turn and run, and become a hero/celebrity.

That's the path Michael Smith of Gladstone used to become KC's newest celeb. He spit tobacco juice at a 67-year-old woman, who just happened to be Jane Fonda. She was in town for a book signing.

Now a Fifty-four-year-old Vietnam veteran, Smith waited in line at the book shop for 90 minutes before getting the chance to spit tobacco juice into Fonda's face. He also purchased a copy of her book as required in order to stand and line and have the opportunity to get within spitting distance.

Veterans groups in Kansas City issued a statement saying that they recognize many do not like Fonda, but Smith's actions were unacceptable.

Wilmott's CSA set to Debut this Summer

KU Professor Kevin Willmott's film "CSA (Confederate States of America)"
is set to be released sometime this summer around July. 

CSA is a faux documentary that looks at the United
States after the Civil War, in which the South has just
claimed victory. The film follows the Ken Burns-style
of documenting a historical event. In this case, Willmott
presents the fictional story of a British broadcast of 20th century
American history making its television debut in the Confederate
States.

(I had the chance to view a copy of the film this
last week. It does not disappoint. Willmott did a 
terrific job of putting the film together.)

The film has already received positive reviews
through it's screening at last year's Sundance
Film Festival.

C.S.A. cost about $1 million to make and was
shot over a three-year period in Lawrence and the
Kansas City, Kan., area.

"Boom Goes the Dynamite!!!!!"

Poor Dave Stewart, of Metro Sports/810WHB fame, has stolen/mocked the catchphrase of the country's hottest new sportscaster: Ball State's Brian Collins.

On a brighter note, Metro Sports reported last night that Gardner, Kansas will be the home to a new indoor facility that will allow players to simulate the outdoor game.

The Metro Sports report claim the facility will open for business this fall. The original projections had it opening this month.

The project will be built on 6.79 acres at 551 New Century Parkway. Gary Hammack, who will build and own the soccer complex, told the City's Board that the facility will have one large soccer field along with two medium ones and one small field.


ESPN Nightmare Job

Getting back to the subject of Brian Collins and his now infamous telecast on Ball State's student television....

Collins is becoming an Internet legend in the same category of a Star Wars Kid (2003) or Paris Hilton (2004).

After enduring all the 'net punishment he has taken in the last month, I'd say it's time to give Collins a shot on one of those ESPN Dream Job shows.

Consequences of Glass-ball Realized

The KC media, for the most part, has bought into echoing word that the current edition of the Royals is a youth movement (thus, they are shielded from traditional criticism of a product or service in the marketplace).

Let’s call the operation at Kauffman Stadium for what it is:

A franchise that’s been in a persistent, vegetative state for the last 15 years.

Yes, the Royals have so many shared qualities with the now deceased Terri Schiavo that it should disturb baseball enthusiasts: it’s hard to know if you are communicating with them at all (Pena), their mobility has been taken away (Pickering, Stairs, Harvey), and even their strongest supporters from within must rely on faith to see their optimistic point of view (Sweeney).

Those who support the Royals desire to remain in this state, ask that support them in order to keep them around. They claim that their mere existence is better than an alternative of nothing at Kauffman Stadium. Whereas, others can tell that they failed to exist at some point after the late 80’s.

Can’t we just admit that there comes a time to let things go? Can we admit that there’s no possible way of saving something that was once deeply cared about in the community?

Baseball has been made obsolete in Kansas City through the ass-backward economic structure of MLB, coupled with a decade’s worth of bad player deals. The business philosophies of David Glass have accelerated the franchise’s physical demise in the last half-decade.

Glass has exploited Royals fans the same way he has knowingly exploited Wal-Mart workers.

The exploitation of commodities in the two categories makes sense when you consider the following:

In sports/entertainment, the players assume a position akin to the role of retail consumers at Wal-Mart. Glass squeezes the talent out of the players, before letting them move on to a higher bidder. At Wal-Mart, the community’s retail dollars are squeezed by draining smaller competitors of their financial stream. This allows Glass and Wal-Mart’s financial standing to improve and expand into another community.

Glass is already hard at work masterminding a plan to dump KC taxpayers with the bill for a brand new facility. It's hard to find media opposition to such schemes, but once in a while something like this sneaks in and disrupts such efforts. It's going to take many more op-ed pieces (such as this one that appeared in the Las Vegas Review Journal) and voices in the broadcast media in order for KC not to be stuck with another Sprint Center-esque arrangement.

Speaking of the Sprint Center, Russ Johnson has finally brought the issue of stadium subsidies to the forefront of his show. This morning he spoke at length of the Outlaws leaving KC after one year, and the reality of the area's size being too small to support a new professional team. Kudos to "Team Johnson" for backing up their talk with research that continues to show the irrationality behind the campaign that saddled us with the Sprint Center.

Lee's Summit, like Overland Park, is drunk with delusions of grandeur. Missouri's version of Johnson County is proposing a facility for a minor league baseball team to operate in. City officials say minor league baseball is exactly what the area needs.

Right.

Lee's Summit and minor league baseball go together like Donald Rumsfeld and an exit strategy.

Royals Becoming Clippers of MLB (aka, a National Laughing Stock)

A joke in the new movie "Fever Pitch" has Jimmy Fallon's character (a Red Sox season ticket holder) turning to the Royals for a punch line.

Fallon threatens to withhold Yankees tickets from a friend and instead allot him his unwanted Royals tickets.

It'll be a cold day in....Leawood before Hollywood green lights a picture dedicated to baseball in Kansas City.

However........

Rumors surfaced in the mid-80's about an 'independent' film project that George Brett and Jamie Quirk were putting together (bu-dum-ching).