The Kansas City Wizards announced today (to fans that somehow missed a week's worth of online reports) that the club is changing its name to Sporting Kansas City. Team officials assure us that this is, in fact, a name.
The moniker doesn't come with a mascot or a nickname, but "Sporting" team names have a long history in Europe and South America. Just don't accuse the team trying to sound foreign the way other Major League Soccer franchises have. Even if they are.
"I think some people might think that maybe we're just taking a
different name to try to sound European, but that's really not the
case," Dave Borchardt of the team's communications department says.
What the name change marks, Borchardt says, is the ownership group
(which will change its name from OnGoal to Sporting Club to be equally
vague) trying to create a promotable brand and possibly add more sports teams to its holdings.
"Our
ownership group, they feel like this brand has more potential to be a
regional draw and a national draw and even an international draw to some
extent. And I think they feel like it has a better chance to be a
strong brand like that more than the Wizards," Borchardt says.
With a lengthy
name and no mascot or nickname, though, Sporting Kansas City is too brand-y. And who wants to cheer for a
brand? It sounds like a corporate entity. Screaming "Go Sporting Kansas
City!" isn't nearly as satisfying as screaming "Go
Chiefs!" or "Go Royals!" Try it right now.
Even referring to Sporting Kansas City is
going to be tricky. The team sheepishly admits it's unsure what fans
will call it. "Manchester City, [fans] just call them City. Maybe they
just call us Kansas City or Sporting. People will make it their own, and
we'll see what nicknames will come," Borchardt says.
Until
fans come to some kind of consensus, rooting for SKC (I'm making a stand
and refusing to write the whole thing anymore) is going to be clumsy. Some kind of tangible symbol feels necessary for such a major
transition. Maybe fans will be inspired by Sporting Clube de Portugal, a Lisbon soccer
club, which has a lion on its crest, or fellow Portuguese
team Sporting Braga, which goes by the Archbishops. Even cheering for Catholic bigwigs is better than cheering for an empty logo.
Speaking
of the new logo, it's icy and sharp and looks like it would be perfect
on Robocop's car door, or a stick of Gillette deodorant. And, as
many supporters have pointed out online, it's awfully similar to logo for
MLS' Eastern Conference
which also has stripes on the left side and two shades of blue. In
fact, the similarity is so close, some discussion boards deemed a leaked
image of the SKC logo so close to the eastern division one, they
thought it was joke.
But it isn't a hoax, and despite plenty of
online pissing and moaning, the team thinks fans will stick with them into the SKC
era.
"I hope people don't take it as a personal thing. It's just
more of a business decision. I've heard Robb [Heineman, the team
president] say this is a second chance to make a first impression,"
Borchardt says.
But a lot of people, especially the now-homeless pack of blue-clad,
neck-vein-popping fanatics sitting in The Cauldron, thought the
first impression went just fine.
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@ Bill
apparently you care enough to read a article about a soccer club. get some culture, stop being ignorant and stop giving americans a bad name
you guys have to remember the coperate team known as new jeresey red bulls (they play in new jersey so im being politically correct) when Red Bull bought Metrostars from AEG, fans were equally outraged. id imagine too a blogger saying "try cheering for a brand, 'lets go red bulls'" its the same as saying "lets go coca colas" and yet today you have people accepting the coporate brand and people do actually cheer "lets go red bulls".
me? i support the name change. im not from KC nor am i a fan of KC but you have to understand soccer culture is not the same as american throwball or stickball culture where people welcome kiddy nicknames like "wizards" or "cheifs" that sounds cute. you guys need to be grateful that what they are doing revolves around the community. their focus is on the community. Sporting name come from clubs that are multi sport and thats what they are aiming to do. they have plans to incoporate more sports under the club name like rugby and lacrrosse (did i spell that right?) anyways im a full american but i dont understand the notion of putting "the" in front of a plural noun to call my team. i dont understand the notion of nicknames. yea Sporting KC is alittle lengthy just call it SKC if ur so scared of burning calories with lip movement. ha. anyways if there is any consolation to all you KC fans is that the nickname will probably be wizards still. Toronto has a "empty" crest as well yet fans managed to squeeze "the reds" as a nickname for them. be happy that Sporting Club is actually looking out for the local fan base (they are infact the only local based owned club in MLS) come 2011 there will be 17 franchises and only one club. that club is you guys. atleast you dont have to cheer for a energy drink.
