I haven’t been a Kansas City Wizards fan for that long, in fact I think it’d be fair to say I really only have been for two seasons. I started coming to games and held a season ticket prior to the fact but the transition from a guy coming to watch the Wizards because there were no better options to a guy who would not choose to be anywhere else on game day has been a long one. There hasn’t been much to love about the Wizards for some time and my relationship with them is akin to falling for the ugly chick that you used to think of as one of the guys … until you got to know her a little bit better and start looking beyond the surface.

I’d been to the odd game at Arrowhead and the cavernous empty spaces didn’t do much for me, neither did the football, or the crappy name or the horrible PA Announcements. It wasn’t very appealing baking to death in a concrete bowl but when I heard the Wizards were leaving Arrowhead something began to needle me. I’d never lived in a place without a team before and the thought of them leaving town entirely didn’t sit well. I started to monitor the website looking for updates on where the team would be playing and the announcement never seemed to come. Finally news that Community America Ballpark was ‘home’ seemed to come ridiculously late. I flipped over to the season ticket section on the site and noted that there was a standing section … behind a goal … and the entire season ticket only cost $150 (approx). Score. I became a season ticket holder within minutes.

I emailed all my friends trying to get them on board but none took the bait and so I went to the first game with my wife who bought a single game ticket. I arrived on the Grass Berm and was told to SIT DOWN. What the hell? It turned out that the banking was too steep and there where safety concerns and my grass and mud made mock terrace wasn’t really going to be all that it cracked up to be. I wanted to stand up, instead I got into the routine of bringing along a blanket and my wife. It is funny, in hindsight that with the new stadium coming that a much maligned grass slope at the further maligned Community America Ballpark is what sucked me in. As the season rolled onwards I got used to coming to games, I enjoyed the view, I liked sitting on The Berm and thought that one day it’d be a fun place to bring kids. The Wizards squeaked into the playoffs and by the end of the season I was hooked.

Looking back over the last few years, and watching games at CAB it is hard to imagine that this weekend I will be taking pictures of Ryan Giggs and Sir Alex Ferguson and the remainder of the Manchester United squad right here in Kansas City. It feels strange. Over 47,000 tickets have been sold at this time. Amazing. The Kansas City Wizards Stadium is being built at an almost alarming (but most welcome) pace – with an uncompromisable emphasis on quality. The World Cup has come and gone and 12,000 fans crowded into the Power and Light District to watch the USA play Ghana. Really? Yeah … 2010 has been kinda like that.

So here I sit, in bed, feeling like Sunday is a cup final. I can’t sleep. I wonder if I’ll see or even speak to Giggs or Fergie over the next two days, I have my camera charged up and ready to go for the once in a lifetime chance of taking pictures of Manchester United from field level. It all seems so surreal and weird.

No matter what our place in the standings may be, win lose or draw, these are good days to be a Wizards fan. OnGoal – the Wizards ownership group really deserve a tip of the cap. And me? I am just enjoying the ride, enjoying that I am endlessly amazed by the upwards progression of football in a City that has been deemed a backwater by the snobs in LA and Seattle and wondering what comes next.