My How Things Change

It's not every day that Sporting KC is mentioned in the New York Times, but today a nice article about the turnaround of the team came out in the New York paper.  Plenty of interesting information with regards to the growth of the team since OnGoal took over.  There's also an uncredited mention of this blog posting the new logo first.

For me the most interesting part of the article is the comments regarding the growth of the team from 2006 when OnGoal took over to 2012.  When OnGoal took over the team there were a total of only around 600 season ticket holders, of which I was one.  Now KC has well over 10,000 season ticket holders, a huge increase.  And while the majority of those season ticket holders came when the stadium opened, the team still increased the number of season ticket holders even before the stadium opening.  It would have been hard not to. The other big number increase is in merchandise sales.  In 2006, KC made only about $30,000 merchandise sales.  Not overly surprising considering that you were hard pressed to find much Wizards merchandise in the stadium, let alone outside of game days.  Now in 2012, KC has already surpassed the $1 million mark.  And you are finding Sporting KC merchandise all around the city.

While I still am not the biggest fan of the Sporting KC name, I understand that OnGoal needed the fresh start to get the ball re-rolling towards a better start for building the franchise.  And since then they've done a good job of building the franchise.  Now it's time for Peter Vermes and the guys on the field to deliver on their side.  They have top class facilities, a top class stadium, a rabid growing fan base, and a city that is desperate to get behind a team that can/will bring home a title.  It's time to bring home silverware.