This weekend is the last time you’ll see the Kansas City Wizards play in CommunityAmerica Ballpark. It’s also likely the it’s the last time you’ll see the “Kansas City Wizards” take the field. That’s because I think there’s a really strong change (I’d go so far as to call it a “very likely probability”) that OnGoal will re-brand the franchise this off-season as they prepare to call the new stadium at The Legends in Kansas City, Kansas home.
That means a new name. It’s already causing consternation. Skepticism has run rampant, especially amongst some of the passionate fans at Big Soccer. This is to be expected -- especially if the team opts to re-name the franchise something that they consider a “Euro-poseur” name like Sporting Kansas City (a name mentioned once by OnGoal president Robb Heineman). A lot of the arguments are very well reasoned -- most feel that, on some level, changing the team’s name is flushing a bit of history down the toilet. I don’t think changing the team’s name is a particularly awesome development -- but I’m not against it. I’m actually for it.* Mostly because I think that I understand (and agree) with the thought process. Oh, the timing is also once-in-a-franchise’s-lifetime right. *Though, I'm not exactly pleased with Sporting KC. I understand the process of giving the team a "soccer" name, but that's not the one I like. I prefer the option that Pete Grathoff and I though of: Kansas City '96 or 1996 Kansas City.“You always say, if you don't like what they're saying about you, change the conversation.” -- Peggy Olsen, “Mad Men.”(Mild Spoilers ahead.) If you know “Mad Men”, you know that its lead character, Don Draper, and the agency he works for where in the midst of an identity crisis this season after a very important client withdrew their business and left the agency struggling to attract new clients while also keeping the clients it had left. Don Draper made a very controversial and a very public decision. I won’t spoil it for anyone, but he took Peggy Olsen’s advice. (Which was actually his own advice, he just needed her to tell him.)Now, OnGoal isn’t in a position of business life and death like Draper was in “Mad Men.” But they do have a similar problem: The need to attract new clients if they want their business to survive and thrive. For 15 years, a bit of an inferiority complex has shrouded the Kansas City Wizards, brought on by four factors: a) they’re a soccer team,b) they are part of a second-tier soccer league that is viewed as slightly above minor-league baseball by the mass media,
c) they exist in the same region as the Kansas City Chiefs and
d) they’ve had to be the second banana in a non-soccer stadium for their entire existence. There is nothing they can individually do about any of the first three issues -- which are part of the fabric of brand recognition. But they can fix the last one. Whether rightly or wrongly, there is a stigma that’s attached to the name “Kansas City Wizards.” There are many in KC who think of “Kansas City Wizards” and picture a half-empty Arrowhead (that image seared into my retinas and made me one of these people for a while) or the time-share at CommunityAmerica.Ask anyone in the non-soccer media their thoughts. Ask your neighbor. They may know about the team, but they probably don’t know much more than that.The ownership group behind Kansas City’s soccer franchise has a dream of making their club a regional (and possibly a national) brand. They want the non-soccer media and your neighbors to know as much as possible about the team and to talk about the team not just when Manchester United comes to town, but when D.C. United comes to town.Next year, the franchise moves to it’s own stadium -- it’s own soccer-specific stadium. OnGoal, who bought the team in 2007 and have made many strides to grow the popularity of the sport in the region, sees the construction of this stadium as a rebranding effort in its own right.**Calling the project the “the first Authentic American Soccer Stadium” was phase one. They want to create an experience that many Kansas Citians have never felt: Watching a soccer game in an building constructed to maximize the enjoyment of watching a soccer game.When I asked Heineman about rebranding the team next year in conjunction with the stadium, he told me, rather bluntly:
“To us, we’re not sure if [the Kansas City Wizards] is something that can be a regional or national brand.”The implied thought process: A little more (or less depending on your interpretation of a CAB sell-out) than 10,000 folks plop down money to come see the team play right now. To fill their new 18,500-seat investment/stadium every single game, they have to ensure -- not hope -- that there are a lot more than 10,000 or so that want tickets. You don’t have to have a degree in economics to see this is the next stage of a larger business strategy or the supply/demand dynamics in play here. Being a Wizards fan in Kansas City means you a subset of a subset. Not only are you likely a soccer fan, but you’re a soccer fan who is willing to ignore the fact that your team plays in a minor-league baseball stadium. (The whole stigma thing.)There are more than 1.5 million people in the Kansas City metro area. (The number in 2000 was 1,776,062.)If you guesstimate that there are 500,000 people (that’s pretty conservative on my part) in the metro area that have a positive or at least “neutral” viewpoint of “Kansas City Wizards,” there’s still a whole lot of people that the team isn’t reaching. Is my math fuzzy? Probably. I’m making a lot of assumptions about who is and who isn’t soccer savvy or at the very least soccer curious. There’s a gigantic unknown that you and I probably won’t ever know: Just how many people have an outright negative or at least unfavorable viewpoint of the team. I’m guessing that OnGoal might have a better idea (or at least a more realistic idea) than I do about the number of fans they aren’t reaching right now. Hence, their interest in exploring the change. “The Jazz moved to Salt Lake City where they don't allow music.” -- Baseketball When a team relocates to another city, they often change the name to reflect their new environment, to forge a new identity in said new market. There are plenty of successful examples: Colorado Avalanche, Tennessee Titans, New Jersey Devils, etc.The “Wizards” aren’t changing cities, but they are changing markets. They are going from the very limiting scope of being a major-league franchise with minor-league accommodations to a major-league franchise with state-of-the-art accommodations. A name change at this point can’t just be a superfluous change to the jersey colors or a logo tweak or a new sponsor plastered on the front of the jersey (though I expect all of those to happen). Rebranding is always an idea that’s geared for the future. As in the example from “Mad Men,” the idea is to continue running your business and attract new clients you never reached before.OnGoal would be dumb to expect that calling the team “Sporting Kansas City” would instantly bring out the crowds in droves. (This is where I mention that I believe Kansas City ‘96 is a really, really good alternative!)The stadium will do that for them. What they’re probably banking on is that the people who come away from the new stadium will have an entirely different name to walk away from the game with. Essentially, building a new history. A name is a name is a name.When the New Orleans Jazz left for Salt Lake City, they made the decision to keep their name, despite the lack of “jazz” in the land of Mormons. Despite the fact that their name is a joke and doesn’t fit the identity of the town, the franchise has survived and thrived.This isn’t because the idea of rebranding is stupid and a team can thrive with just any old name.**Though, you could argue that the NFL franchise in Washington is proof that teams can thrive with a border-line racist name. Yes, it’s Star policy to not publish the name of the Washington NFL franchise.The reason the Jazz have succeeded is because they had John Stockton and Karl Malone (two of the Top 10 players of the last 15 years) together, Jerry Sloan (top five coach of the last 20 years) in charge, and were generally very successful throughout the ‘90s and into this decade.Regardless of whatever name they choose, the Kansas City soccer franchise still won the 2000 MLS Cup. And it still won the 2004 U.S. Open Cup. And it still beat Manchester United this summer. Preki’s still the best player in team history, Davy Arnaud is likely still the captain and Kei Kamara is still (hopefully) going to score goals for the team. If the team wins the MLS Cup next year, it’s irrelevant what the team is called, whether that be “The Kansas City Wizards” or “Sporting Kansas City” or “Kansas City ‘96” or “Real AC Sporting Kansas City Wizards Soccer Club.”Though, to be fair, no amount of championships could fix it if they were called “Real AC Sporting Kansas City Wizards Soccer Club.”
