Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Heineman KC Star Chat

Today on the KC Star's website, Robb Heineman was involved in a chat and gave out plenty of little bits of information regarding the team. No real earth shattering information, but certainly some interesting information. With the Star running the Q&A, it was a chance for some fans to try and get some questions in that might be screened if the team had done the Q&A.

On the opener, we got some information on what some of the festivities are going to be, including a band on the plaza area, a stealth fly over, and the team's original coach, Ron Newman will be on hand inside the Members' Club before the game.

The topic of Peter Vermes was brought up wondering when the team would look to go in a different direction. Heineman said "we've set pretty clear expectations for the team, which is making the playoffs and competing in the playoffs, and if those expectations aren't met, there will be consequences."

This seems to mean that Vermes has the rest of this season, or at least until the team is out of the playoff hunt. And honestly that's not that surprising with the extended road trip. Things can certainly change if things really go down hill for the team, or if things don't go well after they return home. Currently the team has the same record on the road as they did through 7 road games last year, but KC will need to have some very good home form to fulfill OnGoal's expectations this season.

Earlier today the Aaron Galindo to KC rumor came back up in the Mexican media. It seemed that Galindo was trying to find a way out of his contract with Chivas to allow him to join KC in an out of contract signing. Heineman though said that this was the first he'd heard of the most recent rumor. Although after the window closed, Heineman had said on Twitter that they were still hoping to to sign him during the summer. Heineman also said that they are working on a number of players for the summer.

During the chat Heineman also confirmed the soccer/rugby doubleheader in October on the 15th the same day as the KC-New York game. The KC Blues will compete at Livestrong Sporting Park as part of the double header. He also said that they are continuing to work on other sporting events to take place at LiSP.

He also tackles the jersey sponsorship that has become a small joke to some people, because we've heard a few times that we are only a few weeks away from an announcement. Heineman says that they are currently negotiating contract terms and that he put the chances at 50-50.

One final thing that Heineman talked about was the work that KC has done to create a rivalry with Chicago. I know that I've talked about the team trying to manufacture a rivalry with the Fire, and Heineman is at least straight forward about that, saying they are "poking the bear", but they feel they need to create a natural rival. And with Colorado already having the Rockie Mountain Cup and Dallas battling Houston for El Capitan, leaving Chicago as the closest team for KC to try to build a rivalry against.

Lots of good information from Heineman today, but as I said earlier, nothing earth shattering, but I don't think anyone expected that.

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