Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Officially Sporting

It became official today, the Wizards officially were rebranded as Sporting KC. The new logo, new name, new jersey, new identity. I'd go into details on all the changes and the reasons for the changes, but I wouldn't do any of it justice. I did record most of the announcement on my iphone and the videos are below, you can hear Robb Heineman explain the reason for the name change and in the second part explains the logo and the different parts of it. There wasn't much if any booing of the logo or the name change, although I did catch one or two, you may be able to pick up in the video, no where near the level that I originally thought there would be.

Although on the internet afterward it seems like everyone is bashing the logo and name. Much of the dislike of the logo has to do with the SC and it seeming out of place as the main component of the logo. It being the center point of the logo. You can try to get a better understanding of the logo and other things on their site here where they explain things. The name also continues to get it's fair share of hatred around the net, both from fans of the team and just random people as well. Most seem to point to it being a Europoser name, but Heineman said during his speech:
“This, to us, is not European whatsoever. This is all about our connection to the community and us trying to be innovative in what we’re trying to do."

I understand his point, but it's hard to really argue for his point, the name is European, but the idea as a whole is definitely unique to the United States. How far the team takes the whole "sporting club" idea is yet to really be seen. The talk tonight was about specifically rugby and lacrosse as being other potential sports in the club. There was also talk of members getting free tickets to away games and other things. All this while great is definitely something I think some fans are waiting to really see if it's true or not.

Tonight the new uniforms were also shown for the first time with Omar Bravo wearing the team's new "Sporting Blue" home jersey, while Jimmy Conrad was wearing the team's away dark indigo. Both are very classy and probably my favorite part of the entire rebranding. The home jersey is sharp and I really like the collar on the jersey. The away indigo is probably my favorite of the two though, I just like the design of it. The best thing about this jersey compared to last year is that the Wizards have been able to get rid of the "captain's arm bands" that were on last year's jersey. The one knock on he uniforms is that a lot of people see them as the same color scheme as the expansion Vancouver Whitecaps. And that the current home is comparable to the current away uniform of the Colorado Rapids.

Overall a good night for understanding why the team is doing this. And while I don't agree with or like all of what they are doing, I respect the fact that they were willing to come out and explain everything. And while some of the explanations from Heineman certainly seemed like bull shit, the way he delivers it makes you really believe in what he's saying.




21 comments:

Brian Stevens said...

Logo and shirts are a HUGE upgrade. As far as "Sporting" goes - I really don't know what to think. I showed the name change to a friend of mine, who doesn't watch soccer, and his reaction was "I don't get it...isn't Sporting a verb?"

Anonymous said...

GO SPORTING KANSAS CITY!

Donald said...

Was at the event tonight and I was pleased that the crowd was pretty respectful of the change and not too negative. I don't have much excitement about "Sporting" and I think the attempt to connect to the past in the shield design is weak, but I do like the more traditional style jersey. I don't care much for the "Sporting Blue" one as it is just a pale color with no real appeal. The indigo version looks pretty sharp. I guess the bottom line is that whatever they call them, they are my team and I will be there to support them (and probably still refer to them as the Wizards).

BlacknBlueKC said...

Rugby huh? So what about the two existing rugby clubs in this city, Kansas City Blues RFC & KCRFC?

"Sporting Blue" home jersey. What is that, one shade off of the CRapids jersey?

"This isn't just about soccer" "we want to be all things to all people" That's what concerns me. Soccer should ALWAYS been the main focus.

Does this also mean Jimmy will be protected?

FTR, I will never say Go Sporting. Sporting Club is the parent company, the team on the field are the WIZARDS.

Felixx219 said...

From what I understand, KC Blues are in talks to become the Rugby portion. At least that is what members of the organization have been saying.

Stupid Commenting Kansas City said...

So how about the organization open a restaurant called Eating Kansas City, a shopping center or store of some kind called Shopping Kansas City, and top it off by renaming the organization Screwing Kansas City.

Name sucks. Logo Sucks.

A bland and ridiculously uninforming name for your team will lead to a bland and uniformed response from potential fans.

You might as well have called them Sports Team Kansas City . . . that or Turd Ferguson. I could get behind Turd Ferguson F.C. (not literally of course).

Moop said...

Robb sounds full of sh!t in that first clip. At least at the start.

J said...

Name is definitely stupid. Any links to photos of the jerseys? I hate watching videos.

