Colorado Rapids

Team information

Inaugural season: 1996

Home field: Dick’s Sporting Goods Park

Owner: Kroenke Sports and Entertainment

Team colors: sky blue, burgundy, and silver

Overview

The Colorado Rapids is a professional men’s soccer team and part of Major League Soccer (MLS), which is the main men’s professional soccer organization in the United States. The Colorado Rapids formed when the MLS formed in 1995. In 2010, the team won the MLS Cup, even though it finished seventh in the league during the regular season. The team has had multiple All-Star team members and has a Gallery of Honor in which it inducts its best former members.

The Colorado Rapids has had players from all around the world, and the organization runs an academy that recruits elite soccer players from the United States and other countries to play. Colorado’s academy and similar programs throughout MLS are meant to help recruit players to train them and prepare them for potentially playing in the MLS. The Colorado Rapids also have community outreach programs through which they connect to and give back to the community.

History

The Colorado Rapids became one of MLS’s ten charter clubs in 1995, when the MLS formed that year. Billionaire Philip Anschutz, Lamar Hunt, and other investors interested in seeing a professional men’s soccer league helped create the MLS. Anschutz founded the Colorado Rapids to be one of the first teams, and he was the team’s biggest investor and its operator starting in 1996 during the first MLS season. During the Rapids’ first season, the team had eleven wins and twenty-one losses. (The team had no ties, or draws, as MLS used shootouts to end tied games instead of scoring ties as draws.) Despite the team’s losing the first year, by 1999 the team’s statistics improved, with the team finishing the season with twenty wins and twelve losses.

In 2003, the team underwent significant changes when Anschutz sold the franchise to Stan Kroenke, who was the owner of Kroenke Sports Enterprises. Kroenke and his company already owned the Denver Nuggets, the professional basketball team, and the Colorado Avalanche, the professional hockey team. That same year, the club established its Gallery of Honor, which was created to honor the best former players of the Colorado Rapids. The first members of the gallery, former players Marcelo Balboa and Paul Bravo, were inducted on July 4, 2003. The event took place at INVESCO Field at Mile High, which was the club’s home stadium at the time.

The team went through yet another transformation in 2007 when it changed its logo and colors and moved into a new stadium. In April 2007, the Colorado Rapids club moved into DICK’s Sporting Goods Park. The 18,000-seat stadium had multiple playing and practicing fields. Around the same time, the Colorado Rapids changed its colors and logo, giving the team its third logo design in a little more than a decade. The first had the Colorado Mountains and Colorado River incorporated into it, and the second was a circle with the team’s name and a soccer ball in the center. Both these logos used blue and gold as primary colors. In the 2007 update, the team used sky blue, burgundy, and silver as its new colors, and they were incorporated into the logo. The new crest logo included the team’s name, the Colorado Mountains, and a soccer ball in the center. The logo also included the number 96 to signify the club’s inaugural year. The team has used the mascot RapidMan, a human embodiment of rapids, on and off throughout its history. The mascot is a blue, musclebound creature with white rapids at the tips of its hair.

In 2010, the Colorado Rapids improved their performance, finishing seventh overall in the league, with twelve wins, ten ties, and eight losses. The team finished in fifth place in the Western Conference. That year the team had an even more impressive accomplishment when it won the MLS Cup, which is the annual championship game of MLS. The Rapids played FC Dallas, and team in the Western Conference, in the final game. Many MLS fans were surprised by the Colorado Rapid’s involvement in the MLS Cup final since the team had finished near the bottom of the Western Conference rankings. The MLS system for determining playoff participants allows for many wildcard teams to enter, no matter their conference. As a result, that year’s MLS playoffs included six Western Conference teams and only two Eastern Conference teams. Despite the controversy, the Colorado Rapids took home the title.

The 2020 season was notable for the Colorado Rapids and all MLS teams because of disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. MLS began playing regular-season games early in 2020, but the season stopped abruptly in early spring because of the disease. MLS teams eventually started to play again. The MLS created the “MLS Is Back Tournament” as part of the schedule modifications made because of the pandemic. The team isolated themselves so they could play each other without infecting other teams. Some teams were disqualified from playing because too many of their members tested positive for the virus. The Rapids were out of contention for winning after losing to Real Salt Lake and Sporting Kansas City.

In 2021, however, the Rapids came back strong, with seventeen regular-season wins and only seven losses. As a result, the Rapids made it to the Western Conference semifinals, which put them into possible contention for the conference finals and for the MLS Cup that year. The Rapids finished the 2022 season in tenth place. They did not qualify for the 2022 MLS Cup Playoffs.

