With SKC performing the way they have in the last couple of seasons, it seems that the excitement around watching SKC has really diminished. Understand that I don’t live in the area anymore, but from what I am seeing on TV with the attendance and reading in the various social media outlets, it doesn’t look good. I was a season ticket holder for 19 years. I looked forward to going to games at Arrowhead and suffered through the seasons at the T-Bones/Monarchs baseball field. I was at every game where SKC won a trophy and traveled to multiple games around the country to watch them play. Suffice to say, I rarely ever missed a game. Where I used to look forward to games, I now watch with no expectation that it will be an enjoyable experience. The team is a schizophrenic mess of excellent moments of the beautiful game, mixed with several periods of WTF!, and prolonged periods of passing that accomplishes nothing but running the clock. What changed? The team had heart and a heartbeat when Rob Heineman ran the club. They also had a mandate; to be a winner and win trophies. Heineman was a leader and had a clear vision for the organization that manifested itself in a team that many times played better than the sum of its parts. While PV was the coach, Heineman made the decisions that pushed PV to be better than he was. In my opinion, the organization lost that leadership and drive when Rob stepped away. The league is moving on but SKC seems to be left standing still and looking backward instead of forward. They need a strong leader in this organization and that leader can’t be PV. It has to start at the top and Jake Reid just doesn’t seem to be making it work. So now they are going to have a throwback night to celebrate the 2013 Championship. That’s OK I guess, but if they want to lift that trophy again, they need to start looking forward. Everything I see and read right now doesn’t indicate they will. I’ll still watch them play because I’m a fan. I watched the franchise rise out of a mediocre Wizards organization playing a low level of soccer in a football stadium to a rebranded MLS championship side in a great soccer specific stadium. All of the cutting edge things they did to make the team what it was has been matched and exceeded over and over again by other teams. They need a person(s) to lead SKC through the next big changes in MLS. Is Jake Reid the guy to do it? The trajectory of the club under his leadership says otherwise. So the apathy and frustration is growing. They need some real leadership before SKC ends up every season with the fans hoping the team will, at least, just make the playoffs. The apathy is real, but I hope it’s only temporary.
I also don't live in market anymore but may be moving back closer at least. I find myself at times almost rooting against the team because we continue to seemingly be just good enough to not warrant drastic change in the eyes of ownership and that makes me even more frustrated/angry. At the beginning of last season I almost got ran off of reddit for suggesting it was time to start voting with our dollars but now many more people have come to that realization. The only way ownership will act is if it starts impacting their bottom line. The Messi effect and world cup effect will hopefully boost soccer in this country but if the ownership don't put a better product on the field and in the game experience they won't be able to effectively capitalize on it.
There was a tweet today ( i didn't pay attention to who by at the time, and now can't refind it) that offered a view of the future for 2024, Messi and Co in Miami, Griezmann with NYCFC and Neymar in LA (probably Gals I'd think, that's their profile). Now, asdie from Messi and Co, that is fantasy, but it's quite a bit more possible in the post-Messi arrival MLS. I mean, Garber talking about "take a shot at bringing in Mbappe" is a sign of that, MLS is changed, and it's going to be harder and harder to play without a rocks solid plan and execution. To be fair to SKC ownership/management, they did make a serious, big money, play for CRon. BUT that didn't seem to be part of a plan or philosophy of SKC in the modern era. It was more of a "Hey, whattabout Ronaldo!" We had an identity, a top tier defensive side that would create opportunities and hope to have enough quality to put a couple away. Nashville shows us that can still work. But we're not even hoping for that these days. IMO, this is a mistake. We once talked with excitment about our pro-player pathway, but that route has now been dismissed because, as Vermes noted, the midwest is full of fat kids and farmers who play American football. IMO, this is a mistake. What Vermes seems to have settled on is Barcelona, but with second and third tier price talent (for MLS). That seems a bit silly when the club now doing that is Miami, with the original cast. The Pep way is not a cheap way, or even a middle spend way. It's a top dollar way, across the team. IMO, this strategy is a mistake. In fact, I think it explains perfectly BenDover's observation that "The team is a schizophrenic mess of excellent moments of the beautiful game, mixed with several periods of WTF!" that is what you get when you do a budget Barca. We had a decade of success because we knew exactly who we were, and who we were was a winning formula in the old version(s) of MLS. All of this said, because i'm a hopeless believer, I can't help thinking that if we re-sign Pulido, and Kinda, and go out and get a keeper and left center back who can move and pass, we;re back to top 3-4 in the west
I have gone to at least one game most every year since 95. After our finish last year, I was again excited and ordered a ticket package. Unfortunately, my package included two games where I was out of town! Their results this year have been disappointing. With the return to better health of Pulido, Kinda, and Agada I am a little more excited. My objective is to get to at least one game this year, but I haven't picked one out.
