Sporting KC and Livestrong End Relationship in Messy Fashion

We all probably saw this coming in one way or another after all the news this week regarding Lance Armstrong and his apparent confession to Oprah in regards to doping.  I'm not sure that we expected the ending of the relationship to end quite like this.  Tonight, Darren Rovell broke the news on ESPN that Sporting and Livestrong had severed their relationship with both sides laying the blame on the other.

Things got messy really quickly between the two as just last week, Robb Heineman said that they were still reviewing the situation.  And then tonight the shit hit the fan.  First with the article from Rovell that stated Livestrong was the one that was ending the deal, telling the team this week that they had not paid the $1 million that was owed to the foundation, stating that Sporting had only paid $250,000 of it.  Sporting has refuted this claim.  One would assume if money is owed, then we can probably expect some sort of legal action to take place between the two.

Sporting fired back in the same ESPN article with Heineman stating that the Livestrong Foundation forced Sporting into an "unacceptable arrangement" and that due to the faith and trust in the partnership had been damaged, Sporting was ending the partnership. 

Heineman elaborated on the comments in the ESPN article in a statement on Sporting's website.  Heineman explained how since the announcement off the name of the stadium, the organization has taken a bit of a beating publicly over getting into a relationship with the Livestrong organization considering the problems it was facing with it's founder, Armstrong.  He also discussed how Livestrong's "spirit" for the partnership had changed and wasn't the same as Sporting.  It's certainly easy to argue that Sporting had done more to push the Livestrong brand than the other way around.  The statement is fairly well crafted and and makes no mention of Armstrong himself, only that the actions of Livestrong were surprising considering they were "in the midst of a significant transitional phase for their organization."

Things have moved very quickly since the announcement, the stadium portion of the Sporting KC site has been changed to reference the "new" name of the stadium, Sporting Park, with no mention to the previous name.  The website for the stadium, www.livestrongsportingpark.com is offline.  And out at the stadium, the big signage that says Livestrong is no longer lit up.  I'd expect that signage to come down over the next few days/weeks.

I'm still amazed at how quickly this whole thing has gone down.  Sure there had been the rumors that changes were coming to the name of the stadium because of the issues that were going on with Armstrong, but I'm not sure anyone expected it to come this quickly.  The way it's gone down has also been surprising. .  The messy "divorce" looks likely to turn into a big he said/she said situation.  I've seen lots of people taking both sides of the situation tonight.  People believing the comments made by Greg Lee that Sporting hasn't paid.  When seeing Heineman's comments, people are responding by asking if people are surprised someone associated with an organization founded by a "lying cheat" would say something like that. 

Overall I seriously doubt we'll ever hear the full story on this situation.  At least not on the record.  I'm sure there is some truth to what both sides are saying.  The search for a new stadium sponsor will begin though.  Either way, this is a very messy end to the sponsorship.  Hopefully Sporting will go the route of a sponsor that will pay this time.  Like the jersey sponsor, this is a revenue stream that Sporting has missed out on.

Some Best Ofs for 2012

I don't normally do any Best Ofs here at the end of the year, but here are a few today.  Some moments of the year, enjoy.

Game of the Year

8/8/12 vs Seattle Sounders

Really was their any other choice?  The game itself lacked a little bit, but the atmosphere and the result combine to make this the game of the year.  A goal from the spot by Kei Kamara led to the loudest cheer I've heard at any Sporting game.  The equalizer from Zach Scott a minute later.  A scoreless extra time period that saw Patrick Ianni sent off led to penalty kicks.  Kei Kamara made the first to put KC up.  Brad Evans equalized.  Roger Espinoza had his attempted saved and Marc Burch gave Seattle the lead.  Matt Besler leveled things and Osvaldo Alonso sent his shot over the bar.  Graham Zusi tried to be cheeky but put his attempt over the bar while Christian Tiffert had his shot saved by Jimmy Nielsen.  Paulo Nagamura stepped up to be the 5th shooter and his shot stopped by Michael Gspurning.  The PK was forced to be retaken though as Gspurning was off his line.  Nagamura buried his second attempt.  Eddie Johnson skied his attempt over the bar and the celebration was on.



Goal of the Year

Julio Cesar vs Toronto FC 6/16

I'm not sure you can strike a ball better than Cesar did here, it's absolutely fantastically struck.



