Record number of Sporting Kansas City fans making trek to Saturday’s match in Colorado
After blasting home the first Sporting Kansas City goal of the 2013 season, Graham Zusi ran toward the corner of PPL Park in Philadelphia and pointed toward a small cheering section in the top rows of the stadium.
While the rest of the crowd had fallen silent, the group wearing Sporting Blue was energetic, loud and undeniably present.
Zusi’s acknowledgment was a thank you of sorts.
“There’s almost a sense (that) you don’t want to let them down,” Zusi said. “People have traveled so far to come watch you play. It gives you extra motivation to perform for them.”
The traveling Sporting KC supporters call themselves the Roaddron. They believe they are among the most dedicated of Sporting KC fans, and they have the travel itineraries to prove it.
And they’re growing in size.
More than 700 fans have secured tickets through the team to travel to Colorado to watch Sporting KC face the Rapids at 5 p.m. Saturday. The club says that’s a record number for one of its road followings.
“It’s pretty neat the way it’s taken off,” says Zach Cobb, a frequent traveler. “It’s like it’s own community, its own family. Everybody really comes together for a common cause, which is we all want to support our team.”
Nearly 150 of the several hundred Sporting KC fans attending Saturday’s match will travel by bus overnight to Commerce City, Colo., a suburb of Denver.
Then the party begins.
The group plans early tailgates — often with cameos from Sporting Club CEO Robb Heineman — before matches, and the $115 bus ticket includes food and drinks.
This particular trip has been in the works for quite some time. Members of the Cauldron, an independent supporters association that occupies the north stands at Sporting Park during home games, begin planning road trips the day the MLS schedule is released.
Although the traveling group’s nickname — the Roaddron — is a play on the Cauldron name, the road trips are open to fall fans.
Few are short. Chicago, Dallas and Denver host the nearest MLS franchises, meaning each venture is at least eight hours from Sporting Park.
“It takes dedication,” said Isaac Wilson, another frequent traveler to road matches. “If I see that window of opportunity to go, and it’s not going to cost me a fortune, I’ll jump on it.”
The idea is to recreate the Sporting Park atmosphere on the road. That involves the drums, horns and other noisemakers that have became part of the culture of a Sporting KC home match.
“We can sometimes make just as much noise as the other teams’ home supporters,” Wilson said. “It’s their pitch, but we’re making it our own house. There’s a little bit of pride that might come in there.”
They’re loud enough to be noticed by the players.
“It’s very easy (to notice) when you go into the stadium and all of a sudden, our color pops up in one section with all these people,” Sporting KC manager Peter Vermes said. “I would say it’s a great feeling for the team to go on the road and know we have such a following that is traveling to our games.”
The Roaddron is seeing some victories, too. Sporting KC owned the best road record in the MLS last season at 8-5-4.
Which may not be a coincidence.
“It’s incredible dedication those people have to make it out to those games,” Zusi said. “It makes it more enjoyable for us. We can feed off that and use it to our advantage.”
This story was originally published March 28, 2014 at 4:37 PM with the headline "Record number of Sporting Kansas City fans making trek to Saturday’s match in Colorado."