Notable players

Conor Casey played for the Colorado Rapids from 2007 to 2012. Casey, who lived in Colorado for most of his life, played in fifteen matches during his first season with the Rapids and had two goals and three assists. Casey led the team in scoring in 2008 (with eleven goals) and 2009 (with sixteen goals). In 2010, he scored a goal during the MLS Cup final, and he was named the VIP of the MLS Cup after his team’s win. During his time with the Rapids, Casey scored fifty goals, giving him the team’s all-time scoring record at the time. The Rapids released Casey during the 2012 season. In June 2017, the Rapids recognized Casey’s contributions by inducting him into the team’s Gallery of Honor.

John Spencer played for the Rapids from 2001 to 2004, after playing for years in football clubs in the United Kingdom. Spencer made his MLS soccer with the Rapids in 2001, and he scored fourteen goals in his first season. He led the team with goals in 2001 and 2003, scoring fourteen each season. In 2003, he was named to the MLS All-Star team and earned MLS Best XI honors. He was inducted into the team’s Gallery of Honor in 2009.

Chris Henderson first played for the Rapids from 1996 to 1999 as an original member of the team. After playing for other MLS teams, he returned to the Rapids from 2002 to 2005. In 1996, he received the 1996 Rapids Honda MVP award. During the 1997 season, he was named to the MLS All-Star team and had seven goals and nine assists. In the 2002 season, he tied with teammate Chris Carrieri for having the most goals—eleven—during the season. As of 2021, Henderson was the team’s fifth-highest scorer in its history. He was inducted into the team’s Gallery of Honor in 2007.

As one of the team’s original members, Marcelo Balboa was with the Colorado Rapids from 1996 to 2002. Balboa scored the team’s first goal and made three goals during the team’s first win in April of that year. Balboa was named to the MLS All-Star team five times during his stint with the Rapids. Balboa was one of the first two Rapids players to be inducted into the team Gallery of Honor in 2003. In 2005, he was inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame.

Pablo Mastroeni was a player for and a coach for the Colorado Rapids. He joined the club in 2002 and quickly became a dominant force on the team. Mastroeni served as the club’s captain when the team won the 2010 MLS Cup. During his career, he was named to the MLS All-Star team seven times. He left the team as a player in 2013, but he returned as the head coach in 2014. He played three seasons before being replaced. The Rapids inducted him into the team’s Gallery of Honor in 2014. In 2021, the Rapids provided Mastroeni with an even higher honor when they retired his jersey number, twenty-five.

Paul Bravo played as a forward for the Colorado Rapids from 1997 to 2001. He helped the team attend its first MLS Cup Championship in 1997 and its first CONCACAF Champions League tournament in 1998. He was named to the MLS All-Star team three times during his career. He held the record for the most goals (thirty-nine) by a Rapids’ player for years until Conor Casey surpassed in 2010. Bravo was one of the first two Rapids players to be inducted into the Gallery of Honor in 2003.

Bibliography

“About the Club.” Colorado Rapids, www.coloradorapids.com/club/about. Accessed 20 Mar. 2024.

Barrero, Jim. “Anschutz Unloads the Rapids.” LA Times, 24 September 2003, www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2003-sep-24-sp-soccer24-story.html. Accessed 20 Mar. 2024.

“Colorado Rapids Unveil New Team Identity.” Colorado Rapids, 27 June 2010, www.coloradorapids.com/news/colorado-rapids-unveil-new-team-identity. Accessed 20 Mar. 2024.

“FAQ: Everything You Need to Know About Resuming the 2020 MLS Season.” Colorado Rapids, 8 August 2020, www.coloradorapids.com/news/faq-everything-you-need-know-about-resuming-2020-mls-season. Accessed 20 Mar. 2024.

“Gallery of Honor.” Colorado Rapids, 2024, www.coloradorapids.com/club/history/gallery-of-honor. Accessed 20 Mar. 2024.

Polis, John. “The Myth, the Mascot, the Legend - RapidMan is Back!” Colorado Rapids, 6 March 2020, www.coloradorapids.com/news/myth-mascot-legend-rapidman-back. Accessed 20 Mar. 2024.

“Rapids Retire Pablo Mastroeni’s Number 25.” Colorado Rapids, 4 July 2021, www.coloradorapids.com/news/rapids-retire-pablo-mastroeni-s-number-25. Accessed 20 Mar. 2024.

Salazar, Jo-Ryan. “MLS Cup 2010: Colorado Rapids vs. FC Dallas.” Bleacher Report, 15 November 2010, bleacherreport.com/articles/517904-2010-mls-cup-colorado-rapids-vs-fc-dallas. Accessed 20 Mar. 2024.