Pass the Crow

Guest Writer: Tony Felich

I wrote an article entitled “Cause for Alarm” back in February that raised the public ire of many Cauldronites but elicited supportive responses by quite a few others. The article noted three areas of disappointment that put a damper on my desire to buy season tickets: the draft, the schedule, and the first pre-season game.

I remain skeptical about the draft strategy, but appreciate the argument some made about MLS ready offensive talent being rare in college players. Out of the teams control or not, the game schedule is unfortunate with a 2 ½ month gap between games in late Spring. The third area of critique, the first pre-season game, wasn’t so much about the results of that game, but what it communicated concerning team direction for the upcoming season. It was widely reported the Wizards were going with a 3-5-2 that depended heavily on Marinelli’s “creativity”. My legitimate questions were concerning his durability in such a middle sensitive formation and the lack of a legitimate scoring threat without Eddie. Trujillo was rumored to be on the way, however he remained an unknown quantity. Sealy has been productive in the past, but his effectiveness last year was tied heavily to EJ’s presence. Beyond these questions, and more importantly, I wondered about the team’s commitment to win now.

How to Improve the Cauldron

Not long ago I asked whether the Cauldron was the Heart of the Team or a Pain in the Butt. Here I take an outsiders look at how to improve the independent Kansas City Wizards Supporters Group, The Cauldron. Again the intent is to motivate leadership of The Cauldron to push to become the best Supporters Group in the league. In ( ) of each section is a number that says how important making this change is, 10 being very important and 1 not very important at all.

Training Facility Video Tour

This past Friday a good friend of mine (and his children) took a tour of the Wizards state of the art Training facility. It was really great to see where the team spends much of their time preparing for Games and bonding as a group. Thank you Rick Dressel for taking us on the tour and thank you Kyle Rogers for setting this up. This is access that other teams simply do not allow, as a fan I am grateful for their kindness and hope they will continue leading the league when it comes to opening up to their fans. Enjoy the video (remember this is amateur).

2008 Wizards Jersey: Video

This video is a clip of a larger video of the tour of the Kansas City Wizards training facility. Thank you Wizards for letting us come in and film, the access you have given your fans is amazing and I hope this will continue. The man holding the jersey is Rick Dressel, Director of Team Administration. He showed us around, answered questions and went far beyond I imagine his job description requires. Thank you Wizards and thank you Rick, here is the jersey clip. Check back early next week for full tour video. Also a big thanks to Kyle Rogers, communications assistant who set this up.