Month: September 2014

Sporting KC plays host to New England in nationally televised match

Sporting KC resumes MLS competition on Friday night against the New England Revolution after back-to-back victories in the CONCACAF Champions League.

The crucial Eastern Conference match will kickoff at 7 p.m. at Sporting Park, Kansas City Kan. The match will be on NBCSN. Supporters can listen to the match locally on Sports Radio 810 WHB or on La Gran D 1340 AM.

A limited number of tickets may remain and may be purchased online at Ticketmaster.com or at the Sporitng Park box offices on game day.

Sporting KC has won its last three matches in all competition, scoring 10 goals and conceding only once in that span. Most recently, Sporting KC moved into first place in Group 2 of the CCL after securing a 3-0 victory over Nicaraguan side Real Esteli FC on Tuesday. Claudio Bieler scored his first brace of the 2014 season and Sal Zizzo finished an Antonio Dovale corner kick to secure three points for the home side.

The New England Revolution dropped a 1-0 result in its last outing against the Columbus Crew, snapping a five-game winning streak in MLS competition that included a 3-1 victory against Sporting KC on Sept. 3.

New England is unbeaten against Sporting KC in 2014 with two victories at Gillette Stadium, but is winless in its last eight games in Kansas City dating back to 2008 (0-6-2) and has been shut out in each of its last three regular season matches at Sporting Park. A Sporting KC victory on Friday will move the reigning MLS Champions atop the Eastern Conference, while a victory for the Revolution would see the visitors draw even with Sporting KC in the standings.

Friday’s match between the second (Sporting KC) and third (New England) place teams in the Eastern Conference features several familiar faces. The New England Revolution boasts former Kansas City striker Teal Bunbury, who returns to Sporting Park for the first time since being traded to the Revolution during the off season. Bunbury has scored for the Revolution in both matches against Sporting KC this season.

The Revolution also features U.S. Men’s National Team midfielder Jermain Jones, who joined the club as a designated player in August. Additionally, Sporting Kansas City defender Seth Sinovic and midfielder Benny Feilhaber began their MLS careers playing for New England.

Sporting KC will be without Lawrence Olum, who will be serving his mandatory one-game suspension for yellow card accumulation. Jacob Peterson (hamstring) and Aurelien Collin (ankle) remain questionable for Sporting Kansas City due to injury. Revolution defender A.J. Soares (calf) — who has only missed one MLS match all season — is also listed as questionable for Friday.

Fans are encourgaed to arrive early to Sporting Park for Friday’s rematch of the 2013 Eastern Conference Semifinals. The first 10,000 guests will receive a Sporting Kansas City tote bag courtesy of match sponsor UMKC.

All in-game updates are available at SportingKC.com/GameOn or via Twitter by following @SKCGameday.
– Story from Sporting KC

Weather forecast is good for weekend

Showers moved through some of the region this morning, and there is a 20 percent chance of rain possible before noon today, mostly in the St. Joseph, Mo., area.

For the most part, today will have mostly sunny skies with a high near 82, according to the National Weather Service.

Tonight, the low will be 62.

Saturday’s weather will be sunny, with a high near 80.

On Sunday, temperatures will be near 82 with sunny skies. Monday and Tuesday have similar weather.

Tuesday night, there is a 40 percent chance of showers and storms, with a low of 64.

The 40 percent chance of storms continues Wednesday and Thursday.

Electronic billboard ordinance tabled

With little discussion, the Unified Government Commission tabled ordinances on electronic billboards at tonight’s meeting.

Commissioner Hal Walker asked to take the ordinances off the agenda. He said there would be additional amendments to the language of the ordinances based on a discussion he had with billboard vendors, Planning Director Rob Richardson and Patrick Waters, a UG attorney.

The item is expected to return to the Dec. 4 meeting.

Some of the language of the ordinance was designed to remove billboards in the city that have fallen into disrepair.

The ordinance that had been proposed tonight would have required owners of new digital billboards to agree to remove twice the amount of square footage in signs that it already owns that were existing nonconforming billboards.

Another proposed ordinance set an occupation tax for all persons engaged in the digital outdoor advertising business at $2,500 per year for those working with digital signs of less than 300 square feet, and $10,000 per year for those working with digital signs of 300 square feet or more.

Other planning items on the agenda passed as were recommended by the Planning Commission.