Assist of the year

Peterson Joseph to Jacob Peterson vs Columbus 7/14

I just love the way Joseph goes completely against the movement of the movement of the ball using the outside of his foot to play the ball through to Peterson, a fantastic ball.



Goosebump moment of the year

Roger Espinoza's standing ovation after being red carded at the Olympics

The summer Olympics in London were a coming out party of sorts for Roger Espinoza, he was a known commodity the past two years for Sporting KC in the midfield, but in the Olympics many others found out.  Espinoza had played a fantastic tournament and it was highlighted by his man of the match performance against Brazil in the quarterfinals.  Espinoza set up one and scored another in Honduras' 3-2 loss to the eventual silver medalists.  But it was his play and passion overall that won over the crowd at St. James' Park that day.  He ended the day early picking up a red card, but walked off the field to many congratulations from players and a standing ovation from the St. James' Park crowd.  Many fans expected Espinoza to be leaving KC after this season, the Olympics just confirmed that and Espinoza will be plying his trade in England starting in January.




Off field moment of the year

Lance Armstrong/Livestrong Saga

With Lance Armstrong being stripped of his Tour de France titles for doping and the on going discussion over that, talk eventually turned to Livestrong Sporting Park.  KC's home stadium that has the name of the foundation that Armstrong founded to help people during their fight with cancer.  The debate on whether to keep the name or change it has been one that has been discussed not just by soccer fans, but by sports fans as well as casual fans, especially locally.  So far, publicly Sporting Club has made statements about the separation between the Livestrong organization and Armstrong.  Whether Sporting will end up keeping the name, or eventually switch to another name is something that will still have to be watched.

Low moment of the year

4-0 loss to Philadelphia 6/23

While season ending loss in the series to Houston is a downer, the low point of the year was Sporting's 4-0 dismantling that they took at the hands of the Philadelphia Union.  Sporting conceded in the first minute on a Jack McInerney goal and conceded again in the 42nd.  Goals in the 81st by Lionard Pajoy from the spot and from Antoine Hoppenot in the 87th sealed the rout.  KC never looked into the game and desperately missed Matt Besler who was out recovering from his appendectomy.  What made the loss all that much wosre was that while KC was 9-2-2 heading into that game, Philadelphia was 1-8-2 sitting on 5 points, 24 behind KC when the teams took the field.

Moment of anger that was quickly forgotten

MLS Cup 2000 trophy

As one of my wants/wishes for 2012 I wanted to get the 2000 MLS Cup trophy back from Hunt Sports' Group.  James from Sporting Times started a grass roots movement to attempt to get the trophy back.  Turns out the trophy was in storage and had been put there during the renovations of Arrowhead Stadium.  During the process, it came out that one of the requirements for selling the team was that HSG got to keep the 2000 MLS Cup trophy.  Clark Hunt was going to have the trophy put into a portion of the Hall of Fame at Arrowhead.  But first, it would spend the 2012 season with Sporting KC and then the team would receive a replica to keep.  I saw the MLS Cup trophy twice I believe at the stadium, both times in the Members' Club shortly after the announcement was made.  The trophy was supposed to "tour" the stadium throughout the season, but I never heard anything else about it's travels.  The good news is that winning the Open Cup helped people to forget the 2000 trophy a bit.

Lance Armstrong, Livestrong, and Sporting KC

This will hopefully be the last few things I say on the Lance Armstrong/Livestrong/Sporting KC situation unless the team decides to address the situation again.

Sponsors continue to flee from Lance Armstrong like rats from a sinking ship as the ramifications of the USADA report on his doping really begin to sink in.  Nike, 24 Hour Fitness, and Anheuser Busch are all among the list of sponsors of Armstrong who have pulled their sponsorship of the cyclist.  Armstrong has also stepped down as the chair of Livestrong the cancer awareness organization he helped found.  Armstrong does still remain on the board of the organization.

The big question now for Livestrong is whether it can weather the storm surrounding Armstrong because of the connection that existed and continues to exist between the two.  So far at least two of their sponsors that also sponsored Armstrong have said they'll stick with the charity.  Both Nike and Radio Shack have said that they still support the work being done by Livestrong.  At the moment, this seems to be the smart move to take, you don't want to be branded as turning your back on an organization that helps people while they are fighting for their life.  Sporting KC is currently in this category as an organization that has partnered with Livestrong, right now isn't the right time to abandon the charity.  Plenty of people are calling for the stadium to be renamed because of Livestrong's association with Armstrong, but at the same time there are those that would see it as abandoning an organization that has done good in their hour of need.