100% agree with BenDover's post. I moved to KC from college in 1997. Went to a lot of games while at Arrowhead and became a default season ticket holder when the team moved to CAB. I say default because you could always get tickets so I just purchased on game day. I stood in the CAB Cauldron with my son who was 4 or 5. He got to walk out with the team holding Arnaud's hand. We loved going to games and became official season ticket holders when the new stadium opened. We were season ticket holders for six or seven years. We loved the club, the atmosphere and all the players (who all signed autographs for my kids and interacted with fans regularly). Eventually my kids (I have two kids playing college soccer now) club soccer schedules forced us to stop being season ticket holders and I was also starting to get annoyed at all the Vermes mafia bull$hit that anyone who has had a kid in the SKC academy knows all too well. I used to be the guy that put the SKC flag out on game day, that drove to games with a Wizard flag on the car window. I remember leaving CMP devastated when the club lost to Houston in the playoffs, and elated the following year when they beat them. I wish I could say I still gave a $hit about the team, but I don't. Last year I attended a game or two, this year zero. I won't go to another game until Peter is out. Unfortunately, he's never going to be fired or demoted, so I have to wait until he retires. Peter is an anchor. A person whose need for 100 percent of control of all things holds the club back. There are things I have heard first hand from former players that coached my son and second hand from current players, would absolutely blow your mind regarding how things are done behind closed doors. The club is a dictatorship. A disagreement or confrontation with the dictator leads to players being ostracized or being traded. This is one reason you see certain talentless players playing , while other players rot on the bench. The Messi signing, the Apple agreement, Leagues Cup buzz, the Neymar and Mbappe rumors....MLS 4.0 is here. SKC peaked in MLS 2.0. The club will be left behind unless there are major organizational changes. Problem is, ownership doesn't care and I 100% agree that this started when Robb left. He made them care. Unless the ship is righted, SKC is going to become a provincial squad. Think Brighton or Lecce.
I also agree 100%. I'll spare my history as a fan but it started back in the Cauldron at Arrowhead. The point about Robb is spot on. I still have my season ticket but for the last two years I've sold almost every game. The team gives me no hope and the game day experience is a time/money commitment that I'm not willing to make for the product on the field and in the stadium. I was going to drop my season ticket next year but admittedly am holding on one more year because we host Miami next year. Sure, there is a very real element of I'm just getting older but still. I'll also throw out that , for me, the Cauldron has gotten tired. To me there's no real excitement to being in the Cauldron anymore. Half the crowd doesn't participate and the songs and chants have just grown old. I mean the "Shots, shots, shots" on corner kicks is just goofy at this point. This Cauldron stuff is an irrelevant tangent but is none the less a factor in my gameday absence and apathy.
I used to be unable to watch SKC games on TV because I'd get too nervous. Was a miserable experience (but being in person and drinking was much easier). Well, I canceled my season tickets a few years ago in part as a financial decision but also because I wanted to play D&D more. And now? I watch all their games on TV with such low expectations that I barely get nervous at all. We've had three playoff wins total since our MLS Cup in 2013. The Open Cup has been a really pleasant target but we're getting outclassed by lower-division sides, let alone against serious MLS ones later in the tournament. The team feels without vision and just signing players to fill gaps. Our academy is either struggling badly or the quality players aren't getting the minutes/contracts they deserve. I don't know the fix. Is it Vermes? Deeper in the org than him? Are the fans just getting over the bright shiny new thing? Are fans getting annoyed at only ever playing against the shiny new thing and not being it ourselves? Hard to assess. Definitely feels like Sporting is complacent, the Cauldron is complacent (not that they have any mandate to entertain us or anything), and Vermes is complacent. Everyone is pretty cool with the status quo, which would be just fine if the status were... quo.
