Sporting KC 2012 Schedule with Analysis, Stats

Hooray the MLS 2012 schedule is finally here so we can at least talk about something other than potential sponsors for the kit!  Check out the Sporting blog post on the schedule to get links to download a desktop background with the schedule, import the schedule into various phones, and other info.  With the schedule out I wanted to compile a list of observations by myself and others.

Here is the spreadsheet I have been working from if you want to take a look and see if you find any interesting items or trends.

Unbalanced Schedule

With 10 teams in the East and 9 in the west, MLS has gone with an unbalanced schedule.  Many have griped, but that doesn't change the fact that it exists so let's see how it may benefit or hinder Sporting.

Getting to play three tough Western conference opponents at Home is a big benefit.  It is also nice to have Houston and Chicago at home twice given the playoffs last year and the real/fake rivalry with Chicago.  Hopefully New England and Toronto will give us some high scoring affairs that will please the home crowd as well. Overall I am pretty pleased with how the unbalanced schedule played out in Sporting's favor.

Conflicts/Synergies with Major Events

Local
March Madness - 3/17 Home Opener vs. New England - Same night as 3rd Round of NCAA Basketball Tournament.  Don;t really think it will be too big of a deal since it is opening night, which would be expected to be a sell out regardless of other events.  3/25 at home also is the same night as the Elite Eight, so if local teams like KU, K-State or Mizzou are playing might put a small dent in attendance.  But no SKC games conflict with any game nights in the Final Four.

NASCAR - No Sporting games are during NASCAR weekends (April 22, October 21) although part of me thinks there might be an interesting synergy if they timed it right to get some of the 80,000+ people going to the races a package deal on tickets to a soccer game across the street.  I just hope we see a Sporting KC die cast NASCAR in the stores this year.

MLB All-Star Week in Kansas City - 7/7 vs Houston - I actually think this might work well for Sporting.  A lot of visitors in town might pick this as a non-baseball sporting event to go to if they are in town for the week.  In fact I think that would be a god way to market it to Houston fans, if only their poor Astros were good enough to have some All-Stars to watch during the baseball game 7/10.

Chiefs games: No fall dates are on the same day as a Chiefs game away or home. No back to back Chiefs/Sporting games this year.

Friday Night HS Football: While this conflict is not too large when you consider one HS game might attract people just identifying with their local high school, if you multiply this across the whole metro it can become a big hit on attendance.  Hopefully it won't ding SKC too much but maybe aim for any Friday night games earlier in the year next time.  (H/T @atlashill)

National/International

Olympics - The Olympic soccer tournament in London goes from July 25th to August 11th.  That covers 3 games for Sporting: 7/28 vs Columbus, 8/4 at New England, and 8/11 vs. DCU.   The Gold Medal match will be played on 8/11 at 3pm London time, meaning we can watch the US and Teal Bunbury win the Gold medal at 9am before the DC game. (Note: the US has not even qualified yet for the Olympics, but you can watch them do that at Livestrong Park though in March and April!)


FIFA/CONCACAF Dates - the MLS stretched the season to avoid these important dates when your best players may be called up to their national teams.  A few teams mutually agreed to move games to these dates but Sporting was not one of them.

Holidays
St. Patrick's Day - 3/17 vs New England - You can bet they will play up the Irish theme with this one against Boston's lost team.  I really hope they don't wear green uniforms though.  That just smacks of minor league baseball and we have already been there.

Cinco de Mayo - 5/5 vs Montreal - Not really the Spanish side you might be expecting but hey it is the return of Davy Arnaud to LSP so that is a reason to celebrate right?  And playing an expansion team, might be just the thing the fans need to give us even more reason to have a good time.

Memorial Day Weekend - Sunday 5/27 vs San Jose - Nothing special here, but maybe with the long weekend more people might come out and tailgate before and after the early start game (3:30pm).  Maybe an excuse to have a Parking lot BBQ competition?

Fourth of July - 7/4 at Montreal - yes the team will be away so no fireworks, but that gives you a chance to have a good Sporting KC themed party at your house.  Invite people over to watch the early game (6:30p) and then light your fireworks (safely people!)

Labor Day Weekend - Saturday 9/1 vs. Toronto - Early in the holiday weekend. Again maybe a BBQ competition and long tailgate? Maybe Toronto will remember to bring their team player images this year.

