Rebranding Still Coming

At this point, I think most people know that the Kansas City Wizards have played their final game, and that next March we'll see a "new" team taking the field as Sporting KC. There have been numerous signs that the change is coming, from the lack of merchandise throughout the season and the lack of any real discussion by anyone in the front office (when most of the time they're happy to discuss topics) to selling anything and everything that has the Wizards name on it after the last game at CAB. There has been plenty of hints that it's coming and the latest was during the pregame before this past game against San Jose. During a discussion with Sasha Victorine, Robb Heineman said that OnGoal wants a name that represents more than just a soccer team, and more than just professional sports, something that can also be more community involved as well, and the ownership is not sure that the name Wizards does that.

That conversation as a whole just drove the point home that the team will not be the Wizards next season. And in a few years expect there to be a lacrosse team, or some other minor sports team in KC with the name Sporting KC as well. The name and rebranding continues to be a polarizing topic, although most that don't want rebranding seem to see it as an inevitability at this point. Unlike the Seattle situation, where fans raised such an uproar about the name Sounders not being included on the ballot, the name Wizards does not hold the same level of support here. There are plenty of people here that don't want to keep the name. The thing with many of those fans that don't want to Wizards, is that they don't really want Sporting KC either. In an informal poll on Bigsoccer, while the support for KC Wizards is trailing the rebranding, of the 86 people that have voted on the third option, only 10 of those people voted for wanting to be Sporting KC over KC Wizards or some other rebranding option.

The name continues to be the topic of discussion in other areas of the net as well, with many that aren't Wizards fans. Twitter and blog posts by other people have also been critical of the name saying everything from bad marketing to the name being pretentious and fake. And it's really hard to argue with any of those opinions. As I've said previously, the name Sporting KC strikes me as OnGoal just trying to hard to be European/foreign name for the team. I'm sure we'll get a fairly in depth explanation for why they chose this name once the name is released. And I'm sure plenty of people will feel like they're just blowing smoke up the fans' asses. If it's done publicly, OnGoal has to be hoping they don't get this reaction to the change.