Not really Sporting related, but they want to build more soccer fields out in Lee's Summit. http://www.lsjournal.com/2014/01/17/110473/happy-valley-plans-230-million.html
Hell yeah! There aren't any fields to play on out here other than the high schools and Legacy Park and I don't think the Legacy fields are open for public use so hopefully these would be open to the public. My friend's dad is a coach for Billy Goat and he mentioned this a couple months ago, so it's nice to see it getting in the news some.
I would guess it would be like the OP complex, where you'd have to reserve the field, and if it really takes off like the OP complex did, you won't be able to get much time. I posted the article on Twitter and someone from the LS planning commission respond to me saying they haven't seen anything official on it yet, so it's still a ways off.
http://www.supersport.com/football/kenya/news/140120/Kenyan_MLS_star_speaks_out Olum gave an interview with a Kenyan site, had some interesting comments about their FA.
For those of us around since 96 (or earlier) this might be the greatest article ever: http://www.kansascity.com/2014/01/21/4767744/sorting-out-sporting-kcs-pre-preseason.html A filler article that doesn't really do anything but fill space. We've arrived. This is what happens when an editor realizes he needs to put something out there about Sporting KC. It also explains why - in the era of the homegrown player - why the SuperDraft will always exist.
From my thread in Camp Cupcake. Two articles in the Brazilian media about Benny Feilhaber and Graham Zusi from the past week. http://www.estadao.com.br/noticias/...eua-ve-time-com-chances-na-copa,1118835,0.htm http://www.estadao.com.br/noticias/...e-ve-garantido-na-copa-do-mundo,1118780,0.htm Can use Google translator to read them in decent English
Riding a Van to Soccer Practice with a World Cup Starter at the Wheel (NY Times) http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/31/s...th-a-world-cup-starter-at-the-wheel.html?_r=1 Rather than load onto buses, or drive their own luxury cars, they arrive in rented vans, almost always driven by a teammate. .... Those who do not care for country music avoid the van driven by Benny Feilhaber. “I try to stay away from the young guys,” defender Matt Besler said. .... One unwritten rule seems to be to never fill up with gas unless necessary. On the way home from practice this week, the fuel gauge light in Feilhaber’s van came on. Rather than stop, he and his teammates turned off the air-conditioning and arrived back at the hotel safely. When the gauge was still low the next morning, they stopped to fill up. “That’s why we’re the last ones here,” he said.
Now that's a commercial. Maybe I'm just surprised to see a KC player heavily featured in a Univision ad.
For those like me that have interest in SKC's Finances/Operations. Note that Sponsorships went up$2.8M this year to $7.1M/yr. (LA is tops at $14M/yr, RSL has $11M/yr) http://soccer.si.com/2014/03/14/digging-deeper-inside-the-ambition-rankings-numbers/4/ SPORTING KANSAS CITY Local TV: 23 games on local TV (12 on national — one on UniMas overlaps); added eight regional affiliates spanning nine states in the midwest. Club has seen 34 percent increase in ratings from 2012-2013; 350 percent increase since 2010; Deal is worth $460,000 in 2014. Local Radio: 34 games on Spanish radio, 20 on English radio — in addition to one-hour weekly show. Season Tickets: Capped at 14,000, which was achieved in 2013 and 2014. Waiting list of more than 3,000 people. Sponsorships: $7.1 million in 2014, up from $4.3 million in 2013. Stadium naming rights talks ongoing for team-owned $200+ million arena. Youth Development: Spent $4 million in the last five years, almost $1 million last year with plans to increase. Club has signed three Homegrown Players. Practice Facility: Built own $5+ million facility in 2007 at Swope Soccer Village and added $13.44 million to current construction. When completed, it will include nine full-size fields (three different surfaces), locker room, team offices, players’ lounge, treatment, meeting and workout rooms, media room.
Obscure, but very interesting. I found this is on a list of "15 Things we Hate About Sports Today", coming in at #14 is "Soccer is slowly forcing it's way into relevancy". To be fair, the author doesn't like soccer, but he also bags on the other major sports (MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL) in his discussion, so nothing to be truly offended about here - he's an equal opportunity humor via cut down type. The interesting part to me is twofold: 1) Even a "soccer hater" is aware of and addressing the "inevitability" (author's words) of MLS/soccer rising in the US. 2) The picture used to demonstrate soccer's US rise is a nice one of supportive SKC fans traveling away to the Colorado game this year - although I'm guessing the small background inclusion of the word "Dick's", from Dick's Sporting Park was intentional and a factor in choice of picture. Media types with agendas (i.e. all of them) always do these "trying-to be subtle with plausible deniability" jabs whenever they can. Regardless, I like the idea of SKC fans being a face of rising US soccer interest. And this last point got me to thinking - when is the last time a group of 1,000 passionate Royals (or even Chiefs) fans traveled as a group like this to a road game? The fact that SKC fans recently did it shows the increasing relevancy of soccer in a Kansas City sports landscape that includes MLB and NFL. Soccer Capital of America, indeed http://www.complex.com/sports/2014/04/things-we-hate-about-sports-today/soccer-gaining-traction
I never really figured out why soccer bothered so many people. It's just a game, complete with its own share of idiot players and fans. But that's neither here nor there.
