MLS Wizards To Partner With Mexican League Club

MLS Wizards Enter Partnership With Mexican League Club

The MLS Wizards and Mexican league team FC Atlas will enter into “at least a two-year partnership that will include player exchanges, annual home-and-away exhibition matches between the two clubs, the use of each other’s facilities and merchandising,” according to Bob Luder of the K.C. STAR. The two-year deal includes “options to continue indefinitely.” The Wizards and new ownership group OnGoal LLC are “hoping to gain greater support form the Kansas City-area Latino population, especially the majority of whom love soccer.” Wizards Exec VP & General Counsel Greg Cotton: “They need to feel included, and I’m not sure (the Wizards) have done a good job of that in the past.” Atlas is based in Guadalajara, Mexico, and K.C. Council member and Greater K.C./Mexico trade initiative Chair Bonnie Sue Cooper noted that a “large portion” of the city’s Hispanic population is either from Guadalajara or “has roots there.” Cotton indicated that while other MLS teams have had or still have relationships with Mexican clubs, “no deal carries with it the scope of the Wizards’ with Atlas” (K.C. STAR, 3/31).