The following article is copyrighted by The Olathe News and displayed here with permission. The author is Steve Vockrodt .

Site: Firm chosen for stadium

Without knowing which way the public vote on the proposed Johnson County soccer complex will fall on Nov. 7, it appears the Kansas City Wizards are moving forward with plans for a stadium in Overland Park.

NeighborhoodNet, an Internet site run by opponents of the countywide ballot question, Bob and Shirley Phillips, posted an internal memo from Lenexa-based Henderson Engineers, Inc. on Oct. 14 that says the firm, along with 360 Architecture, was awarded the job to work on a new stadium for the Major League Soccer team. The memo states the project will include an 18,500-seat, $57 million stadium in Overland Park. It will include 1,200 club seats, 25 luxury suites and youth facilities, according to the memo reportedly written by Rich Smith, executive vice president of Henderson Engineers.

When asked about the memo on Monday, Smith said he couldn’t comment one way or the other about the memo or its contents, citing a non-disclosure agreement he has signed.

Wizards part owner Robb Heineman, though team spokesman Rob Thomson, denied that a contract had been given for the stadium.

Representatives from 360 Architecture did not return messages left by The Olathe News.

Bob Phillips, a Stilwell resident who has followed the soccer proposal and received a copy of the memo by e-mail, said that representatives from Henderson Engineers had asked him to remove the memo from his Web site, claiming it was an “internal, confidential” memo.

An e-mail from Kristy Stallings, deputy city manager for Overland Park, to Phillips indicates that Wizards owners had an agreement with 360 Architecture and Henderson Engineers.

“It is my understanding that OnGoal, the owners of the Wizards, have hired 360/Henderson for their planning,” Stallings’ e-mail reads. “The City has no agreements with OnGoal regarding the proposed project or their agreement(s) with the firm(s).”

The memo goes further to say the Wizards stadium would include a soccer hall of fame facility, along with surrounding commercial office space and restaurants.

John Nachbar, Overland Park city manager, said any agreement with the Wizards and any other company did not involve Overland Park.

“We haven’t entered into any agreement with them at this point,” Nachbar said.

He said that the possibility of a Wizards stadium in Overland Park was a long way away, and that several steps needed to be taken before a stadium could become a reality.

Those would include lengthy rezoning, planning and development agreements. Most importantly, financing would have to be figured out. The city likely would apply for sales tax and revenue (STAR) bonds from the state to help pay for the project. If the details in the memo on the NeighborhoodNet are true, the Wizards stadium would fall somewhere in the middle of the pack for Major League Soccer stadiums in terms of cost and seating capacity.

The soccer stadium in Columbus, Ohio, cost $28.5 million when it was built in 1999 and seats nearly 13,000.

A new stadium for the Colorado Rapids, which also includes youth soccer fields and a civic center, is expected to cost roughly $130 million and seats approximately 20,000 fans.

The Chicago Fire started playing in its new stadium this year. Toyota Park cost $98 million and has a 22,000-person seating capacity.

Henderson Engineers has worked on hundreds of projects in all 50 states. The company has also worked on several sports projects, including renovations of the Louisiana Superdome renovation and a ball park for the University of Michigan.