Travel Opportunities

As many people have pointed out on Twitter two pairs of road games are only 3 days apart and within car/bus/train distance of each other that you could make a little Sporting vacation out of it: 4/18, 4/21 Vancouver, Portland AND 9/19,9/22 New York, Montreal. Apparently the Cauldron has made claims on at least one of them as THE road trip of the year.  Also don't overlook the chance to check out Houston's new soccer specific stadium on Wed 7/18.  The kids will be out of school so take two days off and make it a road trip.

Some other interesting stats/observations:

Full sched- Mean and Median length between games is 6.91 and 7. Min is 3, Max is 20.
Home games - Mean and Median length between games is 14.81 and 14.5,  Min is 7, Max is 27.
Away games - Mean and Median length between games is 13.97 and 13.5,  Min is 3, Max is 32.

Sporting KC ends the season on 10/24 at home.  The rest of the MLS including Philly have to play on either the 28th or 29th setting us up for a little extra rest time prior to the playoffs. Nice.

Sporting will be on seven nationally televised broadcasts and all of these amazingly are at Livestrong!  So let's make that crowd look good Kansas City.  4 are on NBC Sports, 2 on ESPN2, and one on Galavision. in 2011, 11 was on ESPN2, 3 on Fox Sports, and 1 on Galavision.  An improvement but sadly only places Sporting 12th out of 19 teams for national television appearances.  Of course NY and LA lead with 21 and 20 respectively.  Who am I surprised to see get more screen time: Chivas (12), Dallas (12) DC (12), Chicago (14).  Why would anyone want to watch Chicago or New York, they both tied 16 games apiece in 2011?!

Also check out this very detailed post from Sounder at Heart showing Strength of Schedule and Distance traveled. (H/T @AndyEdSKC). Sporting has the 3rd easiest schedule based on Opponent PPG, and 8th easiest travel schedule (by miles traveled)

Check out these other Sporting bloggers who have their own thoughts on the schedule:
Down the Byline
The Daily Wiz
The Full 90
Sporting KC Reports
Footy Chronicles 

So you want to be a soccer blogger?

If you have been following Sporting Kansas City at all in 2011, you probably have stumbled across a few blogs dedicated to our boys in blue.  Maybe you have found more than just a few but a plethora of blogs. It can be a lot to follow and doesn't even begin to account for SKC talk on other platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Big Soccer.  When looking at other teams we are in the top echelon of fan based blogs.

Some have complained online we actually might have too many blogs, or that the blogs do not do enough to stand out.  Personally I think it is fantastic to have many blogs to choose from, and over the next few weeks as we start through the pre-season I will be giving reviews of the various blogs covering SKC.  If you want to see a list of all the current SKC blogs, check our News Sources post (currently 25 sources). 

But before I begin reviews of the blogs, I thought I would offer some advice to anyone thinking of starting a blog for SKC.  (And just so you know I am speaking from experience, I have been blogging for 6 years on various subjects and seen many different blogs come and go, and have reported on other blogging communities, don't just think it is the 4 months I have been blogging for Ad Astra.)

First of all, yes you can do it, but it does take dedication if you are going to be successful.  Don't let anyone scare you off from contributing just because 'the pool is full.'  There is always room for more insight and opinion.  And we do not all have the same audience.  If you don't believe me check out TweepDiff for an example of how two key blogs have only half of their Twitter followers in common.

Second, come up with goals, a strategy and a basic schedule.  Blogging takes time and if you are going to be successful, it is good to start with some structure.  You will probably hear bloggers say they never did any of that and they are still here.  True but for every successful blog there are hundreds of dead blogs because of a  lack of a little bit of planning and research.  Find subjects and opinions that are not yet being heard in this community or add a new twist to information that is already out there.

Third, partner with someone.  You do not need to be alone in your endeavor, in f act you will increase the value to readers if you have multiple bloggers because you get five things:

1) Consistency: Good partners will keep the flow of information consistent and not dated
2) Unique voices: Partners add something different.  You will each have a different approach and possibly feature different types of posts to contribute.
3) Established commentary: A good partner will post comments to your posts and vice versa.  Someone posting a single comment increases the likelihood that someone else will comment.  And if your partners get into a heated discussion in the comments section it is more likely others will jump in.
4) Promotion: More people promoting their blogs to their family, friends and the SKC fan base.
5) Immortality: Well that may be a bit of a reach, but having partners does allow for succession if any one person decide to bow out.  Your words will live on without you at the blog's helm.

