Once upon a time the Kansas City Whiz became the Kansas City Wizards. And now following news of a new stadium opening next season, the club has also decided to change their uniforms, add a new logo, and a new name. The Kansas City Wizards have officially transformed into Sporting Kansas City.
Yes, you heard that right. Sporting Kansas City…
What exactly is sporting about Kansas City? After all isn’t this the same city that the Royals and Chiefs hail from? Not too much sporting about those two franchises in the last twenty years!
Look I have no problem with franchises changing their name (like the Tampa Bay Rays from the Devil Rays), but I think the change has to make sense. For the Rays it did. Ugly squid looking thing evlolved into rays of sunlight. Well at least it is sunny in Florida. But evolving a franchise from the Kansas City Wiards to Sporting Kansas City makes about as much sense as naming a franchise Real Salt Lake or FC Dallas.
Oh wait, those are other teams in the MLS. And what is so real about Salt Lake anyways?
Now Sporting Kansas City claims that they have wanted to change their name since OnGoal bought the team in 2005. They have supposidely considered the change to Sporting for some time, but OnGoal is, ironically, a Kansas City based company that is in no way foreign. Now if Telemundo takes over your team then please go by Real or Sporting, but a Kansas City based company taking it over and desiring such a change doesn’t make much sense.
At the end of the day I guess that Bill Shakespeare guy had a point about names when he said, “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose. By any other name would smell as sweet.” But I personally still find the names to be a bit pretentious sounding and silly considering the destinations that have these titles. I think if the MLS wants to continue to draw in more fans then they should give the clubs normal names that do not sound like exotic La Liga teams. Because there isn’t much Real about Salt Lake and there is nothing Sporting going on in Kansas City these days.
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