New logo, color scheme unveiled for Kansas City women’s professional soccer franchise
Kansas City’s new women’s pro soccer team finally has a crest — at least for its inaugural season.
KC NWSL unveiled its new crest, team colors and a new website Tuesday morning, all centered around the club’s commitment to play “For Kansas City.”
The crest is just for the club’s inaugural season, team officials said: a “Brand Advisory Council” will continue to work through 2021 on both a long-term logo and a name for the team.
“It is important to us to articulate who and what we play for: our players, our fans and our city,” said Angie Long, KC NWSL owner and co-founder. “We are so proud of this inaugural crest and how it represents our city.
“At the same time, we’re excited to continue our long-term strategic branding process over the course of this upcoming year: taking the time to listen to our fans, starting with our founding members, and reflect their participation in the process.”
The new logo features a teal background that is meant to represent a fresh color and feel for the club while looking forward to a bright future.
A large “KC” and small inner circle of dark blue and three red stripes is featured on the bottom right part of the logo. The dark blue and red are meant to represent the primary colors of the two state flags of Kansas and Missouri — blue for Kansas and red for Missouri.
The three stripes represent the history of the region’s railways and crossroads, namely the Santa Fe, Oregon and California National Historic Trails.
Finally, there are two small stars centered underneath the dominant “KC.” The club says the stars represent Kansas and Missouri, but they can also be seen as a nod toward the two National Women’s Soccer League championships won by FC Kansas City — the previous incarnation of the team before its relocation to Utah — 2014 and 2015.
“We are surrounded by an incredibly generous, hardworking region of visionaries and entrepreneurs,” said Chris Long, KC NWSL owner and co-founder. “There’s no better way to play our inaugural season than under this inaugural brand ‘For Kansas City,’ and show the world what we already know: that there’s something special about living here, and something even more special about playing soccer here.”
The Brand Advisory Council, which will work on a permanent logo and name for the team, will be headed by co-owner Brittany Matthews, the fiancee of Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes.
Matthews most notably played college soccer at the University of Texas at Tyler, guiding the Pirates to their first NCAA Tournament before playing professionally in Iceland with the club Mosfellsbaer.
She will work with designers, branding leaders, soccer insiders and other notable Kansas Citians, including Kansas City Sports Commission president and CEO Kathy Nelson and Steinberg Sports CEO Chris Cabott, throughout 2021. The council will also include player representatives from the squad to ensure that the final branding represents the players and fans.
“We’re looking forward to adding to Kansas City’s championship history, and we’re bringing that same approach to the club’s name and brand,” Matthews said. “We want to create something that is distinctly designed to capture the fabric of Kansas City and to authentically represent our athletes and our sport.”
Technical staff finalized
Ahead of the logo announcement, the KC NWSL team also finalized its technical staff. The list features some folks who were in the Kansas City area previously as well as some newcomers.
A notable one: Derek Shoare, who will be the club’s associate general manager. Shoare, a native of Wolverhampton, England, arrived in America in 1987 and has been coaching in the U.S. ever since. He moved to KC in 1997 to become the vice president of Challenger Sports, a position he held until December 2020.
Along with coaching youth soccer in KC, Shoare also acted as a volunteer assistant under Mark Francis for the KU women’s soccer team. Shoare held the position from 2015-20 as the Jayhawks rose from a middle-of-the-road Big 12 team to a consistent Top 25 program.
Natalie Astrain, assistant coach: Astrain arrived in the U.S. in 2017 via Spain, where she became the first woman to earn a UEFA PRO coaching license. She’s worked with the development academies of the Houston Dash and Rise Soccer Club, which is also based in Houston. Additionally, Astrain has also been part of the coaching staff for U.S. Soccer’s U15 and U17 squads.
Goran Karadzov, assistant coach: Karadzov is an old friend of former FCKC head coach and current U.S. Women’s National Team coach Vlatko Andonovski. The pair began playing professionally in Macedonia before Andonovski brought Karadzov to FCKC and the Kansas City Comets of the Major Arena Soccer League.
Lucas Rodriguez, Video analyst/assistant coach: Rodriguez came from Argentina as a teenager and played soccer for Shawnee Mission Northwest, Johnson County Community College and MidAmerica Nazarene. He also played professionally for Minnesota United and the Jacksonville Armada before spending six years with the KC Comets.
Alli Lipsher, goalkeeper coach: Lipsher played pro soccer in Australia and the U.S., with the Boston Breakers and Atlanta Beat of the WPSL. She has also coached at Trinity College, East Carolina, Arizona and Minnesota.
Other coaching staff ...
Terence Kennell: Sports performance coach
Bailey Torrez: Athletic trainer
Karly Cebula: Equipment manager
Jessica Buller: Team administrator
Dr. Kirk McCullough: Medical director
Dr. Meg Gibson: Team doctor
This story was originally published January 12, 2021 at 12:38 PM.