i was there for the first game, and i'll be a fan of the team 'til i die. it has my loyalty; i'll never support another mls side. it does not, however, have my wallet. they may call ticket holders 'members,' but it sure as hell is not a club for you and me. it wasn't when robb was running it, even though he wanted it to sound like it, and it sure as hell isn't now when reid is ransacking it. i stopped being a season ticket holder back when they made it mandatory to sign on to that "blue for life" garbage. that's when it switched from opting in to things to having to opt out or you'll be automatically charged. it's a small thing, but it's a sea change in philosophy. i could see where ownership and management was taking this team (constant price hikes, abuse of taxes/fees, reduction of useful benefits, etc.), and i decided that i no longer would contribute monetarily to it. it's the only voice i have. it's the only voice all of us have as consumers. please resign, peter vermes. every game you manage, you further erode your legacy here. please resign, jake reid. you have been a blight on this club since the day you took over. the short-term monetary gains you've earned ownership is destroying the long-term prospects of the team.
It makes sense that we few on here are life of the club fans. I haven't lived in KC for a 12 years, and didn't live in KC much between 2001 and 2008. But I was there in the very beginning (and bit before, even).
There was a point, right after the team moved into the new stadium, where I lived and breathed the club. Sounds like you when you watched on TV. Your "I don't know" paragraph is pretty spot on. I think a lot of those things are contributing to fan apathy. There was always going to be a drop in fan engagement, post new stadium, but the club managed to keep folks excited because they were good. Now, the shiny new toy is no longer new or shiny and the team stinks. Another contributor are the Chiefs. The Chiefs sucked when SKC moved into the new stadium and people flocked to see "the new" futbol experience. Now the Chiefs are great, with one of the hottest commodities in the NFL. SKC hasn't been good for years and frankly provide a sterile/stale game day experience. People are naturally returning to football, and forgetting futbol. The fix is long term, trying to get fans to be as excited about SKC as they were when it was new. The easy first step is to try to fix the product on the field. Get rid of Peter and his gaggle of yes men. Bring in a decent manager and a sporting director with a track record of making good personnel decisions. Bring in an academy director that is NOT promoted from Sporting Blue Valley (the local pay to play club that Peter runs). Get the team performing again. People will return, excitement will return etc. Until that happens, we all know every match day is groundhog day at CMP so, on some level, what's the point of caring?
Agree with all the points above. I have been a season ticket holder from day one, and will always support the Club, but there is an apathy setting in. I am much more excited about going to the Current games than Sporting. My adult sons have not been to a single game this year and I go with a friend, sometimes bring my young grandchildren (who are excited to go but are between 10-5 years of age), or try to sell the extra tickets (hit and miss whether they sell, even at below face value). Vermes has to go but I have no confidence it will happen until the Club sinks even lower. It’s depressing.
SKC has nine more games in the regular season. None of the teams they play are below them in the Western Conference table. Is there much hope they can pop up over the playoff line by the end of the season? They may be able to win the 2 games vs the Loons but will probably split. I doubt they will win either game against St. Louis or could possibly draw one. As with the last game against the Dynamo its probably 50/50 with Houston. San Jose, Nashville, Salt Lake and Miami are probably losses. Like SKC, Portland also sit at 26 points but have 11 games to go and more chances to jump ahead of SKC with some very winnable games. SKC will or should have a fully healthy team to field for the rest of the season, so that may give them more of a chance to survive. However, even a fully healthy SKC back line is prone to make a lot of ugly mistakes so I give SKC about a 10% chance of making it into post season play.
Look I get this is the apathy thread so being down is the right take to have here, and I don't think SKC is making the playoffs either, but come on. So you're saying KC gets 1 win in their final nine? As a quick example for this, San Jose and Houston have a COMBINED 2 road wins this year, both KC's games against them are at home. Again I'm not saying they'll come close to making the playoffs, but there's a difference between generally being down on the team and being over the top unrealistically down on them.