Mike said...

J, check the paragraph that beings "Tonight the new uniforms", that phrase is hyperlinked to some photos from tonight including photos of the new uniform.

The video doesn't do them justice as my iphone has no zoom.

Nathan W Martin said...

Now that the change is in the past. It's time to talk about the team's game, not name.

I thought it was interesting that Jimmy was modelling a jersey. I know it was probably because very few people would boo him but it also would make him leaving even stranger.

I can't wait to see Omar Bravo put away some of the chances that Kei, Ryan, and Davy provide.

I'm excited.

The stadium's virtual tour is very nice.

Anonymous said...

The jerseys are TERRIBLE. Boring and plain. Why not go for stripes, hoops or at least colors that aren't already in play for other teams in the league? Dumb. I was planning to buy one but I don't want to get mistaken for a Rapids fan so I'm going to pass.

WF said...

So this means we will no longer be identified as team that wears blue kits? Our main jersey is that light blue and our alternate kit is the cobalt? I loved how we wore blue as our main color the last decade I never thought they'd abandon that for a lighter main color. That's very disappointing.

I'm still upset about the name choice but they could have done things to the logo to make it more acceptable. If we are to be known as Sporting Kansas City then why does the logo read Kansas City Sporting SC (Sporting Club). It makes no sense.

I really love this new concept of having multiple teams under the same brand. Its a great idea. But I feel like the change to Sporting is lame and an insult to sports fan. Once we get these other teams under the brand we'll be telling people, "Look at us, we've got all these other teams under brand. That's why we're called Sporting. Get it? Sporting, because we've got so many sports represented. Isn't that clever?" We're not stupid. That vision of having multiple sports under one brand could have been done under the wizards or another name. I feel like if you look at under that context it makes the choice of Sporting even worse.

Drew said...

The KC Star printed a column on their website about how this was Europeanising the Wizards and there were some quotes from Rob n it too. As I thought people would only react negatively online where they don't have to stick up for their opinion. I don't mind the new home kit not too different the the previous colour. The away looks like Colorados. It's actually nothing what I expected the kits to look like. Though they'd look better. I do like the collar on the away shirt tho. I don't like Rob's quote of this being a new team, identity and such. Sounds like they want to act like the past 15 years never happened.The badge is of course awful and I don't see KC making the upgrades in personel to be a true contender. They need to do what Columbus has done and get rid of the old, dead weight.

Drew said...

I'd also like to say I feel that Ongoal doesn't put enough money and know enough about quality soccer to really run a soccer team, where will the money and knowledge come from to run a lacrosse and rugby team? Also, why not have greater appeal and try to get more "American" sports and not rugby? Know your audience, which they do not.

aletheist said...

I have come to terms with the rebrand, including the new name - I was never enamored with "Wizards" anyway - but I agree with Wil about the badge. Why call yourself "Sporting KC" but use a logo that reads "Kansas City Sporting SC"? It would only take a couple of simple adjustments - remove "Kansas City" from the top and change the stylized "SC" to "KC" - to rectify this.

aletheist said...

Drew, it sounds like you have the jerseys mixed up (unfortunately). My understanding is that the light blue one is the new home jersey, and the indigo one is the new away jersey. I would prefer it the other way around myself.

basement said...

The "SC" really is the worst.

Stephen said...

I was hoping the explanation would sway me, but it hasn't. I loathe this name. I'll still support the team on the field, but I'm much less excited about the future of this club than I was before, unfortunately.

Anonymous said...

at least we still have the comets...

Anonymous said...

very disapointed by the colors... I liked being the only true blue team in the league. Every good league has one, and we were the blue team for MLS. Now either strip looks like atleast one other team in the league

WF said...

I'm not happy about the name change but I'm grudgingly coming to accept it. I think you need to alter this crest a bit to make it more acceptable though. If we are to be known as Sporting Kansas City then why does the badge read Kansas City Sporting SC (Sporting Club)? I think you should remove the Kansas City at the top and change the SC to a KC. Then it would actually read Sporting KC. It’s not like the Royals or any other team in the United States have BC on their caps which stand for Baseball Club. That wouldn’t make any sense just as SC on our crest doesn’t make sense. You’re not going to see or sell anything that just has the SC on it. I think if you made a new interlocking KC it would look great on that crest and it could stand alone on any piece of merchandise they sold.