The last 12 months for Kansas City soccer fans have been like one of those carnival rides that are exhilarating, but you also wonder if maybe you should have upped your life insurance policy before getting on.
Sporting Kansas City endured a flat-out horrendous beginning to 2023, then made the playoffs despite going winless in their first 10 matches. You probably know the story by now: St. Louis City, despite being the Western Conference’s top-seeded team (in their first year as an expansion side, no less), were dumped in a series sweep by Sporting.
Meanwhile, in their third NWSL season, the Kansas City Current, who had finished fifth the year prior and made the finals, dropped to 11th in 2023.
No surprise, the Current fired head coach Matt Potter. But other issues made it a tumultuous campaign in spite of the silver lining coming in the way of a new riverfront stadium –– touted as the first built exclusively for women's pro soccer in the world.
In Jan. 2023, the NWSL released a 125-page report following an investigation lasting over a year that detailed a look into the shortcomings of the league itself, as well as U.S. Soccer and clubs including the Current. In 2021, Current players met with the club's owners over the way they and the team were being handled by its inaugural head coaching hire, Huw Williams. Almost all of those players were not retained in 2022 (including, perhaps tellingly, one who had recently inked a multi-year deal).
What primarily prompted the investigation in late 2021 was reporting that laid out accusations by former Portland Thorns players that included sexual abuse from its former head coach, Paul Riley. It was concluded that the league had failed to protect its players.
The relevance all ties together in the Jan. 11 hiring by Sporting KC of Gavin Wilkinson as general manager.
Yes, that misconduct with the Thorns happened under Wilkinson’s watch. But Wilkinson was also fired from the Timbers, for which he was also president of soccer in late 2022 after just signing a new deal with the organization months prior. He was also complicit in other dubious matters such as not reporting the domestic abuse accusations against Timbers midfielder Andy Polo, as well as recommending Riley to another NWSL club after what had happened with the Thorns. The recommendation was successful: Western New York hired Riley.
And so, as Kansas City not only ramps up for a World Cup, but also to put women’s soccer on display to the entire nation (and in some ways, use itself as an example), it becomes clearer to all why Wilkinson was an utterly confounding hire.
Wilkinson, 50, played with the Timbers and was an international for New Zealand. As he moved up into the front office, the Thorns won the NWSL Championship twice under his watch, and the Timbers won MLS Cup once, reaching the finals another time in 2018.
Was he largely successful? No doubt. But despite a seal of approval from Peter Vermes, it remained a head-scratcher that a hiring firm was used and a substantial amount of time, effort, and presumably money was spent, all to end in a direction that pointed to Wilkinson. The higher-ups at Sporting failed to read the tea leaves and see what ultimately transpired over the past eight days. An eight days that also has included the jettison of Current midfielder CeCe Kizer, an Overland Park native and fan favorite who said the club didn’t notify her of the transaction until the deal was done.
SKC and the Current obviously share an overlapping fan base, and the perfect storm of supporter upheaval –– many contacted their season ticket representatives, others claimed they outright canceled their packages after the move last week –– finally led to Wilkinson’s dismissal on Friday morning.
Sporting owner Michael Illig released a statement on his release, noting that the club "ran a diligent and exhaustive process to identify our new Sporting Director. It was grounded in the deeply-held principles and standards we have adhered to since the day we acquired the team."
Not everyone might be in unison in their reaction, but the reaction from Sporting’s fan base in the hours that have followed were largely that of joy and relief. And it should be.
Of course, now comes the hard part. What now? It’s easy to say that, despite the regular season opener rapidly approaching on Feb. 24, Vermes can just wear all hats again for now. And he will, at least temporarily. But this move was made to begin with for either one of two reasons: Vermes either wanted to take a big helping off of an already full plate, or ownership prompted him to do so in the best interest of the club’s future.
Assuming the latter and suggesting the possibility to Vermes himself might require a flak jacket, but it’s not some total assassination on his accomplishments. And no one is suggesting Vermes is quite in the same boat as someone like Bill Belichick, who is nearly 15 years senior. But they are similar in that both have been head coaches who have essentially had total control over the direction of their respective franchises.
The lesson is that Wilkinson might have had some autonomy, but Vermes will want someone in the building who aligns (to whatever degree) close enough with his own views. Finding that might be a process. But I imagine that supporters will be unified in wanting to be in no rush to settle on an individual so long as it’s an upgrade from Wilkinson.
