Kansas City and Soccer

Kansas City has become the national leader for soccer development in the United States. So it seems rather fitting that as the Soccer Capital of America, Kansas City is also home to one of the forefathers in the formation of American soccer, Lamar Hunt.

Inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame in 1982, Lamar Hunt was an early investor in the North American Soccer League – the NASL. When the NASL ran into financial headwinds in the early ‘80’s – going from 17 teams to only 5 teams – the patriarch of the Kansas City Chiefs remained committed to the future of the NASL. And to the future of soccer in the United States.

A then-NASL franchise owner himself, Lamar Hunt’s team was the Dallas Tornado.
Hunt’s ownership of the Tornado goes back to the team’s inception in 1967.

Lamar Hunt owned the Dallas Tornado until the team folded in 1981. Hunt’s Dallas Tornado won the NASL championship in 1971. One year after Hunt’s Kansas City Chiefs won Super Bowl IV.

Dallas Tornado started out as a team in the United Soccer Association. The United Soccer Association merged with the National Professional Soccer League. Leading to the formation of the NASL.

While the Hunt name is known mostly through the family’s ownership of the NFL team that has won the Lamar Hunt Trophy as champions of the AFC 5 times since Patrick Mahomes arrived in Kansas City, early on, the NFL was no fan of Hunt’s commitment to soccer.

The NFL took steps to disallow an NFL team owner – I.e.: Lamar Hunt – from owning a professional sports team in more than one sport. This was an NFL-led effort to force the Hunt family to divest their interests in a soccer franchise. The NFL’s football-only rule ultimately failed. The Hunt family stayed in soccer.

In 1996, Kansas City Chiefs Chairman Clark Hunt, together with his father, Lamar Hunt, acquired two MLS teams. The Columbus Crew and the Kansas City Wizards (now Sporting KC).

Three years later, Lamar Hunt financed the construction of what was at that time the largest soccer-only stadium in the United States. In Columbus, Ohio. Columbus Crew Stadium.

In 2003, Lamar Hunt purchased his third MLS team. The then-Dallas Burn (now FC Dallas).

Lamar Hunt’s acquisition of the Dallas Burn was anchored through his commitment to finance a soccer-only stadium in Dallas. Lamar Hunt believed that sound economics for professional soccer in North America needed to be anchored through stadium ownership.

Today, Dallas Burn are owned by Hunt Sports Group.

The Hunt family sold the Kansas City Wiz in 2006. The Kansas City Wiz went on to win the MLS Cup that same year. In 2006.

Like America’s earlier professional soccer league – the NASL – the MLS ran into financial difficulties.

By the early-2000’s, only three MLS team owners remained committed to funding ongoing MLS operations. At that time, the MLS was hemorrhaging cash. Losing $250 million since its inaugural 1996 season. One of those three still-committed team owners was Lamar Hunt.

Lamar Hunt’s commitment to soccer-only stadiums led to the financial turnaround for American soccer. And for the MLS.

Further linking the Hunt family to American soccer, in 1999, U.S. soccer’s longest standing knockout competition – the U.S. Open Cup – was renamed the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup by the United States Soccer Federation. In honor of Lamar Hunt’s contributions to American soccer. While, so too, recognizing Lamar Hunt’s contributions to two American professional soccer leagues. The NASL. And later, the MLS.

The Hunt family’s FC Dallas won the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup two times. In 1997 and 2016.

Under the Hunt family’s leadership, Sporting KC also won the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup two times. In 2004 and 2012. While Lamar Hunt’s Kansas City Wizards won the MLS Cup in 2000.