Sporting Kansas City

Team information

Inaugural season: 1996

Home stadium: Children’s Mercy Park, Kansas City, Kansas

Owner: Sporting Club

Team colors: Light blue, indigo, dark gray

Overview

Sporting Kansas City, often abbreviated as Sporting KC, is a charter member of Major League Soccer (MLS), the premier professional men’s soccer league in North America. The team played its inaugural season when the league debuted in 1996. Originally known as the Kansas City Wiz, the club changed its name to the Kansas City Wizards in 1997. In 2009, the franchise dropped its Wizards moniker and rebranded itself as Sporting Kansas City.

From 1996–2007, Sporting Kansas City played its home games at Arrowhead Stadium, home of the Kansas City Chiefs of the National Football League (NFL). The team then temporarily moved to Community America Ballpark (now Legends Field), playing the 2008–2010 MLS seasons there while its new, permanent home was under construction. Sporting Kansas City moved into its present home, Children’s Mercy Park, for the 2011 season. The purpose-built, soccer-only stadium has an official capacity of 18,467 for soccer games but can accommodate up to 21,000 fans.

Sporting Club, originally known as OnGoal LLC, owns Sporting Kansas City. In July 2021, Sporting Club announced that star NFL quarterback Patrick Mahomes of the Kansas City Chiefs joined the franchise’s ownership group. It was the first change in the club’s ownership structure since Sporting Club/OnGoal LLC acquired the franchise following the death of its original owner and founder Lamar Hunt in 2006. As of 2021, the club’s primary uniforms feature a combination of light blue and indigo with dark gray accents.

History

Originally competing as the Kansas City Wiz, Sporting Kansas City is a charter member of MLS and one of the ten teams that competed in the league’s 1996 inaugural season. The club finished that year with a record of 17 wins (5 by shootout) and 15 losses to finish third in the MLS’s Western Conference and fifth in the league’s overall standings. In that year’s playoff tournament, Kansas City reached the semifinal round before losing a three-game series to the Los Angeles Galaxy.

In 1997, the Wiz lengthened its team nickname to the Wizards. The club posted a strong season, finishing with 21 wins (7 by shootout) and 11 losses to finish atop the Western Conference standings. However, the team was upended in the first round of the playoffs by the Colorado Rapids. The club then trudged through the 1998 and 1999 campaigns, finishing last in the Western Conference and missing the playoffs in both seasons.

A midseason coaching change in 1999 led to improvements in the 2000 MLS season under new coach Bob Gansler. Kansas City rode a season-opening twelve-game undefeated streak to a first-place finish in both the Western Conference and MLS as a whole. After defeating the Colorado Rapids and the Los Angeles Galaxy in the opening two playoff rounds, Kansas City reached the MLS Cup championship final where it met the Chicago Fire. Kansas City defeated Chicago 1–0 to claim its first league title.

Following the MLS Cup win, Kansas City lost star Serbian-American midfielder Preki to the Miami Fusion. The team struggled in his absence, but managed to reach the playoffs only to meet the Fusion in the first round. Miami defeated Kansas City, but Preki’s return to Kansas City in 2002 failed to improve the club’s fortunes as it once again lost in the first round of the MLS playoffs. However, Kansas City posted a major turnaround in 2003 by finishing second in the Western Conference with a record of 11 wins, 10 losses, and 9 ties. After defeating the Colorado Rapids in the first round of the 2003 MLS playoffs, Kansas City bowed out to the eventual champion San Jose Earthquakes in the semifinals.

Kansas City sustained more success in 2004, finishing first in the Western Conference and second overall in MLS. It met the Earthquakes in the first round of the 2004 MLS playoffs, and overcame a 2–0 loss in the first game to win the second game 3–0 and advance on an aggregate score of 3–2. Kansas City then toppled the Galaxy in the Western Conference final to set up a meeting with D.C. United in the MLS Cup. D.C. United won the championship game by a 3–2 score.

In 2005, Kansas City temporarily moved to the Eastern Conference to accommodate a significant MLS expansion. The team missed the playoffs in 2005 and 2006, and its founder-owner Lamar Hunt passed away in December 2006. This prompted the first and only ownership change in franchise history as of 2021. Dedicating the 2007 season to Hunt’s memory, Kansas City reached the “final four” in that year’s MLS playoffs before losing to the Houston Dynamo.

Kansas City posted middling records in 2008–2010 but punctuated its 2011 rebranding as Sporting Kansas City by finishing first in the Eastern Conference and receiving a bye into the conference semifinals. The team advanced past the Colorado Rapids before losing to the Dynamo by a 2–0 score. KC replicated its first-place Eastern Conference finish in 2012 but was stunned by the Dynamo in the first round of the playoffs and eliminated from MLS Cup contention.