I think number 11 about NHL shootouts was kind of interesting. "That's pretty much how gimmicks work. While shootouts can interest casual fans *looks in mirror* you soon realize that you're deciding the game on the equivalent of a field goal kicking competition, home run derby or a free-throw shooting contest." Ironic coming from a soccer non-fan that no doubt can't stand the idea of ending a game in a tie.
That is certainly the narrative that has had decades long inertia and momentum. But I think this can (and has been) changing due to my theory that we sell MLS - and thus the primary face of US soccer - as the American improved version of the "World's Game". Make Soccer "American". (which is why I think the phrase "World's Game" should die a marketing death here in the USA) The successful narrative is NOT that America is/should be 100% conforming to the "superior" (the Eurosnobs term for it, not mine) Euro/World - the winning narrative in America is making soccer "ours", contrasting it to the Euros, and showing areas where the world should imitate "us". This country started as the product of English colonies. We took it over and (in our minds) made it better. This approach/philosophy will resonate if applied to soccer (which also started in England, and whom have also never defeated the US in World Cup play) We take the best parts of the game, and add things to make it better. And to some extent I think this is MLS' strategy as well. Sure, MLS failed hilariously and miserably at parts of this in the early years. No Ties/Shootouts for every game, extra time showed on stadium clock, etc. But they did a lot of things the right way to "put the American mark on it", and the outlines of a new American narrative are starting to take positive effect: MLS has a salary cap (just like the NFL, the most popular, prosperous sports league in the world). This makes the games more competitive and thus more American. Every team has Equal Opportunity in America, not some aristocratic permanent hierarchy where only the rich win - like the "superior" leagues of BPL (bows to Manchesters/Chelsea), La Liga (kiss ring of Barca, Madrid), Bundesliga (kneel to Bayern Munich), Italy, France, Russia, Turkey, etc. etc. Related to above, Americans aren't afraid of equal competition, and it's settled on the field, not in the owner's pocketbook (DP's being the crack in the armor that I hope never expands.) MLS is thus American in contrast to the Euro leagues. And in America, you can go from worst-to-first/rags-to-riches in a single year if you are smart and work hard. That's an appealing all-American message. We have our own mind - we play in the summer, regardless of what that Euro chief tells us to do with our schedule. Our best players are coming home to play because the (perceived, real?) European bias against US players is stupid. We aren't going to sit around and take that. We'll have our own, growing, better league. We believe that Europe doesn't automatically own all our young domestic prospects (Hello Eric Palmer Brown and SKC's refusal to sell, Hello Yedlin, Gil, etc.) so they can chew them up and spit them out like commodities (also, see bias bullet above) We call it Major League SOCCER. Because that is the American name for the game. While we are at it, let's continue to expand the lingo to include more American phrases. (Expand, NOT replace, some phrases like "equalizer" are especially awesome). We also won Four to NOTHING vs Montreal. Because I liked yelling at Montreal, "you got NOTHING!" We can play on a "field" ("pitch" is what the guy on the baseball mound does), we are also "first in the league", ("top of the table" is what I put my food plate on). Now since America is the land of the 1st amendment - people that want to use the Euro terms in a nod to tradition/habit are fine, but Euro lingo should not be the "only" acceptable phrases. Variety and diversity are also American traits.... Our supporters don't fight/kill each other, and our stadiums don't resemble prison fences/cage matches - We Americans can teach the rest of the world how to conduct ourselves as sports fans in public while still being just as passionate for our teams. Americans never quit and play the game with integrity, regardless of consequences (See USMNT-Panama last year) Note that none of these changes are about the actual on-field game (which should not be changed, and is why shootout tiebreakers deservedly were buried with the NASL 35yd offside line), but these are changes to Americanize the "context" in which the game is played: the league, the lingo, the philosophy behind the game. Keep this up, and Soccer will do fine here, led by a thoroughly American pro league. And if some Eurosnob heads spontaneously explode along the way, not only would that be free extra entertainment, it would actually help the cause