Kansas City Wizards rumored to change name

The irrelevance is killing me.

Not a huge fan of rumors, but this one's been going on WAY too long to treat it as such anymore.

KCW is making a "huge announcement" on Wednesday, and the world clearly thinks its a name change (there's a new domain name registered).  This idea started months ago, and the KC brass has not refuted it.  Many say the name may be Sporting Kansas City or Sporting KC (a la Lisbon).

Reading around the message boards has revealed mixed feelings amongst KC supporters.  Many are against a complete rebranding, and feel that such a name change could only hurt them, especially with a new stadium on the horizon.

Others are genuinely for it, citing soccer tradition.

These so-called "traditionalists" don't know shit.  The reason names are the way they are overseas has NOTHING to do with soccer. Absolutely NOTHING.  If you look at basketball, it's the same way in Europe.  Nicknames just aren't a part of their full brand name over there.  It's not right or wrong, it's just how they do it.

Most teams in MLS have "official" nicknames as a result of American tradition.  Baseball, football, basketball, what have you... we like having team names.  Again, just the way it is.

Stating that copying a Portuguese club is going in the right direction is absolute garbage.  Kansas City is a phenomenal soccer town, and the Wizards brand has worked just fine the last 15 years.  If anything, a name such as "Sporting KC" is only going to confuse those who may not know as much about the sport, and therefore hurt marketing.

Sporting Clube de Portgual (Lisbon) is exactly what it looks like.  A sports club.  They have everything from futsal to table tennis to billiards to Formula One racing.

KCW is not a sports club.  It's a soccer club.  So if you're not buying the argument against the name change, at least keep in mind that the name flat out doesn't make sense.

I understand Dallas pulled it off a few years ago, but the team or the league wasn't as popular six years ago.  The Hoops are still the joke of the league attendance-wise, and unlike KC, they have a real stadium.  They might even be proving my point.

I'm hoping there's enough backlash from The Cauldron to reverse it, if in fact it does happen.  If it ain't broke, don't fucking fix it.  Let it move into a beautiful new stadium, improve budding on-field operations, and make a 4-3-3 formation look decent.