On Marriage, Unmet Promises and Divorce

I don't expect a lot of people to understand the full depth of why I am making the decision that I am, or why I am being so critical of the rebranding decision by OnGoal. Logically speaking, I can make a case on either side. Emotionally speaking, I prefer to keep the name Wizards, especially since it's never been given a real honest treatment.

I've been pretty involved in a rather spirited (some would say heated) discussion over on BigSoccer, and I've purposely not brought in my personal experience - hoping to keep the discussion focused on logic and facts. But in this space, I feel like I have a little more freedom to get into what is driving what many of those people are deriding as a reactionary and shallow decision.

With the name change, I have decided that I will be canceling my season tickets for the Wizards next season. I didn't really have a great way to describe it until the discussion offered both a metaphor and a framework in which to apply it. The metaphor (mentioned in the title of these entries) was couched in the sliding scale of team support suggested by another poster, ranging from non-customer to fan to supporter.

Until this season, I considered myself a supporter of the Wizards. I have traveled many thousands of miles to support the team, from the times I drove up from Wichita to regular season matches, to spending 90 minutes huddled with Matt Fulton and his girlfriend in Edmond at a freezing exhibition game against Columbus, to hauling a large grill down to an exhibition match in Tulsa to tailgate with the traveling fans, to flying from D.C. during the midweek for the 2004 US Open Cup final.

I stood by the team during the sales process, and knew that the change of owners would be a great thing. Even when I saw the ownership group struggle to handle the blowback from Richard Tolbert that eventually cost the team the chance to build at the Bannister Mall site, and the struggles to identify a temporary home, I still supported the team.

But then the broken promises and unmet expectations began. Undercut ticket prices. Contest items promised to you were given away and then their replacements were never forthcoming. E-mail and phone inquiries both customer service-related and human resources-related were not returned.

As a result, cracks in what had been an otherwise happy marriage between supporter and club began to form, and in a strongly self-preservation move, I began to distance myself a bit. I moved from the realm of the supporter - willing to spend money that I didn't necessarily have to watch the team and cheer on the players - to that of the fan - more constrained by rational financial considerations.

But I was willing to forgive. I was aching to forgive, in fact, and had put down a deposit for 2011 season tickets. Remembering the promise of potential from OnGoal, indeed from Robb Heineman himself, I was willing to forgive what I thought were exceptions. I was hopeful that a man who had acknowledged his commitment to communicating with the fans would be able to right the ship. I hoped that his intentions borne out in a March 2008 interview with Yahoo! (“There was a pretty severe disconnection between the fans and the club at the time and the only way to fix it was to get out there and get the information firsthand.”) would be continued here.

Then rumors started to leak about a potential rebrand. Some random, anonymous and not-quite-reputable sources leaked the name that will likely be announced on Wednesday and drew immediate fire. No real response was forthcoming, so I still took OnGoal at its word - as promised from several sources in 2006 - that they were committed to the Wizards as a brand.

Fast forward to November. In a Q&A posted on the MLS website, Heineman said: "We’re giving a lot of conversation to whether it’s Wizards or any other name. But we want to make sure that it’s something that’s transitional, has longevity and means something to the city and to us. We are spending a lot of time on it. There are going to be opinions both ways whether we keep it or go away from it, but I don’t want anyone to think we aren’t thinking through it. We certainly aren’t doing anything until it’s thought through thoroughly."

Hearing this, I felt slightly reassured, like the spouse who hears the promises of their lover. But then more clues - a low-resolution screenshot of the logo, domain registration proof, the announcement of a "major event" - came to the forefront and continued to chip away at the trust I had in Robb's statement. And with the leak today of the availability of scarves, t-shirts and other merchandise, it's all but a foregone conclusion that this decision is not - as many people (myself included) have hoped - a hoax.

So to re-read Robb's quote from November 2, I hear a promise breaking. Having had four full seasons to throw any sort of real brand-building efforts - merchandise, marketing, a PR blitz, etc. - behind the Wizards brand and chosen not to do so, what I heard from that statement is that OnGoal had been biding their time since 2007 to abandon the name.