Now yes Sporting could go and just give the name to another charity, one that does real research in actually fighting cancer and trying to find a cure, but none of those organizations have the same global recognition as Livestrong currently does.  And that was one of the key points I think originally of the deal, it was to bring more name recognition to the team by the association with the organization.

At this time I still don't think there's a reason to split from the deal between the team and Livestrong.  I do though think that Sporting KC needs to be keeping a very close eye on the situation, just like I'm sure they have from day one.  There was always the chance that further allegations and eventually further evidence coming out implicating Armstrong.  Not believing that was possible is stupid and short sighted, both of which are the exact opposite of 90% of what the club does.  But if things go further and organizations like Nike and Radio Shack pull their support then it's time to get out as well.  I'm not saying that they haven't already, I'm sure that the people that need to have read over the information from the USADA and I'm sure it's been a topic of discussion.  I just think that withdrawing support now could be seen as just as bad a PR move for the team to be the first to pull their support.

One thing that does need to happen, if not already is that the yellow seat needs to stop being referred to as being reserved for Lance Armstrong.  The name just brings out poor connotations to people after this and continuing to refer to it as such doesn't seem right to me.  You can keep it yellow, but just refer to it as the Livestrong Seat, or that it's reserved for a cancer survivor.  Just stop referring to it as being reserved for him.

Still No Plans to Rename Livestrong Sporting Park

Yesterday, the USADA released with some information on why they'd moved forward with banning Lance Armstrong and stripping him of his Tour de France titles.  There's plenty of evidence that would seem to be fairly damning towards Armstrong's case with plenty of witness testimony, financial records, and lab results in it.  It brings back up the debate of the stadium name.  Back when the USADA originally announced the banning of Armstrong, Robb Heineman came out and stated the continued backing of the Livestrong organization and the work that they do with helping cancer survivors.

Today at the Leaders in Football conference at Stamford Bridge, Heineman was again asked to comment on the new news with the information from the USADA.  Heineman again stated the good work that the organization does despite what is going on with Armstrong.  He said that the organization doesn't have their "head in the sand... but it doesn't change how we feel about the Foundation." 

So by the sounds of it, the stadium will still be Livestrong Sporting Park at least in the near future.

Sporting KC and Lance Armstrong

photo courtesy of Jarred Donalson

So Lance Armstrong is no longer going to fight the US Anti-Doping Agency and the charges that they've brought against him for doping.  With that announcement tonight, it has brought out the questions again with regards to Sporting KC and the naming of their stadium as LiveSTRONG Sporting Park.  LiveSTRONG, the brand of the Lance Armstrong Organization, an organization founded to help cancer survivors.  As part of the deal with LiveSTRONG, Sporting is donating a portion of all proceeds at the stadium to the organization to help fight cancer.

The big thing that many people fail to see in this situation is that while the two are related, Lance Armstrong the person and the LiveSTRONG organization are two separate entities.  The LiveSTRONG organization has gown beyond Armstrong and has become a movement all on it's own.  It's work has raised over $500 million to help cancer survivors.  That goal and that work that is being done is not going to stop with this lifetime ban from cycling for Armstrong.  I'd make a simple guess that the majority of the people that LiveSTRONG has helped don't care at all about these allegations.

The question though is what if anything Sporting will do about this.  Their name will be brought up in this discussion, because their home stadium is named after Armstrong's organization.  The team likely won't make a direct comment immediately on this, but I don't expected it to change much from the comment that was made in June by Rob Thomson, Executive VP, Communications "For us, it's all about Livestrong and helping raise $500 million for fighting cancer and all the good they've done."

That said, will Sporting KC take a look at this and have some talks about this latest news?  Probably, they'd be stupid to not at least have discussions about it, but I don't expect anything on this to change.  That said the team has already said in the past that they separate the two from one another the same way everyone else should.  The LiveSTRONG organization has grown beyond Armstrong and become a much bigger entity on it's own.  And with the continued backing of Nike, the organization isn't going to receive much backlash from this.  And LiveSTRONG Sporting Park will be unlikely to be changing it's name.

SKC fans will hear the ribs from other teams around the league, there will be plenty of cute nicknames brought up for LSP in the aftermath from fans of other teams around the league.  And that's to be expected, it's unavoidable, and guess what, ignore it and it'll go away slowly.