In 2013, Sporting Kansas City battled to a second-place finish in both the Eastern Conference and the overall MLS standings, with the New York Red Bulls holding down the top spot. However, heavily favored New York was bounced from the playoffs in the first round. Kansas City took advantage, beating the New England Revolution and Houston Dynamo in the first two rounds to advance to the MLS Cup final against Real Salt Lake. After playing to a 1–1 tie, the two teams engaged in a record-setting ten-round penalty shootout. Sporting Kansas City scraped out a 7–6 advantage in the shootout to win its second MLS Cup title.

Defending its title in 2014, Sporting Kansas City regressed to a record of 14 wins, 13 losses, and 7 ties. In that year’s MLS playoffs, Kansas City posted its first of four consecutive first-round exits between 2014–2017. Apart from a run to the 2018 Western Conference final, Sporting Kansas City has not advanced deep into the playoffs through the 2021 season since claiming the 2013 MLS Cup. However, the team did win the US Open Cup in 2017, defeating the New York Red Bulls in the championship game of the invitational competition.

Notable players

In December 2020, MLS released an official list of the twenty-five greatest players in league history to coincide with the twenty-fifth anniversary of the league’s founding. Sporting Kansas City was represented by three players—Preki and goalkeepers Tony Meola and Kevin Hartman.

Preki, whose full name is Predrag Radosavljevic, was born in Serbia (then Yugoslavia) in 1963. After playing in various professional leagues including the English Premier League (EPL), Preki joined MLS for its inaugural season in 1996. He played all but one of his ten MLS seasons with Kansas City, with the lone exception occurring in 2001 when he played for the Miami Fusion. As of 2021, Preki is the all-time MLS scoring champion when counting both goals and assists, and he was the first player in league history to capture two scoring titles and two Most Valuable Player (MVP) awards.

Meola was Kansas City’s star goalkeeper from 1999–2004 and backstopped the club to its first MLS Cup title (2000). He later appeared in thirty-five games for the New York Red Bulls before retiring from MLS and becoming a soccer coach. Meola is also a three-time veteran of the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) World Cup, representing the United States in the world’s flagship soccer tournament in 1990, 1994, and 2002.

Hartman played the majority of his MLS career with the Los Angeles Galaxy, winning the league’s Goalkeeper of the Year award in 1999 as a Galaxy member. Nicknamed El Gato (“The Cat”) due to his agility and quick reflexes, Hartman played three seasons with Kansas City from 2007–2009. During his stint in Kansas City, Hartman broke the all-time MLS record for career saves by a goalkeeper, which had previously been held by Meola.

In 2019, the FanSided sports media network published its selections for the ten best Sporting Kansas City players of the 2010s. In descending order from tenth to first, it named Ilie Sanchez, Kei Kamara, Seth Sinovic, Dom Dwyer, Aurelien Collin, Tim Melia, Roger Espinoza, Graham Zusi, Benny Feilhaber, and Matt Besler as its picks.

Bibliography

Dunn, Nathan. “Patrick Mahomes Joins Sporting KC Ownership Group.” SB Nation, 27 July 2021, www.thebluetestament.com/2021/7/27/22596760/patrick-mahomes-joins-sporting-kc-ownership-group-kc-chiefs. Accessed 18 Nov. 2021.

Dunn, Nathan. “Sporting KC: Top 10 Players of the Decade.” SB Nation, 29 Dec. 2019, mlsmultiplex.com/2019/12/29/sporting-kc-top-10-players-decade/. Accessed 18 Nov. 2021.

“History.” Sporting Kansas City, 2021, www.sportingkc.com/news/history-12214. Accessed 18 Nov. 2021.

“Major League Soccer Unveils The 25 Greatest Presented by AT&T.” Major League Soccer, 9 Dec. 2020, www.mlssoccer.com/news/major-league-soccer-unveils-25-greatest-presented-att. Accessed 18 Nov. 2021.

“Sporting Kansas City Club Profile.” TransferMarkt, 2021, www.transfermarkt.com/sporting-kansas-city/startseite/verein/4284. Accessed 18 Nov. 2021.

“Sporting Kansas City Logo.” Logos-World.net, 26 Apr. 2021, logos-world.net/sporting-kansas-city-logo/. Accessed 18 Nov. 2021.

“Sporting Kansas City Stats and History.” FB Reference, 2021, fbref.com/en/squads/4acb0537/history/Sporting-KC-Stats-and-History. Accessed 18 Nov. 2021.

“Sporting Kansas City Team History.” Sports Team History, 2021, sportsteamhistory.com/sporting-kansas-city. Accessed 18 Nov. 2021.