New Sporting Kansas City GM’s 1st order of business: Improving MLS roster for ‘26

David Lee is officially on the job as Sporting Kansas City’s new president of soccer operations and general manager.

During an introductory news conference on Wednesday afternoon, Lee fielded questions on topics ranging from his background to his thoughts on the state and trajectory of Major League Soccer.

Also of interest, of course, are his near-term priorities in his new role as Sporting KC’s GM.

He answered with refreshing honesty about the situation Sporting KC faces. His conviction for the processes he’ll use to help a once-proud team return from the depths of its worst seasons in history was evident.

“This is an enormous club with an incredible fan base that has a history far more than some of the bigger cities in terms of success,” Lee said.

Lee’s role involves many finer details, particularly in setting the organizational structure from the top down on the soccer side. Ultimately, though, he’ll be judged on the success of the first team.

Sporting KC had been a perennial winner until 2021. Since then, however, the club has finished toward the bottom of the league’s Western Conference in three of the last four seasons — including this year. Sporting has one match left in 2025 (Oct. 18 at home vs. Houston) but will surely finish with the second-worst points-per-game mark in franchise history for a second straight season.

The malaise cost manager Peter Vermes his job in March, and there are plenty of reasons why Sporting KC is where it finds itself now. But the introduction of a new GM this week wasn’t a retrospective — it’s about what’s coming next.

Lee’s focus is on fixing things, starting with the roster. Determining a new head coach is also one of his top priorities — Kerry Zvagnin was interim head coach after Vermes’ departure. But the calendar sets itself up in a way that forces the current roster to be what he targets first.

And he won’t wait for the next head coach to be installed to start making some key personnel decisions.

“I’ve only been able to do analysis from afar the last few months,” Lee said. “But I’m now in a position where I get to experience it every single day …

“We won’t wait for (a coach) for the player contract decisions to be made. We’ll look to make those as quickly as we can postseason.”

Seventeen Sporting KC players will be out of contract or awaiting decisions on club options at season’s end. Only eight current Sporting players are guaranteed to be under contract next season.

Replacing that many players in order to fill out a competitive roster is a massive ask — and an unlikely one. Some of those 17 out-of-contract players will no doubt be retained.

First and foremost, Lee wants players who want to play for Sporting KC.

“This organization is going in a direction, and we need the players bought into that direction,” he said. “If they’re not, then they’re probably not the right fit for us, even if they’re an excellent player.”

Ahead of the 2025 MLS season, when the club talked about upgrading the roster, team officials outlined a three-window process. Lee looks at this process differently. He indicated he thinks it’s possible for Sporting to again be competitive during the 2026 season.

He noted that nearly 50% of the MLS playoff pool the last three years did not make the postseason one year prior. The last three MLS Cup championships were won by teams that did not participate in the playoffs the previous season.

The Philadelphia Union won the MLS Supporters’ Shield last weekend. And Philly was 12th in the Eastern Conference of MLS in 2024.

“That happens regularly,” Lee said. “We need to be one of those teams that make it happen. … No team in MLS should feel like they’re that far away from competing.

“Of course, there is a lot of work to do to make sure we are one of those teams that has that type of season. But that’s the work now, and that’s what I’m excited for.”

Daniel Sperry covers soccer for The Star. He can be reached at sperry.danielkc@gmail.com.

This story was originally published October 9, 2025 at 12:45 PM.