Four, learn the importance of networking.  Work with other bloggers and key voices in and outside of the organization and you will find good opportunities.  You may be ignored or dismissed until you have a bit more of a track record, but keep looking you will find a group that welcomes and supports you.  A well developed network will help you with getting feedback (as comments and behind the scenes) as well as helping with promotion.

Hopefully this helps give you some guidance.  The more we can foster this small but vibrant community the better it is for our team and for all of us bloggers!

Here are blogs open to possibly having more bloggers (let me know if I missed any):

Ad Astra SKC - christian@adastraskc.org

South Stand SC - admin@southstandsc.org

The Daily Wiz -info - justingmayhugh@hotmail.com

Please feel free to ask questions about blogging here.  Simple or complex, I would be glad to help.

Potential Chant: Bend It

Name of Song/Chant: Bend It

To the tune of: Bend It by Davy and Dee Dee (1968) 

Lyrics:
Bend it, bend it, just a little bit
C’mon now Zusi, show you're rockin' it
And Sporting, you know that we're gonna win
Right now 'cos I'm sure we will begin
With Zizzo, Benny and Dom Dwyer*
Kick it forceful, show some hustle

Bend it, bend it, just a little more
We love you KC, now we’re gonna score
But you can make me feel that I am sure
I've got a sickness only you can cure
So just relax, there's stacks of time,
but please don't tease me - try to please me

*2011 version - With Sapong, Convey and Kamara

USMNT Lyrics:
Bend it, bend it, just a little bit
C’mon now Zusi, show you're rockin' it
And U! S!, you know that we're gonna win
Right now 'cos I'm sure we will begin
With Bradley, Jozy and Clint Dempsey
Kick it forceful, show some hustle

Bend it, bend it, just a little more
We love you Yanks, now we’re gonna score
But you can make me feel that I am sure
I've got a sickness only you can cure
So just relax, there's stacks of time,
but please don't tease me - try to please me

Original Song:


Chant Origins:
I forget how I found this exactly, but I was probably looking for videos on You Tube of some nice free kicks bending to their target.  As soon as I heard the slow start and the rapid finish in the style of a good Greek folk song, I knew I had to rework the lyrics to apply to Graham Zusi since he had some great placements in 2011.  I initially had Bravo in the place of Convey but with the release of Bravo that had to switch.  Bunbury just doesn't fit in there well so I went with Convey. I guess we could put in Soony too.

Heard at Sporting Park: Never
Heard from other MLS supporters groups: None - an original!

Why it works: original lyrics, incorporates Sporting well, good soccer references, slow start to get everyone timed up right, good change in tempo always sounds good from a coordinated group, positive and supportive

Why it might not: Never been done before, not a familiar radio friendly song, change in tempo could be very tricky with a large group, complex lyrics over two verses (could be cut down to just one, but I like them both!), works well with or without drums.

Got an idea for a chant? Submit it to us!

Sporting KC on Wikipedia

In a constant hunger for all good things Sporting Kansas City, I often find myself at some point referencing Wikipedia.  You can find a good lot of information there, with nearly all of it pretty accurate.  But there are a few pages related to our team that could use some work.  I thought I would highlight a few here so that the diligent online SKC community could get to work and make us whole!

If you make any significant changes, please email or tweet us so we can update this page.

Page: Sporting Kansas City
Needs: Copyediting for grammar, style, cohesion, tone, or spelling
Basically when everyone adds little facts incrementally the whole page doesn't always look the best.  So we need someone with a keen eye for good writing to go in and clean it up while retaining the facts and basic story.  Sporting has one of the better Wikipedia pages in my humble opinion.  I have not had the time nor desire to read through every other MLS team's page but DC United has a pretty good one too.  Also only a picture of Arrowhead in the stadiums section.  We need a LSP picture on this page.  The supporters club section needs some citations and some updating as well from an objective third party.  Would be nice if a local paper did an article on the supporter groups because then we could link to that.  Wikipedia editors frown upon blog links unless you are the Huffington Post or in that echelon.  MLS regular season all time record only goes through 2008.  Robb Heinemann is listed as the club's only president?  Who came before Robb?  Not very much about the historical Wiz/Wizards logos.  No (pictorial) history of the different kits. And boy do we have some history.

