The Wizards&#8217; new soccer-specific stadium took one major step toward reality Thursday.</p><p>The Missouri Development Finance Board approved $30 million in tax credits toward The Trails development in southeast Kansas City. That clears the way for the LANE4 Property Group and the Wizards&#8217; ownership group, OnGoal LLC, to begin demolition of the old Bannister Mall site and start construction of a $1 billion mixed-use project.</p><p>The centerpiece of the project will be the $100 million soccer stadium, seating 18,500, scheduled to open late in the 2010 Major League Soccer season or for the start of the 2011 season.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a really big day for us,&#8221; said Robb Heineman, chief executive officer of OnGoal and president of the Wizards. &#8220;It&#8217;s huge for us to have this out of the way to make sure the project comes together.</p><p>&#8220;We&#8217;re appreciative of the action the board took, and we think it&#8217;s a positive thing for the state of Missouri and for Kansas City, and we&#8217;re ready to move forward.&#8221;</p><p>OnGoal is investing about 71 percent of the capital required for the project, which will include the stadium, 12 tournament-quality soccer fields, 590 hotel rooms, 1.13 million square feet of mixed-use retail, 1.7 million square feet of office space and 18,249 parking spaces. Public taxing districts will provide the additional 29 percent, mostly through TIFs.</p><p>OnGoal is spending $60 million on what Heineman called &#8220;eligible costs&#8221; such as demolition, site preparation, land acquisition, roads and parking lots in return for the $30 million in tax credits that provide cash value to be reinvested in the project.</p><p>&#8220;We would like to move ahead with demolition as soon as possible,&#8221; Heineman said. &#8220;Obviously our economic situation is improved in a new stadium, so we have every incentive in the world to get into that new stadium as fast as we can.&#8221;</p><p>There are still some details remaining before the wrecking ball hits Bannister Mall, including the purchase of the Sears building, Heineman said.</p><p>He also conceded the current economic climate &#8220;may impact us a little bit &#8230; if you look at the broad credit markets right now, they&#8217;re not great.</p><p>&#8220;So far for our group, that hasn&#8217;t been an issue. We hope it continues to not be an issue. We&#8217;ve spent a whole bunch of money at the site already and we continue to spend money out there every day.</p><p>&#8220;The retail piece may lag behind just based on everything that is going on, but hopefully the stars align &#8230; &#8221;</p><p>The Wizards, founded in 1996 by the late Lamar Hunt, played their first 12 seasons at Arrowhead Stadium before taking up temporary residence at CommunityAmerica Ballpark this season for all but one home game that was played at Arrowhead.</p><p>Last year, the club moved into a privately financed, $3 million state-of-the-art training center in Swope Park, just minutes from the site of the new stadium project.</p><p>Of the 13 other MLS franchises, eight play in soccer-specific stadiums, and the New York Red Bulls have broken ground on a new facility in Harrison, N.J. The Wizards will remain at CommunityAmerica Ballpark, which seats 10,385 for soccer, until the new stadium is completed in 2010.</p><p>&#8220;If the construction environment, for whatever reason &#8230; weather &#8230; delays it, we may slip until 2011,&#8221; Heineman said.</p><p>&#8220;The bottom line is we want to open the stadium in the right kind of way, to make sure the first impression is a spectacular one.&#8221;