At a wet and chilly unveiling ceremony at Kansas City Live last night, the Kansas City Wizards officially became Sporting Kansas City.
After Sporting CEO Robb Heineman gave an unusually emotional speech about his team, fans, Missouri and some other stuff, the fans were surprising upbeat. When a wall of soccer balls fell away to reveal the team's new crest, everybody for the most part cheered, before breaking out in a Wizards song. But those were the hardcore folks, the ones that would probably buy season tickets if the team's new logo was an orange cartoon platypus in cleats. Now that all the fans and media outlets have absorbed the news, and the goodwill appears to have evaporated.
The Kansas City Star's editorial board rips the franchise for turning
its back on the name it won an MLS championship under and replacing it with a
"concept name." The Star asks if fans will call Sporting "The tings." Like
many supporters, they also predict that fans will keep calling them the
Wizards, to the owners' chagrin.
The best (or dorkiest) chiding comes from Star soccer writer Charles
Gooch, who calls Sporting Kansas City "the first gerund-based sports
franchise in America." Hehe, grammar! Gooch, who has had a calm, almost
fatalistic view throughout the name-changing process, also calls for
everybody to chill out a little bit, writing, "... rebranding is
probably best judged in hindsight, not foresight..." Fans though, more or less, have been telling Gooch where he can stick his voice of reason.
The team's Facebook page
has become a straight up cat fight, with haters pounding their
keyboards with rage or simply looking for an explanation for the name,
and supporters coming back with "Aw, shucks, it's not that bad"
optimism. And, as is Facebook's nature, it's devolving into personal
attacks.
One particularly ticked off fan seethed, "I am a fan and took in several
games over the last couple years. But I am considering not going to
games. ... I feel like they didn't care what the fans thought when they
came up with this logo. If I attend a game I will not be focused on the
soccer...I will sit there and be thinking...I HATE THIS NAME....ITS
DUMB..."
Another disgruntled fan posted this screengrab from the MLS website.
Sporting KC must have forgotten to e-mail them the new graphic.
logo has now been uploaded to the site.
The new
On our own Facebook page, one reader dusted off the thesaurus and took
it upon himself to say what most of us are thinking in a very eloquent
way:
"Despicable, Stupid, Uncalled for, Not cool, dumb, foolish, bad
management call, should have asked the public's opinion FIRST, A cry for
attention, Not thought through, smack in the face, goddy, Brainless,
Dense, idiotic, laughable, senseless, unintelligent! It just makes SENSE
that if they are in Kansas Now, at the Legends, they KEEP the Wizards
name in honor of the Movie that helps remind the rest of the country
that Kansas exists! The *WIZARD* of OZ."
KMBC has put fans' distaste into hard numbers with a very scientific poll asking
readers if they like the new moniker or not. Eighty-nine percent clicked
'no.' I have a hard time believing the anger is that high though. Maybe
it's just a few haters with itchy fingers.
Of course Deadspin
couldn't resist, calling it "impossibly awful," and says it "just
sounds like they're trying too hard."
And plenty of fans have taken to Twitter vent. One of the
funniest: "My soul has been
crushed and all I got was this lousy soccer ball..." Another: "Sporting KC is the dumbest team name ever. I'd like to meet the marketing dork
responsible and introduce synergy between boot and ass."
One good thing can be said about the new name: The team chose the perfect timing for the announcement. Fans have more than four months to warm up to Sporting Kansas City before the season starts. Let's all just take a deep breath now, OK?
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Was considering season tickets even though to get their first pro sports team KS had to steal Lamar's dream. But this name is even dumber than all those ignorant Kansans put together. It is a spit in the face of the Wizards, the league, and all us fans who made them our passion.
The name's a little odd, but I think we're gonna live through it.
If half of the nay-saying passion was directed toward something productive, I wonder what you folks could accomplish. Amid all the complaining, I've heard virtually no OTHER ideas from the peanut gallery other than "KC United"...yes that would look good next to "DC United".
Trying new things isn't always easy. You've got to get past your initial "that's yucky" reaction or you'll never enjoy a good scotch, olives, coffee or maybe even sushi. You never try to acquire new tastes and you'll eat peanut butter sandwiches with the crusts cut off your whole life.
We've got the Oakland "Athletics", yeah it's plural. Also, it's named for the Philadelphia Athletic Club. The New England area has no problem cheering for a baseball team name that usually gets lost in the dryer. I live in Los Angeles (an acquired taste in itself) where our basketball team is named for a geographical feature in Minnesota.
Even the Tigers and Jayhawks, now historical Civil War references, were at one time "just silly nicknames". Add a layer of time and obscurity and it becomes "historical".
The detractors are all decent people having a natural reaction. It's sooooo easy to be dismissive at first glance and then hang onto that opinion. If they would try, just TRY to like it. Or focus on the fact that our owner is building an awesome stadium and some really sharp looking jerseys and think, maybe in the long run the guys who put millions of dollars into keeping the team in Kansas City and truly upgrading every aspect of the team and gameday experience KINDA know what they're doing and have the city's best interests at heart.
A rose by any other name folks.
Dear MLS team execs,
Re-branding is a fine idea when your original brand never got off the ground or no longer relates to the intended market. However, when the junior exec next to you decides that it is a good idea to mimic a European or South American team name because it "sounds" like soccer, or to "update the logo" with over designed shadowy effects filled with soccer balls and stars, please dick punch that jerk and tell them to eadiaf.
Thanks,
todd.
Look, the orginal name was not the best choice. Fact, is they need to expand the market and something had to be done to get more then 10-14 thousand people to a match. Your city is lucky to have a team, a beautiful new stadium and an local ownership that is trying to make something better. You can still call them the wizzards as a nickname but the jerseys wont have the terrible logo on it anymore. Who cares, do you same chants, songs at the match, people can hold onto that memory and the ownership can respect that if you really want to remember this mascot name. Your stadium looks awesome and people should check that out once before writing them off.
Gayer than a bunch of overweight men tackling each other in tights and smacking each others butts after the match? Or gayer then chubby men running around a VERY small dirt diamond in their pajama pants? Grow up. If you don't like soccer, don't comment. And if you absolutely have to, be more original please.
While I admit, it doesn't flow like the typical name for an American sports franchise, it is in line with successful soccer clubs in Europe (like Sporting Libson in Portugal). I would be less worried about the name and more worried about the on the field product.
1) KC's soccer team become the Wizards just before DC's basketball team.
2) The Star has a soccer writer?
^^^stupid comment
I don't hate the Chiefs just because most of the people that show up at Arrowhead are drunk white trash from Raytown. It was nicknamed Camarohead for a reason.
Whats stupid was the wizards name. Of all the teams I couldn't stand was the wizards. Who the hell thought of that? There is already a basket ball team with that name and you do not want your sport associated with a more dominate sprot in this country while tring to build soccer here. The MLS is good and getting better so quite your blubbering.
Now I remember why I hate soccer. Its not the game itself, its the douchebags associated with it. I can just imagine a bunch of them sitting around wearing scarves indoors talking with fake British accents, "I say good chap, what do you think about the name the Sportings." "Oh I love it fine sir, I absolutely do. May I have some more porridge please?" Stupid.
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