And that pisses me off. Not because I have any real attachment to the Wizards name, mind you, as I would have understood if OnGoal had decided to make the rebranding decision in a fashion similar to what Red Bull, GmbH did when they purchased the MetroStars. It makes me angry because I see the result of what was claimed to be a thoroughly contemplated process and ask myself WTF? As a name for the MLS team, Sporting KC is hardly an improvement. Between the name and the logo design, I see nothing that even remotely meshes with Heineman's comments in the interview - nothing transitional, nothing with longevity, and certainly nothing that "means something to the city." The name is bland, uninspired, uninspiring and worst of all confusing. It is, sadly enough, a technically solid logo that could be seen as an improvement over the current Wizards marks, but it looks unfinished.

Worst of all, Heineman showed just how much hubris OnGoal has in an interview with Thad Bell. Thad asked a (then) hypothetical question which followed on the heels of an answer that spun the decision as still up in the air.

TB: "If there is a rebrand, and a team name change, if the colors change, etc., you know there are going to be a lot of diehard fans who are extremely upset. Is there going to be a campaign to woo them and say why you're doing it and exactly lay it out for them?"

RH: "What we're definitely going to do is explain - everything - and try to explain it to the nth degree, and try to answer as many questions about it as possible. Are we going to try to woo people? No. I think we're going to lay out our story and, you know, that's going to be our story and we're sticking to it. The decisions we make we end up having to live or die with and we have the convictions to go and do that."

Notice that nowhere in there did he take a moment to mention consulting the existing fanbase or express any concern over the potential backlash. That's a far cry from the man who in 2008 made a note of a very severe disconnect between the fans and the club, and then made an effort to address that problem by making himself accessible to the fans.

What, exactly, has changed for Robb - and by extension OnGoal - in the intervening two years that allows them to be able to willfully ignore a disconnect between the club and the fanbase now that they worked hard to remedy in 2008? Why are they so full of hubris that they are choosing to ignore all of the confounding variables (poor on-field performance, struggles to get the stadium built, a barely-adequate temporary home and a lack of reasonable marketing) that are artificially depressing the value and perceived potential of the Wizards brand in favor of the confounding variables that will artificially inflate the value of the Sporting KC brand?

I know that there are a lot of people who love and support the team and feel that the rebranding is a necessary step, and who have pledged their undying love to OnGoal. I respect them and do not begrudge them that choice. But for me, it's time to make the break and move on. The divorce will be final sometime after 5:30 p.m. tonight, all that remains is to hear the spin.

On Marriage, Unmet Promises and Divorce (Preview)

Before I scare anyone with that title, it doesn't refer to Brenda and I in any way.

And to be honest, it's really just a preview of commentary from tomorrow. The Kansas City Wizards have scheduled a big shindig down at the Power and Light district tomorrow afternoon, and the rumors that have been swirling are that the team will be announcing a name change.

I have a lot of thoughts on this, but I'm going to hold on to them for the moment. I'm praying that the rumor isn't completely true and that OnGoal isn't going to blithely burn the bridges with its existing customers in chase of a few new customers. I will be at the launch event taking notes, and I'll offer my full commentary tomorrow around 6 p.m.

Happy Blogsday!

Well, so much for the intention to write as the muse strikes... You've probably noticed a distinct lack of output here, but it's certainly not due to a lack of inspiration. Life has simply gotten in the way. From school to family to personal issues, this blog has been the last thing on the priority list. I have quite a few topics for posting that I've been ruminating on, but the actual act of putting fingers to keyboard has not been something that I've been successful at doing.

But after taking inspiration from various quarters, I've decided that it's time for a schedule. So from here on out, every Tuesday is my Blogsday. No matter what is happening, no matter how busy things are, I'm going to put words to page every Tuesday from now on. I've got a fairly decent backlog of thoughts that have been percolating, so it should be interesting and possibly provocative sailing for a couple of months.

Of course, it may happen that there are a few less-inspired posts mixed in, but the one thing you can count on is seeing something new every Tuesday. If nothing more than just riffing on what's happening in the news or the latest collection of Facebook statuses, I'm going to put them

And for an extra special bonus this week, I'll pop something up on Friday that promises to be of slightly more interest than this.

Until then, so long and thanks for all the fish!