So do you think they'll lobby to change the Chiefs name to "Losing Kansas City" next?
Neal Patterson's rejected names:
Cerner's Corporate Challenge Team
Pissing Kansas City
Football Union Kansas City (FUKC)
The aptly-described "Europeanization" of their name feels like it was done under pressure and duress, much like other MLS teams' decisions to change their names to mimic other globally-familiar terms, and I think it's the next step in an ill-conceived and poorly-executed effort to appeal to international audiences while alienating the homegrown fans that are the ones who brought up the clubs with their money, support and attendance all these years.
I get the connection between the name and European clubs, but WE'RE NOT EUROPEAN. Having teams with names like the Wizards gave American soccer its own identity, and I don't understand this insistence by MLS owners and executives that we must somehow emulate and copy other teams to fit in. It's about as far as a genuine love for the sport as you can get. "Chivas USA?" C'mon... "Real Salt Lake?" Get real... "Sporting KC?" I don't think so. I really hope this backfires on them to where they're embarrassed enough to change it back to the brand that the fans love and the name that helped them get where they are today.
Also, I read their "reasons" behind the rebranding on their website, and it was nothing more than bland, corporate marketing drivel. I can't believe they probably paid some copy-writing advertising lackey to write that. Here's a sample:
"Our goal is to revolutionize the way a professional sports team connects through premier experiences and spaces. We believe a change in identity for the club was necessary to effectively live and breathe this vision. The name 'Sporting' represents our desire to become a dynamic organization focused on creating opportunities for social, cultural and athletic connections. These opportunities with increase as the organization grows through the addition of vertically-aligned sports and entertainment properties."
Seriously?! That reads like a load of meaningless corporate jargon and they know it. The truth is more likely that they got pressure from the suits at OnGoal and the heads of MLS to change the name so FIFA would be more inclined to pump much-desired revenue into the league through the current World Cup bids and other means.
I'll still be happy to attend games and support our team, but I will do so wearing WIZARDS gear, cheering for WIZARDS players and encouraging the other fans in the stands to sing WIZARDS songs and chant WIZARDS chants!
STILL the Wizards, ALWAYS the Wizards! Wizards 'til I die!
Lesson #3. Paying attention, Ex-Wizards?
Exowell Dutch. Just as European without the unnecessary theft issues. And a lot cheaper than paying that crap marketing company you hired.
Kids, feel free to play also. I've made my point.
Choice #2 for a better name from Capcha:
From Tonsuer.
Better than From Lisbon. And Tonsuer sounds so very European. Except that it's not.
This is so frightfully stupid it beggars belief. How the owners made actual money in their main business is now a real mystery. I can't bother to root for what's blatant theft of the name ... if you're going to use a wankoff name, at least make up your own wankoff name rather than steal from Lisbon.
I could have come up with a better name in less than ten of the Capchas below. Let's see, what's Capcha is just below?
The KC Principles Beranit. Makes just as much sense and it's more original.
howie, your a retard you have no clue as to what you speak. it looks NOTHING like anything you listed
Whenever I feel it necessary to refer to this ridiculous franchise from now on, I will simply refer to them as the "Spurts".
You just have to laugh at these owners who have more money than sense.
They've just erased what (little) history we do have by changing over to some vague lifeless entity.
Only American teams rip off European and World football clubs to give themselves a false sense of history.
This is exactly why American soccer is a joke and will continue to be. LOL, the football is terrible and now so is everything else associated with it!
Such a shame.
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