‘It can mean everything’: How locals who cared helped revive the Wichita Wings
After a six-year absence, the Wichita Wings are back.
And unlike those two hollow seasons from 2011-13, when the operation bled money and the product on the field suffered, the ownership group, which now features two former Wings players and current FC Wichita owner Blake Shumaker, is passionate about Wichita, passionate about soccer, and most importantly, passionate about the Wings.
Shumaker had the opportunity to join the ownership group eight years ago when the Wings were revived. He passed because he recognized a business model that would lose upwards of $100,000.
When the opportunity to spearhead the revival this time around presented itself, Shumaker said he owed it to himself and fans of the indoor soccer team that routinely sold out the Kansas Coliseum in the 1980s.
“I think (bringing the Wings back) can mean everything,” Shumaker told The Eagle in an exclusive interview. “I believe there’s a 5-year-old kid who will be sitting in the stands that doesn’t know they love the game yet. They don’t even know they love sports. The Wings, for me, was even bigger than soccer. I know a lot of who I am in life was because of the people I met on the soccer field as a kid and all of that goes back to the Wings.”
Here’s the inside story on how a local group of owners and businesses have rallied together to help bring back the Wings.
Local businesses stepped up
After the Wings announced two weeks ago they were returning, the team’s e-mail was flooded with fans filled with excitement and questions.
Shumaker says the team has read each one and he has been struck by how often the first reaction of fans were to ask how they could help.
“They wanted to know what they could do, how they could be involved,” Shumaker said. “We had people offering help setting up the arena, offering to be ushers. We even had 11 people in the first five hours ask if we needed a mascot.
“That kind of response tells you what the Wings meant to Wichita.”
It wasn’t just the fans in Wichita who wanted to help. Local businesses have stepped up to provide their services to the team.
Family Mitsubishi will be the team’s title sponsor, while Wheat State Insurance, in Derby, will offer its help by insuring each player. Sugar Shane’s Cafe, located at 430 State St. in Augusta, will cater the team’s pre- and post-game meals and provide food at games for the VIP club.
Shane Scott, the owner of Sugar Shane’s Cafe, said helping the Wings was a no-brainer.
“I remember going to Wings games when I was in high school and they were the biggest hit in the city,” Scott said. “When I heard they were coming back, I couldn’t resist going out and offering my services any way I possibly could. I think Wichita needs to rally around them and give them our support and make this a success in the long run. So I wanted to do whatever I could to be a part of it and I want to see other local businesses step up and do the same thing.”
It’s different this time
The biggest difference this time around compared to the 2011 efforts is that Shumaker now has seven years of experience building a brand and successful organization with FC Wichita.
He also understands the hidden costs of running an organization and what can add up quickly if not planned correctly. Thanks to his experience and connections in the business, along with the local businesses stepping up, Shumaker estimates the Wings can operate on a budget nearly $300,000 less than any other professional indoor soccer team.
Back in 2011, Shumaker relented his trademark on the Wichita Wings to Wink Hartman Sr. so they could bring the team back. This time around, it’s Hartman Sr. who is willingly giving the trademark back so Shumaker could lead the revival.
Why? Because Hartman Sr. realized the passion this ownership group has for Wichita, for soccer and for the Wings.
“The only thing that’s important here is who wants to be involved and we all work together to make this sustainable,” Shumaker said. “I took a pass eight years ago knowing the day might come we might have the opportunity some day and if we did, I promised myself I would help connect the right people to make it happen.
“The Wings don’t belong to any specific owner. They belong to the community.”
Another key partner in the revival has been Kevin Ten Eyck, who has been a staple of soccer in Wichita the past decade. He’s seen the impact the Wings can have, both as a fan attending games as a kid and as a player on the last Wings incarnation.
“I used to go to the Kansas Coliseum and watch the Wings play and dream that I could grow up and be a professional soccer player,” said Ten Eyck, a former Maize and Friends standout. “I remember telling my parents that I wanted to be a professional soccer player because of the Wings. It’s cool to give kids around the area something to aspire to be when they grow up.”
Ten Eyck plans on playing for the Wings as a veteran mentor, but that’s not all. In the Wings’ cost-saving ways, he will also bring his experience as an accountant for his father’s accounting business and be the organization’s bookkeeper.
Shumaker and Ten Eyck aren’t motivated by money — they have established careers for that. But Shumaker is confident the Wings can operate in the black because of the amount of people in the organization who are motivated solely for the love of the Wings.
“Wichita is such a big little city where everybody supports everybody,” Ten Eyck said. “It’s a blue-collar town, so it’s so cool to see all of these hard-working people come together for one common purpose and give these kids an opportunity that some never had growing up.”
What will the Wings look like?
The Wings have an agreement to play in the Major Arena Soccer League, which is the highest level of arena soccer in the world.
But the team’s leadership prefers a slow build, so the Wings will start out competing in Major Arena Soccer League 2. It’s a developmental league that features teams from Colorado Springs, Denver, Rio Rancho, N.M., Austin, Wichita Falls, Chicago, Muskegon, Mich. and Chihuahua, Mexico.
The schedule will be released Monday with the Wings hosting eight regular-season home games at Hartman Arena, where they signed a five-year lease and plan to play long-term. The regular season lasts from December to April with Wichita’s first home game on Dec. 28. The Wings will start selling season tickets on Friday, Nov. 1.
The Wings also plan on playing preseason road games at the Dallas Sidekicks and the Kansas City Comets, rivalries they hope to soon bring back.
The team is expected to announce its coach along with a handful of players in the coming days. The Wings plan on carrying a roster of 20 players with 10 more as developmental players. They will hold tryouts to fill their roster at Hartman Arena on Nov. 23-24.
Although Shumaker is on board, he made it clear that the Wings are an entirely separate endeavor from FC Wichita. It’s rare for players to have the skills to excel in both indoor and outdoor soccer, so Shumaker doesn’t expect there to be much overlap between the two teams. But he didn’t rule out the possibility of certain players staying in Wichita to play for the Wings and FC Wichita and building synergy that way.
As for aesthetics, the Wings plan on revealing a slightly altered logo that will still feature its familiar orange, white and black color scheme. The Wings signed a three-year apparel contract with Hummel, an international soccer brand that will design new uniforms and warm-ups for the team.
But Shumaker says he still wants fans to feel the nostalgia when coming to games. The Wings plan on retiring jersey numbers and hanging banners from previous teams in Hartman Arena to commemorate their past. Shumaker also said that Hummel will be able to recreate the retro Wings jerseys from the 80s and the team hopes to sell the jerseys of past stars such as Erik Rasmussen, Chico Borja, Jorgen Kristensen and Andy Chapman.
“You know when you walk in the movie theaters and you smell popcorn and it takes you back to when you were a kid?” Shumaker said. “For me, whenever I hear the Rolling Stones or the Rocky music, it takes me back to the Kansas Coliseum when I was 8 years old.
“We still want to create that atmosphere where it will take a lot of people back to that age, back to whatever that great moment was they experience. We want to remind them why the Wings are so near and dear to them.”
This story was originally published October 25, 2019 at 12:30 PM.
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