By almost all accounts, City SC’s Major League Soccer debut season was a smashing success in many ways.
Despite the team’s disappointing exit in the playoffs, the club set numerous records for on-field achievements by an MLS expansion team that include winning its first five games en route to a division title. Business was brisk in merchandise sales and at the gate, as a boisterous supporter base filled a new stadium for each of the squad’s home games while recharging the western edge of downtown ºüÀêÊÓƵ.
The club received plaudits for taking a generally fan-friendly, customer-comes-first approach. But not everyone is on board with the way the team conducted all its business.
Nate Gatter, co-host of the “ºüÀêÊÓƵ Soccer Report†that aired throughout the season on KMOX (1120 AM), thinks the team lost a big chance to go far in the playoffs by merely being content with its strong start and not augmenting the roster that ultimately fizzled in a late-season meltdown before the team was swept in the first round of the playoffs by Kansas City, the lowest seed in the teams’ division.
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“This might have been the best opportunity City will have for a while,†Gatter said while joining host Matt Pauley on KMOX’s “Sports Open Line†show shortly after the club’s quick exit. “For all we know, the team we saw in the last couple months of the season is going to be much closer to the team we get next year rather than the team we saw†at first.
He said the organization had either the second-lowest or third-lowest payroll in the league, depending on the point of the season.
“City made only minor additions to the team, not that they weren’t helpful at all ... but they didn’t go all out,†he said. Despite the low payroll, it was “receiving overwhelming support from the community, selling out every single game — most times in a matter of minutes. To me, with the level of investment of time, energy and money shown by the community ... it’s a shame for City to end up going out this way.â€
The team won just two of its final eight regular-season games before its playoff meltdown.
“I’m a little bit uncomfortable with City playing as poorly as they did at the end of the season while spending as little money as they did this year,†he said.
He wasn’t done.
“I just don’t feel that considering the adulation this market has shown the team, which has been very happy to soak it up and talk about being America’s soccer capital, it’s tough for me to justify a first-round exit by an America’s-soccer-capital club that’s spending either the second- or third-fewest dollars in the league,†Gatter said. “To me, when you’re going to advertise yourself that way and you’re going to accept this level of adulation from the fans and require the level of investment they did this year (with prices), you’re inviting criticism if you don’t deliver. They did for almost the entire year, but when you crash and burn at the end of the year the that way they did. ...â€
Lutz Pfannenstiel, who in essence is the team’s general manager, has said to promote better team spirit, he doesn’t want a big gap between his highest-paid player and the rest of the team. And the clubs with the league’s three highest payrolls didn’t make the playoffs, while seven of the bottom nine did. Still, it was frustrating to Gatter that the team did little with personnel moves after falling so dramatically down the stretch.
“I don’t see how we can be honest with ourselves if we’re not saying fans who are spending this much money on this team in America’s soccer capital deserve better than that,†he said. “... There’s a wide space between incompetence and just being miserly. I wonder if City could have made a difference here had they had one or two of those high-priced difference makers.â€
It is refreshing to hear such candid talk on KMOX — which is owned by City SC’s radio rightsholder, Audacy. That company has six outlets in the market and airs the games on KYKY (98.1 FM). The Cardinals, Blues and Mizzou sure draw their share of negative talk when warranted (just listen to callers to Pauley’s Cardinals postgame shows). Gatter stepped up nicely to fire a fastball that welcomed the new team to that mix.
The discussion about City SC begins about the 10:50 mark.
Even without City SC, the seemingly endless MLS season (it began in February) still is going, with conference title games scheduled for this weekend and the league championship match on Dec. 9. The semifinals (Columbus-Cincinnati at 5 p.m. Saturday and Houston-LAFC at 8:30 p.m. Sunday) are being exclusively streamed on Apple’s premium MLS package. The title contest is to air on Fox (KTVI, Channel 2 locally) at 3 p.m. in addition to being streamed on Apple.