Here's the problem of being an SKC fan going into this stretch: We've seen SKC play well enough that they could, playing at their best, win out and be very dangerous in the playoffs. With both Pulido and Agada healthy for the stretch run, we could be very, very dangerous. BUT we have also seen this side way too often play like a pub team after a rough night.They could, if they revert to that sort of form, lose out. Buzz is right, it's probably somewhere in the middle. But looking at the run-in, I am fearful more than excited.
The thing that frustrates me the most is that SKC is capable of taking the field on no particular night and just whipping a better team. They have done it a couple of times this year and it is fun to see. Normally though, the defense has shown to be worse than the sum of their parts. I blame that on PVs insistence on using a system that doesn't let the back line make the best use of their talents and one that mitigates their shortcomings. Even if the SKC attack gets rolling and puts some balls in the net, there are too many times they can't hold a lead. I'm not saying they will only win one game. I'm only pointing out that the road to the playoffs is going to be very difficult. If SKC goes 4-3-2, which is probably the best outcome that I could see, they would still fall short of the playoff line. That is unless all of Minnesota, Vancouver, Austin, Dallas, and Houston melt down in the stretch run. The best outcome I can hope for with SKC if they don't make the playoffs is if they beat STL twice.
Since I was less about apathy in my last post, to be on topic, it sure would be nice if we had younger players that were linked with big money moves abroad (instead of a potential panic buy, driven mainly by agent talk like Pulido)... Not necessarily that KC would sell, but the idea of having a young exciting player that teams are looking at. Sources: European interest in Giorgos Giakoumakis is heating up and, while Atlanta United hasn’t received an official offer yet, that may change in the coming days.Atlanta has no interest in a Giakoumakis sale. Player is happy in debut season in ATL.https://t.co/yvkhl95AKr— Tom Bogert (@tombogert) August 21, 2023 EXCL: Djordje Petrović to Chelsea, here we go! Verbal agreement in place with New England Revolution on €16m deal 🚨🔵🇷🇸 #CFCMedical tests booked on Wednesday for the Serbian goalkeeper who’s gonna compete with Robert Sanchez. pic.twitter.com/5h6lOyPRP7— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) August 21, 2023
I mean in PV's mind given how his ideal 11 would probably look he'd be like the 2nd youngest player in the starting 11, that's young.
True dat, however I'd think it makes a very, very good case for giving it a go in MLS. He'd had a good career, but bouncing around in teams in second or third tier leagues, Greece, Crete, Czech Republic, and finally Celtic, so Scotland. If his value is high enough to sell and he head back to a big 5 league, there's a lesson for a lot of players that MLS is a path worth taking
Another reason I’m apathetic is that team after team dump poor performing coaches, but PV and company just keep surviving. It’s just getting old. https://x.com/mls_buzz/status/1693787578401436039?s=61
I did posts on playoff math a long time ago. Need 43 pts to get 9th place last year. SKC have 26 pts with 9 games to go. 17 pts in 9 games means averaging almost 2 pts. No way that is happening. 2023 recap. Didn't participate in CCL. Open Cup - beat a semi pro team and then lost in round of 32 Leagues Cup - didn’t advance out of a group where 2 out of 3 advanced League play - 1 road win. Yes just 1. Playoffs - 9 out of 14 teams get in. SKC almost certainly won't. After not having made the playoffs last year. Young players - Davis emerged. Pierre disappeared. Nothing else really. U22 signings. Tzionis benched. Voldamort...is he even on the team? Ndenbe is OK but nothing more. New players - some OK signings but nothing amazing. Most out indefinitely with hamstring injuries. Returning players - JFR aged a decade. Salloi remains unreliable. Pulido is not worth the money Zusi and Espinoza should retire. Coaching - playing Macintosh over Pulskamp probably cost the team the playoffs. Remains as incompetent as ever. MLS - 1st year STL is kicking our ass. Miami brought in Barcelona A not B. The Revs are making 10s of millions off selling players they bought for pocket change. Most importantly, shit coaches got fired because their results suck. All except Peter. He who shall never be replaced. Apathy is more than justified. The front office needs to do something before that turns into ambivalence or disdain.