Page: Livestrong Sporting Park
Needs: Images, story, facts
The Sporting Park page is pretty anemic.  Yeah sure we have only been playing in it for a few months, but if we don't get some of the info down now, it might be harder to recall to tell the great story of LSP.  The two images of the stadium are pretty weak.  Try looking at the Red Bull Arena page for some better ideas.

Our players need some pictures on their Wikipedia pages.  If you have any pictures you took that are quality that is probably the best one to use because you own it and can upload it as a Creative Commons licensed photo.  But if you find a good one online and can contact the photographer maybe they would upload it for fair use.  Don't steal images! (Read the rules on posting a picture to Wikipedia)

Player (current and notable past) pages in need of any picture/head shot:
Besler
Harrington
Aiyegbusi
Zusi
Bunbury
Saad
Warzycha
Olum
Ellis
Espinoza
Sinovic
Kronberg
Joseph
Diop
Kempin
Cyrus
Arnaud
Jewsbury


Player pages in need of a better head shot (typically has action shot there, but might be better suited for head shot in box and action shot in article.)
Nielsen
Myers
Sapong
Kamara
Collin
Cesar

Player pages in need of an action shot (because our players have skills):
Besler

Myers
Zusi
Sapong


Player pages in need of picture of player in Sporting KC kit:
Convey
Kamara
Cesar
Nagamura

Players in need of more facts on their page:
Zusi
Sapong
Kamara
Collin
Cyrus

Now get to work people!

Sporting KC Goals 2011 (plus some history)

Fantastic compilation except for the fact they left out CJ and Kei's FIFA 12 goal celebration and they used announcers that could not pronounce Bunbury to save their life.

Make sure to watch, share and like.  Spread the good news!

   

And just for reference here are the other years I found on YT.  Sorry for the cruddy quality of the video.

2010 Season Highlights

2009 Best Goals
 

2008 Best Goals
 

 2007 Best Goals
 

 2006 Best Goals
 

The South Stand SC Founder's Kit

It is very exciting to announce the first big effort out of the newly formed South Stand Supporters Club!  On the SSSC website you can sign up for a Founder's Kit for $50 to help provide the initial boost of funds to help the South Stand accomplish great things.  Money has already been donated by Ad Astra and the Wedge to help provide the initial capital to purchase this great membership swag.

Only 100 Founder scarves were ordered and they are likely to move fast.  We should have them available after the first of the year.

When you sign up, please make sure to choose Ad Astra as your affiliated supporter group. Remember we will be in 118 this year.  Can't wait to see you.

Other membership levels (with scarves) are coming, we just wanted to start off with a big one first.  The price is really an investment if you really want to make LSP the loudest place on the planet.  We have big plans for SSSC! Come be a part of it!

Goals for Good 2011 Recap and 2012 Future

Now that the season is over, the email reminders to actually donate have been sent out to the 10 people who participated in this initial Goals for Good program for fans of Sporting Kansas City.  These 10 people pledged a total of $25 for each goal scored at LiveSTRONG Sporting Park by Sporting KC.  With 29 goals scored at home by Kei, CJ, Omar and the gang, that is $725 pledged to 4 great charities (LiveSTRONG, Harvester's, Humane Society, City of Joplin)

As a bonus for participating this year, the initial 10 donors will all get input on helping select the first round of donor recipients to be reviewed for the 2012 Goals for Good program.

Here are some ideas we are floating around for next year to make this an even bigger fan supported program:

• Open nomination and selection process for the 4 donor recipient positions (prior to the season starting)
• Collaborating with the recipients in co-promoting this endeavor
• Collaboration with key stakeholders in the SKC community
• Banner in LSP showing who much money pledged per goal made
• Adding an option to pledge for clean sheets to reward defensive play
• Giveaways/contests to encourage people to pledge
• Option for public recognition of your pledge
• Option for businesses to get involved

Thanks again to those who participated this year.  If you would like to help out with Goals for Good in 2012 please email christian@AdAstraSKC.org

To learn more about the 2011 Goals for Good program please see the official page:

2011 Summary

LiveSTRONG (Lance Armstrong Foundation) 

 2 pledges for a total of $ 3/goal; Total amount to date: $81

Harvesters: Community Food Network      

 4 pledges for a total of $ 9/goal; Total amount to date: $243

Humane Society of Greater Kansas City    

 3 pledges for a total of $ 7/goal; Total amount to date: $203

Joplin Tornado First Response Fund    

 2 pledges for a total of $ 6/goal; Total amount to date: $162

Total amount pledged to date: $ 725